BlackBerry founders start quantum computing fund
BlackBerry co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin reunited on Wednesday to fund advances in quantum computing, which promises to vastly increase the speed of computers.
View ArticleOutside a vacuum: Model predicts movement of charged particles in complex media
Picture two charged particles in a vacuum. Thanks to laws of elementary electrostatics, we can easily calculate the force these particles exert upon one another, and therefore predict their movements.
View ArticleResearchers develop new method to produce metal-organic frameworks
Researchers of the KIT Institute of Functional Interfaces (IFG), Jacobs University Bremen, and other institutions have developed a new method to produce metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). By means of the...
View ArticleMicroswimmers hit the wall (w/ video)
(Phys.org)—New research reveals what happens when swimming cells such as spermatozoa and algae hit a solid wall, and has implications for applications in diagnostics and biofuel production.
View ArticleOptimal population size allows maximum predictability of evolution
(Phys.org)—Evolution in very large populations of plants, animals or fungi can be predicted far less easily than one would expect. This has been shown by research at the Institute for Theoretical...
View ArticleUntangling life's origins
Researchers in the Evolutionary Bioinformatics Laboratory at the University of Illinois in collaboration with German scientists have been using bioinformatics techniques to probe the world of proteins...
View ArticleSuccessful once, protesters may hesitate to return to streets
As the long-term impact of the Arab Spring continues to take shape, research from political scientists at Princeton University and New York University warns that the protests that swept across the...
View ArticleCorruption soars when politicians are placed above the law, study finds
In a new study, Stern School of Business assistant professor of economics Vasiliki Skreta and co-authors, Karthik Reddy of Harvard Law School and Moritz Schularick of the University of Bonn, examine...
View ArticleStacking 2-D materials produces surprising results
(Phys.org) —Graphene has dazzled scientists, ever since its discovery more than a decade ago, with its unequalled electronic properties, its strength and its light weight. But one long-sought goal has...
View ArticleTailoring optical processors: Arranging nanoparticles in geometric patterns...
Rice University scientists have unveiled a robust new method for arranging metal nanoparticles in geometric patterns that can act as optical processors that transform incoming light signals into output...
View ArticleSpooky action put to order: Physicists classify different types of...
A property known as "entanglement" is a fundamental characteristic of quantum mechanics. Physicists and mathematicians at ETH Zurich show now how different forms of this phenomenon can be efficiently...
View ArticleCancer is a result of a default cellular 'safe mode,' physicist proposes
With death rates from cancer have remained largely unchanged over the past 60 years, a physicist is trying to shed more light on the disease with a very different theory of its origin that traces...
View ArticleClarification of dynamical process of aluminum surface oxidation
Researchers from the National Institute for Materials Science have presented decisive evidence clarifying the dynamical process of aluminum surface oxidation by using an aligned O2 beam, which was...
View Article'Liquid-liquid' phase transition: Researchers identify transformation in...
(Phys.org) —Researchers at the University of Arkansas have identified that water, when chilled to a very low temperature, transforms into a new form of liquid.
View ArticleHow does hydrogen metallize?
Hydrogen is deceptively simple. It has only a single electron per atom, but it powers the sun and forms the majority of the observed universe. As such, it is naturally exposed to the entire range of...
View ArticleMobius strip ties liquid crystal in knots to produce tomorrow's materials and...
University of Warwick scientists have shown how to tie knots in liquid crystals using a miniature Möbius strip made from silica particles.
View ArticleNovel topological crystalline insulator shows mass appeal
Disrupting the symmetrical structure of a solid-state topological crystalline insulator creates mass in previously mass-less electrons and imparts an unexpected level of control in this nascent class...
View ArticleResearchers publish theory, formula to improve 'plastic' semiconductors
Anyone who's stuffed a smart phone in their back pocket would appreciate the convenience of electronic devices that could bend. Flexible electronics could spawn new products: clothing wired to cool or...
View ArticleFred Kavli, science research supporter, dies at 86
Fred Kavli, who launched a foundation to support science research and award prizes of $1 million to scientists, has died in California. He was 86.
View ArticleHarry Potter-style invisibility cloaks: A real possibility next Christmas?
Mums and Dads beware, next year's Christmas wish list could be more out of reach (or sight…) than ever before. Invisibility, a long sought-after speculation in science fiction, has been turned into...
View ArticleSmall step towards growing tissue in the lab
(Phys.org) —University of Adelaide mathematicians have devised a method for identifying how cell clusters have formed by analyzing an image of the cluster.
View ArticleResearchers offer 'proof' that oxygen is the only light element in the...
(Phys.org) —A trio of planetary scientists from France, Switzerland and the U.K. has used seismic data, lab experiment results and theoretical calculations as a means to offer proof that oxygen is...
View ArticleStudy says Earth can sustain more terrestrial plant growth than previously...
A new analysis suggests the planet can produce much more land-plant biomass – the total material in leaves, stems, roots, fruits, grains and other terrestrial plant parts – than previously thought.
View ArticleResearch team claims to have directly sampled electric-field vacuum fluctuations
(Phys.org)—A team of researchers working at the University of Konstanz, in Germany is claiming to have directly sampled electric-field vacuum fluctuations, which would be the first ever made. In their...
View ArticleScience relies on computer modelling – so what happens when it goes wrong?
From the transforming discovery of penicillin to the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics, science progressed with mind-boggling speed even before there were computers. Much of this is down to...
View ArticleThe power of entanglement: A conversation with Fernando Brandao
Computers are a ubiquitous part of modern technology, utilized in smartphones, cars, kitchen appliances, and more. But there are limits to their power. New faculty member Fernando Brandão, the Bren...
View ArticleEngineering nanodevices to store information the quantum way
Creating quantum computers which some people believe will be the next generation of computers, with the ability to outperform machines based on conventional technology—depends upon harnessing the...
View ArticleThe Genesis project—new life on exoplanets
Can life be transplanted to planets outside our solar system that are not permanently inhabitable? This is the question with which Professor Dr. Claudius Gros from the Institute of Theoretical Physics...
View ArticleHistory shows experiments to be just as key as theory in gravity physics
In the 1950s and earlier, the gravity theory of Einstein's general relativity was largely a theoretical science. In a new paper published in EPJ H, Jim Peebles, a physicist and theoretical cosmologist...
View ArticleEngineering dream diodes with a graphene interlayer
A team of researchers affiliated with UNIST has created a new technique that greatly enhances the performance of Schottky diodes used in electronic devices. Their research findings have attracted...
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