Jets Punch Holes in Clouds and Create Rain
Aircraft can accidentally punch holes in clouds, leaving a trail of snow or rain in their wake, a new study finds.
Turboprop and jet aircraft that climb or descend under certain atmospheric conditions can inadvertently trigger what’s known [...]
Predicting Economic Crises With ‘Econophysics’
Do physicists have better tools than economists or financial experts for predicting economic crises? Mainstream economists largely failed to forecast the sub-prime mortgage bubble, the ensuing financial crisis, and its global impact on [...]
Is time travel possible?
The Big Question: Is time travel possible, and is there any chance that it will ever take place?
Why are we asking this now?
Two Russian mathematicians have suggested that the giant atom-smasher being built at the European centre for nuclear [...]
Giant Airship Poised for Liftoff
The Bullet 580, a helium-filled tanker, can carry 1,000 pounds of payloads up to 20,000 feet above Earth.
After a 100-year dry spell in technological innovation, a pioneering inflatable airship is about to debut, promising an aerial experience [...]
3-D invisibility cloak
European researchers have taken the world a step closer to fictional wizard Harry Potter’s invisibility cape after they made an object disappear using a three-dimensional “cloak,” a study published in the US-based journal [...]
Atom Smasher Could Reveal Fabled Monopole Magnet
Scientists hope to use the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s most powerful atom smasher, to create a bizarre magnetic particle completely different from any magnets ever seen.
While most magnets have a north and a south pole, the researchers [...]
Ultracold Molecules
What’s new-first ever accumulation of molecules in large numbers and at a temperature near absolute zero. Using lasers to slow a gas of particles down to near stillness is by now a standard method for measuring the subtle properties of atoms. [...]
Top Ten Physics Stories of 2008
TOP TEN PHYSICS STORIES OF THE YEAR Former presidential science advisor Vannevar Bush referred to science as an endless frontier of new discoveries. So what were the big physics findings for 2008? The following list was chosen by editors and [...]
