Author Archives: rberkowitz

New telescopes seek the cosmic dark ages

Radio astronomers look to far-flung locations to detect low-frequency signals that emanate from the ancient universe. Continue reading

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New Cavity Design Soaks Up More Rays

When placed in a lens-and-mirror trap, a weakly absorbing material can capture light from nearly all directions. Continue reading

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Icy Resonance

Ice sheets amplify clues from Iceland’s hidden volcanoes. Continue reading

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Water Droplets Shape-Shift on the ISS

Experiments in zero gravity show how a static droplet oscillates on a vibrating hydrophobic surface. Continue reading

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Twinkle, Twinkle, Star No More

New forecasting approaches could help users of ground-based telescopes predict when the atmosphere will most blur incoming light, allowing them to better remove the effect. Continue reading

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Quantum Thermal Transistor Amplifies Heat Currents

A three-qubit transistor design offers a way to manipulate the system’s heat flow by hitting one of the qubits with a laser. Continue reading

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A Tiny Photonic Nose Captures Odor Fingerprints

A bio-inspired detector the size of a US penny can identify the unique odor profiles of different gases, something that could help in detecting food freshness and product counterfeits and in designing new cosmetics. Continue reading

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Curved Light Channels Have Better Coupling

More frequencies of light can pass between two coupled wavy waveguides than between two coupled straight ones, something that could allow for more flexible designs of optics-based circuits on silicon chips. Continue reading

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Extra-Stable Light Produced by Levitated Nanoparticle

A trapped nanoparticle interacting with a laser provides a simple way to generate squeezed light, which has an unusually low level of fluctuations. Read more in APS Physics…

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New Ultrathin Capacitor Could Enable Energy-Efficient Microchips

Scientists turn century-old material into a thin film for next-gen memory and logic devices. Continue reading

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