Sterile neutrinos and the search for warm dark matter

Matteo Viel, a research fellow at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, England, believes that particle physics and cosmology could be more compatible as scientists work toward understanding the origins and the nature ...

Snakes’ heat vision enables accurate attacks on prey

Call it a sixth sense, or evolution’s gift to these cold-blooded reptiles: some snakes have infrared vision. Also called “heat vision,” the infrared rays, which have longer wavelengths than those of visible light, signify ...

Scientists turn dents into smart bumps

Due to a phenomenon called the shape memory effect (SME), certain "memory metals" can be distorted and then brought back to their original shape by a simple temperature change. While a one-way memory effect has inspired applications ...

Scientists explain causes of abrupt rain storms

No two rain storms are alike. Dark clouds may form slowly throughout the day before a drop of rain falls, and sunny days can suddenly transform into thunderstorms. Different societies throughout history have held their own ...

Detector can count atom by atom

More than 80 years have passed since Louis de Broglie discovered that matter can act like a wave as well as a particle. With advances in technology, scientists have recently begun exploiting this strange property of everyday ...

Protein-Nanoparticle Material Mimics Human Brain Tissue

A composite material consisting of a horse protein and metallic nanoparticles displays magnetic properties very similar to those of human brain tissue, scientists have found. The work, published in the June 20 online edition ...

The Physics of Friendship

By comparing people to mobile particles randomly bouncing off each other, scientists have developed a new model for social networks. The model fits with empirical data to naturally reproduce the community structure, clustering ...

Tick Tock: Who Needs an Atomic Clock?

“Last year the Nobel Prize recognized the significance of this field with John Hall and Theodor Hänsch,” says Chris Oates of studying optical atomic clocks. “There are a lot of new ideas coming out, and we hope that ...

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