SPOTLIGHT
Optical Fiber: Secure In All The Chaos
Secure messages hidden in chaotic waveforms, transmitted at up to 10 gigabits per second, is the vision behind a group of dedicated European researchers. Now they are prototyping the equipment that could make the vision a reality.
Mathematicians solve flakey problem
Two mathematicians have for the first time created a computer simulation that generates realistic three-dimensional snowflakes, although even they are not sure how it works.
Your Guide to the Year in Science: 2008
Jellyfish invasions, Internet auctions, god particles: Read about the year’s biggest science stories before they happen. Bonus: How to decipher geeky jargon and when to buy a DeLorean
Scientists use nanomaterials to localize and control drug delivery
Using nanotechnology, scientists from UCLA and Northwestern University have developed a localized and controlled drug delivery method that is invisible to the immune system.
Sun?s Magnetic Secret Revealed
Powerful magnetic waves have been confirmed for the first time as major players in the process that makes the sun’s atmosphere strangely hundreds of times hotter than its already superhot surface.
Intelligent inks – now you see them, now you don’t
Photographs of oxygen indicator ink printed on a MAPed food package. Left: Before UV activation. Middle: After UV activation. Right: On opening the package.
Nanotechnology guru Eric Drexler turns back on goo
The scientist many regard as the father of nanotechnology has backed away from his famous claim that nanomachines could turn the planet into “grey goo”. Eric Drexler now says nanomachines that self-replicate exponentially are unlikely ever to enter widespread use.
Next Space Tourist Begins Training for Spaceflight
Computer game developer Richard Garriott is spending six weeks in Russia to undergo initial medical checks and the first round of training for flight aboard a Soyuz spacecraft.
First Look At Mercury’s Previously Unseen Side
In addition to images of the previously unseen portion of the planet’s surface, measurements were made that will contribute to the characterization of all aspects of Mercury and its environment.
Big Brain Theory: Have Cosmologists Lost Theirs?
It could be the weirdest and most embarrassing prediction in the history of cosmology, if not science.
Google to Host Terabytes of Open-Source Science Data
Sources at Google have disclosed that the humble domain, http://research.google.com, will soon provide a home for terabytes of open-source scientific datasets.
Darkest material ever created
The darkest substance known to science has been made in a US laboratory. The material was created from carbon nanotubes – sheets of carbon just one atom thick rolled up into cylinders.
Mathematician, Two Physicists Share Crafoord Prize
This year’s Crafoord Prize, a sort of alternative Nobel, has been awarded to a mathematician and two physicists whose work ranges from the mathematics of string theory to the details of how black holes suck in matter.
Black Holes Spin Near Speed of Light
New research suggests that supermassive black holes spin at speeds approaching the speed of light.
Materials Crystal Properties Illuminated By Mathematical Lighthouse
A deeper fundamental understanding of complex materials may now be possible, thanks to a pair of Princeton scientists who have uncovered a new insight into how crystals form.
Could the Universe be tied up with cosmic string?
A team of physicists and astronomers at the University of Sussex and Imperial College London have uncovered hints that there may be cosmic strings – lines of pure mass-energy.
