New steps in the quest to break the code of life
The deciphering of the human genome in 2000 was a major milestone in the history of science and a vital step towards the more complete understanding of human life.
View ArticleWhen liquids behave like solids
(Phys.org) —When a rubber ball and a droplet of water are compressed onto a solid surface, they behave very differently. For the ball, the compression process is reversible, so the ball retains its...
View ArticleStain-free, self-cleaning clothing on the horizon
(Phys.org) —Since 2011, the Harvard research team that created Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces has demonstrated a spate of sleek applications for the super-slick coating known as SLIPS, which...
View ArticleProperties of water at nanoscale will help to design innovative technologies
Mechanical engineers from both Department of Energy at Politecnico di Torino and Translational Imaging Department at Houston Methodist Research Institute have modeled and provided a novel insight of...
View ArticleChemistry researchers closing in on new atomic force microscope
(Phys.org) —A high-power atomic force microscope that could revolutionize the study of materials at high temperatures and pressures is coming into focus in a Wright State University lab.
View ArticleThe zero gravity coffee cup
High above our planet in the realm of satellites and space stations, the familiar rules of Earth do not apply. The midday sky is as black as night. There is no up and no down. Dropped objects do not...
View ArticleEngineers gain insight into turbulence formation and evolution in fluids
in the patterns that natural gas makes as it swirls through a transcontinental pipeline or in the drag that occurs as a plane soars through the sky. Reducing such turbulence on say, an airplane wing,...
View ArticleRethinking surface tension
(Phys.org) —If you've ever watched a drop of water form into a bead or a water strider scoot across a pond, you are familiar with a property of liquids called surface tension.
View ArticleWater glides freely across 'nanodrapes' made from the world's thinnest material
(Phys.org) —Engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new drape made from graphene—the thinnest material known to science—which can enhance the water-resistant...
View ArticleNew surface treatment stops scale buildup
Scale, as these deposits are known, causes inefficiencies, downtime, and maintenance issues. In the oil and gas industry, scale has sometimes led to the complete shutdown, at least temporarily, of...
View ArticleScientists challenge classical phenomenon that water always completely wets...
Viewed macroscopically at room temperature, when water contacts other water, it will spread out and finally both mix together. In 2009, Chinese researchers first reported observing the formation of a...
View ArticleEngineers use liquid drops to make solids stiffer
(Phys.org)—Engineers at Yale University have discovered that the stiffness of liquid drops embedded in solids has something in common with Goldilocks: While large drops of liquids are softer than the...
View ArticleImportant step towards quantum computing: Metals at atomic scale
German scientists from RWTH Aachen, Research Center Jülich, TU Dresden and of the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden report that the current flow on the surface of a...
View ArticleImage: Serene Saturn
From a distance Saturn seems to exude an aura of serenity and peace.
View ArticleAn expression for droplet deformation simplifies calculations for a wide...
A simple formula that describes the initial deformation of a droplet as it hits a solid surface is likely to help to model droplet behavior in a variety of different contexts, shows new research by...
View ArticleBiodegradable absorbent from water lily to attend oil spills
The water lily transformed from a plague to the main ingredient of a biodegradable absorbent that resolves spills or leaks of hydrocarbons, oils and other industrial substances, both in solid surfaces...
View ArticleAnti-microbial coatings with a long-term effect for surfaces
Hygienic conditions and sterile procedures are particularly important in hospitals, kitchens and sanitary facilities, air conditioning and ventilation systems, in food preparation and in the...
View ArticleDiscovery about how surface gradients influence droplet behavior may enable...
Studies of the impact a droplet makes on solid surfaces hark back more than a century. And until now, it was generally believed that a droplet's impact on a solid surface could always be separated into...
View ArticleNew deposition technique enhances optoelectronic properties of lasers
A simple new electron-beam multilayer deposition technique for creating intracavity contacts—an important component of gallium nitride-based (III-nitride) vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers...
View ArticleInvestigating how droplets move around on a surface shows us why it is...
Not everyone ponders sets of partial differential equations when watching droplets slide down a window on a rainy day, but, thanks to new research from A*STAR, those who are so inclined now have what...
View ArticleFlow phenomena on solid surfaces
Physicists from Saarland University and the ESPCI in Paris have shown how liquids on solid surfaces can be made to slide over the surface a bit like a bobsleigh on ice. The key is to apply a coating at...
View ArticleFluid dynamics model accurately predicts how bubbles impact on solid surfaces
Bubbles are an essential part of many industrial applications including foam formation, water purification, and oil and gas extraction. To understand the effects of bubbles in these systems, A*STAR...
View ArticleHop, skip and a jump: Researchers reveal molecular search patterns
Like an albatross scanning for pods of squid in a vast ocean, molecules on solid surfaces move in an intermittent search pattern that provides maximum efficiency, according to new research from the...
View ArticleWhat is the surface of Neptune like?
As a gas giant (or ice giant), Neptune has no solid surface. In fact, the blue-green disc we have all seen in photographs over the years is actually a bit of an illusion. What we see is actually the...
View ArticlePhysicists generate ocean vortices in a glass of water
Scientists from a number of Russian universities, including MIPT, have studied previously neglected phenomena and determined the cause of liquid vortex flow formed by surface waves. The results of the...
View ArticleResearchers employ novel approach to assemble peptoids on a solid surface
Nature exquisitely assembles proteins and peptides into highly ordered functional materials, such as those critical for bone formation. These natural materials inspire researchers to innovate...
View ArticleNew method of studying environmental toxins
In 1986, Gordon Brown used SLAC's Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) to visualize something no one had ever seen before: the exact way that atoms bond to a solid surface. The work...
View ArticleNew theory describes liquid droplet behavior on solid surfaces
Japanese researchers have succeeded in deriving a theoretical formula that quantitatively predicts the wetting and spreading behavior of droplets that collide with the flat surface of a solid material....
View ArticleSlippery liquid surfaces confuse mussels
It all began with a bet at a conference in Italy in 2013. Nicolas Vogel, Ph.D., then a postdoctoral fellow in Joanna Aizenberg's lab at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at...
View ArticleDroplet friction found to be similar to that of solid objects
(Phys.org)—A team of researchers working at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research has found through experimentation that friction in sliding drops is similar in some ways to that of solid...
View Article