Hot Science
 Fiddle Physics
Physics Central
The violin is the lead instrument in most classical orchestras, and its alter ego the fiddle—which is in fact the same instrument—stars in folk music traditions stretching from the west coast of the Americas through just about every country in Europe and as far east as India. But how well do we understand how this small and oddly shaped wooden box produces its rich sounds? There is still a lot to learn, but several hundred years of acoustical research have yielded some of the physics underlying the sounds that have captivated the human ear for centuries. More... |
• The Top Ten Physics Stories of 2008 -Physics News Update
• Light Bends Glass -Physical Review Focus
• LEADER OF THE PACK—Sometimes better to stay out front -Physics News Update
• Landmarks: Breaking the Mirror -Physical Review Focus
• Nobel Prize in Physics 2008: Broken Symmetry -Physics Central
• Students Find Planet Outside Our Solar System-LiveScience
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 Sticky tape generates X-rays
Naturenews
Christmas could bring with it a new hazard as you wrap your gifts – X-ray-emitting sticky tape. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, have shown that simply peeling ordinary sticky tape in a vacuum can generate enough X-rays to take an image—of one of the scientists' own fingers (see videos). "At some point we were a little bit scared," says Juan Escobar, a member of the research team. But he and his co-workers soon realized that the X-rays were only emitted when the kit was used in a vacuum. "We don't want to scare people from using Scotch tape in everyday life," Escobar adds.
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• Antimatter Bounces Off Matter -Physical Review Focus
• Hubble's Odometer Nearing 3 Billion Miles -Physics News Update
• Glowing glimpses of August's auroras -SpaceWeather.com
• Our Very Own Black Hole: About The Milky Way -Physics Central
• Scientists Say We Can See Sound
-LiveScience
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 APS launches Physics website
American Physical Society (APS)
APS has developed Physics with students in mind. Every week, APS publishes almost 400 articles, each being of interest
to a large or small group of physicists.In Physics we select a few outstanding
articles each week, and invite an expert to write an introductory
piece, called a "Viewpoint", that explains the context and background
of the selected article. This helps non-specialists and students to
understand and appreciate the new research article. If you get
interested and want to read the original journal article, we also make
it free to download from the Physics website. Go to the Physics website... |
• A Super Mix Inside Neutron Stars -Physical Review Focus
• Superconductivity in Super Hard Diamond -Physics News Update
• Doomsday lawsuit dissed -The Cosmic Log
• 'Hole' Fiber Fights Cancer -Physics Central
• Hearing the Highest Pitches -Physical Review Focus
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 Astronomers find batch of "super-Earths"
Reuters/Yahoo.com
European researchers said recently they discovered a batch of three "super-Earths" orbiting a nearby star, and two other solar systems with small planets as well. They said their findings, presented at a conference in France, suggest that Earth-like planets may be very common. More... |
• Accidental Astrophysicists -Science News
• New Images From Phoenix Lander May Show Martian Ice -LiveScience.com
• Spin Control -Physical Review Focus
• A History of Scientific Cosmology -AIP Center for History of Physics
• MIT's Student Publication Scope Debuts on Web -MIT
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Image Credit: Joe Slansky, Utah State
University. Click on photo for larger version.
Physicists at Work
Members of the Utah State University (USU) SPS chapter recently created this "physicists at work" sign as part of USU's homecoming street painting activity in Logan, UT. The mathematical expression that is on the sign is the technical definition of 'work' in physics.
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