Does an exciting but controversial new model of quantum gravity reproduce Einstein`s theory of general relativity? Scientists at Texas A&M University in the US explore this question in a paper appearing in Physical Review Letters and highlighted with a Viewpoint in the August 24th issue of Physics. "If it ain`t broke, don`t fix it," sums up fairly well how many scientists have viewed...

IBM scientists have been able to image the “anatomy” — or chemical structure — inside a molecule with unprecedented resolution, using a complex technique known as noncontact atomic force microscopy. The results push the exploration of using molecules and atoms at the smallest scale and could greatly impact the field of nanotechnology, which seeks to understand and control s...

Fish and some amphibians possess a unique sensory capability in the so-called lateral-line system. It allows them, in effect, to "touch" objects in their surroundings without direct physical contact or to "see" in the dark. Professor Leo van Hermmen and his team in the physics department of the Technische Universitaet Muenchen are exploring the fundamental basis for this sensor...

Flasks, beakers and hot plates may soon be a thing of the past in chemistry labs. Instead of handling a few experiments on a bench top, scientists may simply pop a microchip into a computer and instantly run thousands of chemical reactions, with results — literally shrinking the lab down to the size of a thumbnail. Toward that end, UCLA researchers have developed technology to perform more t...

Researchers are adapting the same methods used in fusion-energy research to create extremely thin plasma beams for a new class of "nanolithography" required to make future computer chips. Current technology uses ultraviolet light to create the fine features in computer chips in a process called photolithography, which involves projecting the image of a mask onto a light-sensitive materia...

Several ways have been proposed to examine dark energy, in hopes of finding out just what it is. One of them, “supernovae” for short, certainly works: it’s how dark energy was discovered in the first place. Other independent techniques, such as weak gravitational lensing and baryon acoustic oscillation, also promise great power but are as yet unproven. These three techniques all ...

China is in a very seismically active area and has had many catastrophic earthquakes during its history. A joint European-Chinese team is using satellite radar data to monitor ground deformation across major continental faults in China to understand better the seismic cycle and how faults behave. Using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite data and a technique known as SAR Interferometry (InSAR...

Tiny, solitary spikes that stick out of nearly every cell in the body play a central role in a type of skin cancer, new research has found. The discovery in mice shows that the microscopic structures known as primary cilia can either suppress or promote this skin cancer, depending on the mutation triggering the disease. The finding suggests that drugs that boost or block primary cilia activity cou...

UCSF researchers have identified the two key circuits that control a cell’s ability to adapt to changes in its environment, a finding that could have applications ranging from diabetes and autoimmune research to targeted drug development for complex diseases. The new findings are featured as the cover story in the August 21, 2009 issue of the journal Cell. The limited number of circuits that...

New UBC research has literally and figuratively poked holes in single-band Hubbard physics — a model that has been used to predict and calculate the behavior of high-temperature superconductors for 20 years. The findings are the first compelling evidence challenging the model under certain conditions, and could necessitate entirely new theoretical approaches to explaining superconductivity i...