news 2012

Synchronization phenomena are everywhere in the physical world - from circadian rhythms to side-by-side pendulum clocks coupled mechanically through vibrations in the wall. Researchers have now demonstrated synchronization at the nanoscale, using only light, not mechanics. Two tiny mechanical oscillators, suspended just nanometers apart, can talk to each other and synchronize by means of nothing but light, according to new research published Dec.

Understanding the mechanisms behind quill penetration and extraction could help engineers design better medical devices. Anyone unfortunate enough to encounter a porcupine's quills knows that once they go in, they are extremely difficult to remove. Researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women's Hospital now hope to exploit the porcupine quill's unique properties to develop new types of adhesives, needles and other medical devices.

Advanced ceramic composites can withstand the ultrahigh operational temperatures projected for hypersonic jet and next generation gas turbine engines, but real-time analysis of the mechanical properties of these space-age materials at ultrahigh temperatures has been a challenge - until now. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed the first testing facility that enables CT-scanning of ceramic composites under controlled loads at ultrahigh temperatures and in real-time.

Corrosion costs the oil and gas industry billions of dollars every year, it can also have far reaching environmental consequences. But so far no one has managed to stop corrosion happening. A detective style research team based at The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus are working closely with industry to investigate real world problems and are taking a forensic look at the nature of corrosion — particularly in the oil and gas sector.

Scientists studying a species of South American bush cricket with some of the smallest ears known have discovered it has hearing so sophisticated that it rivals our own. The study is the first to identify hearing organs in an insect that are evolutionary convergent to those of mammals. The HFSP and BBSRC -funded research, led by the scientists at the University of Bristol, show how the bush cricket's ( Copiphora Gorgonensis ) auditory system has evolved over millions of years to develop auditory mechanisms strikingly similar to those of humans, but using an entirely different machinery.

A mathematician at the University of Glasgow is helping to find an answer to one of the last unsolved problems in classical mechanics. Andrew Baggaley, of the University's School of Mathematics and Statistics, has published a paper in the journal Physical Review Letters ,which extends our understanding of the chaotic motion of fluids, commonly known as turbulence.

How people experience time may be affected by the way that they perceive cause and effect, new research by the University has shown. Marc Buehner of the School of Psychology examined how causal belief - understanding that one thing leads to another (for example flicking a switch and a light coming on) - influences time perception.

MIT researchers find that lubricated, nanotextured surfaces improved performance of condensers in power and desalination plants. Condensers are a crucial part of today's power generation systems: About 80 percent of all the world's powerplants use them to turn steam back to water after it comes out of the turbines that turn generators.

Researchers in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering are using models derived in mechanical labs to look at how ultraviolet radiation changes the protective functions of human skin. Reinhold Dauskardt , professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford, has been studying skin for years.

Unique device uses light to control light MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (10/02/2012) —A team of scientists and engineers at the University of Minnesota has invented a unique microscale optical device that could greatly increase the speed of downloading information online and reduce the cost of Internet transmission.

Although the wind may blow smoothly onto a wind turbine, it comes out the other end shredded into a complex collage of whorls, large and small. In a wind farm, the turbulent wake generated by the first row of turbines drives the turbines in the next rows, which produce up to 40% less power and suffer more from bumpier winds.

A new optical technique, capable of producing laser beams with unusual modes of electric field, has been developed by scientists at the University of Liverpool. The new technique could have a major impact on laser micro-machining, by increasing process efficiency and quality through the use of different modes of 'polarisation' or electric fields.

MIT team discovers way of making perfectly ordered and repeatable surfaces with patterns of microscale wrinkles. The wrinkles on a raisin result from a simple effect: As the pulp inside dries, the skin grows stiff and buckles to accommodate its shrinking size. Now, a team of researchers at MIT has discovered a way to harness that same principle in a controlled and orderly way, creating wrinkled surfaces with precise sizes and patterns.

Snow avalanches, a real threat in countries from Switzerland to Afghanistan, are fundamentally a physics problem: What are the physical laws that govern how they start, grow and move, and can theoretical modeling help predict them? Cornell researchers have uncovered some clues.

From cars to commercial airplanes to military drones, global positioning system (GPS) technology is everywhere - and Cornell researchers have known for years that it can be hacked, or as they call it, "spoofed." The best defense, they say, is to create countermeasures that unscrupulous GPS spoofers can't deceive.

Formula One teams are more likely to cross the finish line first if their boss is a former F1 driver, according to new research conducted by the University of Sheffield and the Cass Business School. The pioneering study shows putting money on teams like Red Bull and Sauber, which are headed by experts not general managers, is a wise move as former drivers and mechanics win twice as often as other types of F1 leaders.

The future of prostate cancer therapy may lie in a tiny, "sticky" silicon chip dubbed GEDI (Geometrically Enhanced Differential Immunocapture, pronounced like the "Star Wars" forces of good) that can identify and collect cancer cells from a patient's bloodstream.

Neuroscientists had once believed that the neurons that control movement send specific external information such as distance, direction and velocity to the muscles of the body. In a surprising new finding, however, researchers at Stanford University have proposed a new model that says motor neurons instead send basic rhythmic patterns down the spine to drive movement.

Drawing on powerful computational tools and a state-of-the-art scanning transmission electron microscope, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison and Iowa State University materials science and engineering researchers has discovered a new nanometer-scale atomic structure in solid metallic materials known as metallic glasses.

  Light and strong at the same time – this is what designers want from a material that can be used to manufacture energy-efficient components. Lightweight components made of carbon-fiber reinforced plastic possess these characteristics. They consist of two components: high-quality carbon fibers and a plastic matrix into which these fibers are embedded.