Physical Sciences

My Opinion: Innovation Happens When Scientists and Engineers Work Together

LIGO scientists and engineers working together to observe gravitational waves have achieved the remarkable feat of surpassing the quantum limit.

Continuously Tunable Thermal Regulators for Batteries and Electronic Devices

Battery safety and performance in electronic devices and systems like battery thermal management, space conditioning, vehicle thermal comfort, and thermal...

Superlubricity Coating for Nearly Friction-Free Surfaces

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have invented a coating that could dramatically reduce friction in common load-bearing systems with moving...

The World’s First Wood Transistor

Transistors are considered by some to be an invention just as important to humanity as the telephone, the light bulb, or the bicycle. Today, they are a crucial component in modern electronic devices,...

Self-Folding Origami Machines Powered by Chemical Reaction

A Cornell-led collaboration harnessed chemical reactions to make microscale origami machines self-fold — freeing them from the liquids in which they usually function, so they...

New Transfer Process Moves 2D Materials from Growth Substrate to Device Substrate

Purdue University engineers have developed a patent-pending tool to make the manufacture of ultrathin semiconductors more consistent, controllable, and...

Perovskite Solar Cells — From the Lab to the Manufacturing Floor

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) has announced that a team of researchers, led by MIT and including the University of California San...

NASA, Rocket Lab Launch First Pair of Storm Observing CubeSats

Two NASA CubeSats designed to study tropical cyclones, including hurricanes and typhoons, are in orbit after a successful launch.

A New Design Provides the Greatest Precision in Memory to Date

Everyone is talking about the newest AI and the power of neural networks, forgetting that software is limited by the hardware on which it runs. But it is hardware, says USC...

Ignition Achievement Gives US New Opportunity to Lead World's IFE Research

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)’s historic achievement of fusion ignition Dec. 5 at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) positions the United...

Tailless Jet Flies Free with Novel Control Technique

While conventional aircraft rely on protruding fins to enable steering, a tailless design makes the body as smooth and sleek as possible, making it safer to fly in dangerous areas...

Plasma Thrusters Used on Satellites Could be Much More Powerful

It was believed that Hall thrusters, an efficient kind of electric propulsion widely used in orbit, need to be large to produce a lot of thrust. Now, a new study from the...

Tunable, Narrow Linewidth, Chip-Scale Lasers

Mateus Corato Zanarella is the lead author of a Nature Photonics article describing the creation of tunable visible lasers of very pure colors from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared that fit on a fingertip.

Growing a 2D Functional Transistor on a Silicon Wafer

True to Moore’s Law, the number of transistors on a microchip has doubled every year since the 1960s. But this trajectory is predicted to soon plateau because silicon — the...

Graphene-Based Electronics

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have developed a new nanoelectronics platform based on graphene — a single sheet of carbon atoms.

Blocking Electromagnetic Radiation with the Flip of a Switch

Researchers in Drexel University’s College of Engineering have developed a thin film device, fabricated by spray coating, that can block electromagnetic radiation with the...

Carbon Nanotubes Store Energy

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists have created vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes on metal foils that could be a boon for energy storage and the electronics...

Predicting the Failure of Crystalline Metallic Materials

Researchers have developed a theory that predicts the limits to which metals can be subjected to cyclic stress before failing.

New Material Will Make Locally Flexible Diodes Possible

Diodes allow directed flows of current. Without them, modern electronics would be inconceivable. Until now, they had to be made from two materials with different characteristics. A...

Novel Nanowire Fabrication Technique Paves Way for Next Generation Spintronics

The challenge of fabricating nanowires directly on silicon substrates for the creation of the next generation of electronics has finally been solved by...

NYU Tandon Researchers Explore a More Frictionless Future

Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Elisa Riedo and her team have discovered a fundamental friction law that is leading to a deeper understanding of energy...

The Skillful Skydiving of Wingless Springtails

Early in the pandemic, Víctor Ortega-Jiménez was exploring creeks near his home and observing springtails. The organisms are the most abundant non-insect hexapods on earth, and...

Highly Conductive Aluminum Can Equal Copper

A first-ever simulation of aluminum conductivity offers a recipe for an inexpensive substitute for copper.