News
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Pond skating insects reveal water-walking secrets
This month’s special issue of Physics World is devoted to animal physics, and includes science writer Stephen Ornes’ explanation of how pond skaters effortlessly skip across water, leaving nothing but a small ripple in their wake. As Ornes writes, our current understanding of the mechanisms adopted by the pond skater is down to the efforts […]
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Formula unlocks secrets of cauliflower's geometry
The laws that govern how intricate surface patterns, such as those found in the cauliflower, develop over time have been described, for the first time, by a group of European researchers. In a study published today, 24 October, in the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society’s New Journal of Physics, researchers have provided a […]
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Japanese spacecraft to search for clues of Earth's first life
In a Physics World special report on Japan, Dennis Normile reports on how the Japanese space agency JAXA plans to land a spacecraft onto an asteroid in 2018 to search for clues of how life began on Earth. Hayabusa 2 will be JAXA’s second attempt at collecting material from an asteroid, after its first mission […]
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Major step taken towards unbreakable message exchange
Single particles of light, also known as photons, have been produced and implemented into a quantum key distribution (QKD) link, paving the way for unbreakable communication networks. The results of the experiment, undertaken by a close collaboration of researchers based in Wuerzburg, Munich and Stuttgart, have been published today, Thursday 2 August, in the Institute […]
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Thousands of invisibility cloaks trap a rainbow
Many people anticipating the creation of an invisibility cloak might be surprised to learn that a group of American researchers has created 25 000 individual cloaks. But before you rush to buy one from your local shop, the cloaks are just 30 micrometres in diameter and are laid out together on a 25 millimetre gold […]
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Most detailed maps yet of Africa's groundwater
Credit:British Geological Survey A scattergun approach to borehole drilling in Africa is likely to be unsuccessful. This is the message from a group of UK researchers who have, for the first time, quantified the amount, and potential yield, of groundwater across the whole of Africa. They estimate the total volume of groundwater to be around […]
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Drastic changes needed to curb most potent greenhouse gas
Meat consumption in the developed world needs to be cut by 50 per cent per person by 2050 if we are to meet the most aggressive strategy, set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to reduce one of the most important greenhouse gases, nitrous oxide (N2O). This is the finding from a […]
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New Editor-in-Chief appointed for Physics in Medicine & Biology
Professor Simon Cherry has today been announced as the new Editor-in-Chief of Physics in Medicine & Biology (PMB). Published by IOP Publishing on behalf of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine, PMB covers the application of practical and theoretical physics to medicine and biology, and is especially concerned with cutting-edge research in the […]
