Latest News

Our pick of the latest physics stories from around the world wide web.

English wine gets help from space

Grapes

05/11/2009

A number of English vineyards have signed up to make use of a satellite imaging service to boost harvests.


Sand patterns baffle scientists

Sand

29/10/2009

With nothing more than beads in a glass box, physicists have revealed yet another mysterious property of granular solids, now recognized by scientists as a unique state of matter, like solids or gases.


Solar superpower: Should Europe run on Sahara sun?

Sahara desert

26/10/2009

Giant electricity plants in the Sahara desert could provide 15 per cent of Europe's power. But there may be better solar solutions closer to home


Tuesday is the rainiest day

Rain

23/10/2009

Analysis of historical data shows there is a genuine reason to detest that day - and disproves the pessimistic assumption that it rains more at weekends.


'Quick test' for airport liquids

Bottled water

20/10/2009

Scientists say they have developed a quick technique for detecting liquids that could be used as explosives.


Lizards filmed walking on water

13/10/2009

Remarkable slow-motion footage has been taken of two lizards that seem to do the impossible - walk on water.


Nobel honours 'masters of light'

06/10/2009

Three scientists who corralled light to transform our communications systems share this year's physics Nobel Prize.


Space radiation hits record high

Earth

01/10/2009

Our solar system's natural shields are letting in a flood of cosmic rays, resulting in record-high radiation levels that pose a hazard to space missions.


Locust flight simulator helps robot insects evolve

Locust

29/09/2009

A locust flight simulator could be the key to perfecting the ultimate surveillance machine: an artificial flying insect.


Spacecraft see 'damp' Moon soils

Moon

24/09/2009

Data from three spacecraft, including India's Chandrayaan probe, shows that very fine films of water coat the particles that make up the lunar dirt.


Mayans 'played' pyramids to make music for rain god

Mayan temple

22/09/2009

Rain reveals that Mexican pyramids could have been built to be musical instruments for the gods.


Too much radiation for astronauts to make it to Mars

17/09/2009

Radiation may be the biggest hurdle to human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and could put a damper on a recently proposed mission to Mars orbit.


Xbox speeds up research results

15/09/2009

Researchers have harnessed the powerful silicon chips used in the Xbox 360 console to solve scientific conundrums.


Upgraded Hubble telescope snaps dazzling new images

Butterfly nebula. Image credit: NASA

10/09/2009

The first batch of images taken since Hubble's repair in May includes portraits of celestial dragons and giant butterflies.


Egyptian temples followed heavenly plans

Edfu temple

08/09/2009

Ancient Egyptian temples were aligned so precisely with astronomical events that people could set their political, economic and religious calendars by them.


Microscopes zoom in on molecules at last

Microscope

01/09/2009

Decades after the first microscope pictures of atoms, take a look at the first ever close-up of a molecule.


Magic ink offers full-colour printing in an instant

Paint

26/08/2009

An ink that produces colour in the same way as birds and insects could be used for super-fast full-colour printing.


Gigantic jets blast electricity into upper atmosphere

Lightning

24/08/2009

Scientists have photographed "upwards lightning", a rarely-seen phenomenon where electricity from storms flows into the upper atmosphere.


Global warming could change Earth's tilt

Earth. Image credit: NASA

21/08/2009

The planet's spin axis will shift as rising ocean temperatures cause water to expand and redistribute itself, a new study suggests.


How to turn seawater into jet fuel

Waves

19/08/2009

The US navy has shown it can take carbon dioxide and hydrogen from the ocean and turn it into fuel – but this is far from free energy.


Amino acid found on a comet for the first time

Stardust. Image credit: NASA

18/08/2009

NASA's Stardust mission confirms that some of the building blocks of life were delivered to the early Earth from space.


Planet found orbiting its star backwards for first time

Exoplanet. Image credit: ESA

13/08/2009

The planet is also the most bloated yet detected – its low density and strange path might both be traced back to a close encounter with a planetary sibling.


Skywatchers set for meteor shower

Perseid meteor. Image credit: NASA

11/08/2009

Skygazers are getting ready to watch the annual Perseid meteor shower, which peaks on Wednesday.


Myth of raindrop formation exploded

22/07/2009

For 100 years, physicists have struggled to find a mechanism that produces both large and small raindrops during the same rain shower – now high-speed video seems to have come up with an answer.


Unidentified object punches Earth-sized hole in Jupiter

Jupiter. Image credit: NASA

21/07/2009

An Australian man alerts NASA to a scar in the gas giant's atmosphere caused by a comet or asteroid cras.


The first Earthling to journey to Mars - Conan the Bacterium

Phobos. Credit: NASA

13/07/2009

Specimens of brewer's yeast and microbes are to be transported to Mars' moon Phobos to see if they can survive in space.


Nasa satellites reveal extent of Arctic sea ice loss

Arctic sea ice

10/07/2009

The first study of the thickness of Arctic ice shows that the permanent blanket of ice around the North Pole has dramatically reduced.


Interplanetary internet gets permanent home in space

ISS. Image credit: NASA

07/07/2009

A new protocol which could one day handle deep-space communications is now being tested aboard the International Space Station.


Record-breaking solar cells are tailored to their location

02/07/2009

Solar cells tuned to particular wavelengths make the most of the light at different places on Earth, boosting efficiency to record levels.


Physics brings realism to virtual reality

29/06/2009

The latest multi-core processors and smart software create virtual worlds governed by real physics.


Magnetic 'superatoms' promise tuneable materials

Image credit: VCU

26/06/2009

Breakthrough paves the way for nano-scale building blocks that could be used to make faster computer processorsand denser memory storage.


'Lightbulb' molecule has a bright future

© James Thew

25/06/2009

A single molecule that reliably emits white light could speed the development of low-energy LEDs for the next generation of light sources and displays.


Computer-generated sound effects make a splash

Splash © bioraven

09/06/2009

The sound effects for computer-generated movies are still recorded from real life, but modelling the physics of the real world could change that – see and hear the results for yourself.


Early rocks to reveal their ages

Rocks © Earthoholic

08/06/2009

A new technique has been helping scientists piece together how the Earth's continents were arranged 2.5 billion years ago.