First Ever "Flat Atom"

Scientists have discovered an exotic "flat atom", artificially created by an electrical current. The exotic atom is the world's first quantum state-manipulable atom.Manipulable atoms, or atoms capable of containing multiple quantum states, are essential to the development of ultra fast quantum computers.Researchers had previously been unable to control how electrons occupy quantum states. But the flat atom allows scientists to keep track of the electron inside it, and consequently control the q.. Read more »

The Earth is Screaming

Astronomers have recently confirmed that the earth sounds like a three year old throwing a tantrum.Recordings from space have captured the unpleasant noise, which may be heard by extraterrestrials.We already know the planet emits a quiet hum, most likely caused by our continuously moving oceans, or our turbulent atmosphere. The radio waves that cause the screeching sounds are created by particles that collide as the solar wind passes through the earth's magnetic field.New data from the European .. Read more »

Acoustics 2008: Noisy Red Cars

The acoustics folks are meeting in Paris this week for the Acoustical Society of America's (ASA) 15th annual meeting, and I'll be covering all the coolest (er, what I deem as cool) research here on the blog. Simply put, acoustics is the study of sound. But the field is widely diverse and aside from music, applied to countless other areas like oceanography, architecture, and medicine.In one of the many interesting papers being presented at the conference, German scientists designed an experiment .. Read more »

Highlights from the Blogosphere

"Alice and Bob"BackreactionA tongue-in-cheek quantum dialogue inspired by a Raymond Carver short story"Colossal Construction: The World's Nine Largest Science Project"Discovery Channel CanadaSeven of the nine are physics projects!"The Real-Life Trash Robots Who Inspired Wall-E"io9"For the past decade, a lot of our worst trash emergencies have been handled by robots....""The Guardian Science Course"Cosmic VarianceMaking science an integral part of culture"Under the Same Sky"Built on FactsMathemat.. Read more »

Tiny Telescopes

The year is 1908, the place is Tunguska, Russia, where a meteoroid or comet blasted into the earth's atmosphere and shattered to pieces, creating a 10-15 megaton explosion.It downed 80 million trees over the Siberian forest, and scientists are certain that the sheer impact of the explosion would have destroyed any major world city.In two years, we'll all be able to sleep a little easier at night, knowing that the earth's new watchdog, NEOSSat ( Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite) is in orb.. Read more »

Whales versus Waves

Sound waves, that is. The Supreme Court recently decided to hear the U.S. Navy's appeal of a federal court ruling that banned sonar within 12 miles of the coast, and ordered the immediate termination of high-powered sonar when whales (and other marine animals) have been detected. In light of the sonar-whale dilemma, it might be helpful to run through the basics of underwater acoustics.Sonar is the process of detecting what already happens to sound waves whenever there is a noise: an echo. As sou.. Read more »

Ptak Attack

 Anyone ambling along the side streets of Georgetown in Washington, DC, between 1985 and 2002 might have had the pleasure of stumbling upon J.F. Ptak Science Books. It was a cozy, welcoming sort of independent bookstore, and the owner, John Ptak, took great pride in his specialty: "unusual, rare and unique material in the sciences and the history of science." Needless to say, much of that material dealt with the history of physics. It was a sad day for science buffs when the store closed its doo.. Read more »