The design could lead to adaptable tools to study how fluids move When building devices, engineers mostly use solids, such as metal or plastic. But not a team in China. Their building blocks are drops of water. With those drops, they’ve created a system to study and manage tiny flows of liquids. Best of all, […]
Lego bricks inspired a new way to shape devices for studying liquids Read More »
“Six degrees of separation” refers to a long-held notion about social networks—namely, that any two people in a social network are connected to each other, through friends of friends, by a maximum of five individuals. But there’s more to this notion than folk wisdom: Researchers have found, repeatedly (for example, via studies of Twitter), that the maximum
Game theory approach describes how social networks produce “six degrees of separation” Read More »
Physicist Stephan Reuter of Polytechnique Montréal spends most days using his expertise in energy and matter to improve medical technologies. Recently though, he stood in a sea of green to consider how a shower of charged particles might affect lettuce. He had been invited to one of the largest commercial greenhouses in Quebec to help
Cold plasma and the farms of the future Read More »
Curbing climate change goes hand-in-hand with decarbonizing energy production. But how can communities continue to meet the global demand for electricity without releasing more CO2? A cadre of chemists says one solution may be hiding in an unlikely source: ammonia—the pungent, clear, nitrogen-rich gas, or liquid, that’s most often used as an agricultural fertilizer. Most
Green ammonia could produce climate-friendly ways to store energy and fertilize farms Read More »
Newton’s third law tells us that for every action, there’s an equal reaction going the opposite way. It’s been reassuring us for 400 years, explaining why we don’t fall through the floor (the floor pushes up on us too), and why paddling a boat makes it glide through water. When a system is in equilibrium,
A New Theory for Systems That Defy Newton’s Third Law Read More »
ONE April night in 1820, the Danish experimentalist Hans Christian Øersted made a remarkable discovery. By bringing an electrical wire near a compass lying on his workbench, he found its needle could be made to shiver and dance. Whether a lucky accident or an inspired bit of experimentation, that moment cemented Øersted’s reputation. What he
Exotic super magnets Read More »
Not every lightning strike is the same. Some skip from cloud to cloud. Others strike the ground, delivering a shocking wallop to anything that gets in the way. Lightning differs by how strong it is, too. Scientists have observed mega-strikes of lightning that carry 1,000 times more energy than ordinary bolts. They’re so intense that,
Hotspots for superbolts Read More »
Justin Burton’s fascination with soap bubbles began in Barcelona, Spain, six summers ago. “It was hot and humid, and there were guys on the street making these huge bubbles,” he says. “I thought it was the coolest thing.” When he returned home, his sister gave him a giant bubble wand. It included a recipe for
Scientists find the secret to colossal bubbles Read More »
In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto introduced the world to Bitcoin, a volatile digital currency that’s untethered to any specific institution or country (1). (Satoshi Nakamoto was quickly revealed to be a pseudonym; the true identity of the inventor or inventors remains unknown.) In the years that followed, the value of Bitcoin has soared, plummeted, and soared
Blockchain beyond Bitcoin Read More »
By harvesting the everyday energy of static electricity, scientists may have found the world’s most plentiful source of renewable, sustainable power. The plastic gizmo in Zhong Lin Wang’s hand doesn’t look like tomorrow’s solution to our looming energy crisis. It’s about the size and shape of a small grapefruit, but smooth and translucent. As he
The Energy Scavengers Read More »
