Browse Physics

A new, secure way to send messages camouflages them inside the same kind of self-organizing patterns that appear in vegetation patterns and the stripes on animal coats.

An improved version of a technique for folding tiny objects from a thin membrane uses a magnetic field to affect the shape. The membrane wraps around a droplet of fluid that distorts in response to the field.

A compound that shrinks when heated has a type of atomic vibration that hasn’t been observed in any other material and doesn’t conform to the usual “springlike” rules.

A new technique measures the strength with which viruses attach to cells by detecting individual virus-binding and unbinding events.

Researchers have demonstrated the key piece of equipment needed to produce the intense positron beams required for the next generation of particle accelerators.

A new model explains how subterranean ice can grow into large sheets that lift the earth and damage roads and buildings.

The 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognizes the discovery of quasicrystals, in which atoms are ordered over long distances but not in the periodically repeating arrangement of traditional crystals.

Measurements of the world’s first x-ray laser show that it produces the most coherent (laser-like) and the purest (monochromatic) x-ray beam ever measured.

Experimentalists have mapped the quantum states (band structure) of cold atoms mimicking electrons in a crystal. The technique should allow researchers to study new aspects of electrons in crystals using the atoms as a model.

Simulations explain why the first wave of a tsunami is sometimes less devastating than the subsequent waves. A resonance effect can boost the waves that come later.

Calculations suggest that a rapidly spinning oxygen nucleus can deform into a linear configuration of four small clusters in a row–the first clear evidence for such a “linear-chain” state in any nucleus.

A theoretical model of neurons associated with hearing may explain why certain note combinations are more pleasing than others. New research supports the theory by quantifying the effect.

Analysis of newly retrieved navigational data for the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft suggests that an anomalous acceleration in their motion is steadily decreasing, pointing to asymmetric radiation of heat as the likely cause, rather than the more exotic explanations previously proposed

A rapidly expanding and collapsing microbubble in a fluid exerts forces strong enough to roll submerged particles stuck to a solid surface, which may explain how ultrasonic cleaning of jewelry and silicon wafers in a liquid removes dirt.

A uniform city street plan may produce heavy traffic everywhere, whereas a random network of road connections leaves some roads open, according to a mathematical model.

Researchers fabricated a material that generates an electric field due to a stretched atomic structure, and they modified its properties by changing its growth conditions. Similar materials may be useful in nanotechnology.

In the Aharonov-Bohm effect, proposed in 1959, quantum particles are affected in measurable ways by the classical electromagnetic potential, previously regarded as a purely mathematical construct. The electromagnetic field is too far from the particles to have any direct influence.

The structures within a pile of soil or grain that allows it to bear weight depend only on the average number of neighbors for each particle, not on any details of the types of particles or even on the presence of gravity.

Creating a temperature difference in an arrangement of semiconductors generates a circulating current and a magnetic field, according to simulations. The effect may account for some inefficiency in electronic devices.

‘Explosive’ chaos may occur in a system experiencing a sudden change–like an electric circuit moments after it’s switched on–according to theoretical work.