Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

(Phys.org) -- Strange new materials experimentally identified just a few years ago are now driving research in condensed-matter physics around the world. First theorized and then discovered by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and their colleagues in other institutions, these “strong 3-D topological insulators” – TIs for short – are seemingly mundane semiconductors with startling properties. For starters, picture a good insulator on the inside that’s a good conductor on its surface – something like a copper-coated bowling ball.

There’s a new generation gap brewing.

With each successive year, Asia Week New York grows bigger and better. In 2012, no fewer than five auction houses will offer relevant sales of artworks and artifacts from China, Korea, Japan, India, and Southeast Asia, and 17 museums and other institutions will offer special programming

Ask many scientists what they believe separates the pursuit of scientific inquiry from most everything else and you’ll get a wide range of open-ended, flowery, idealistic, and nearly altruistic, statements like ”unlock the mysteries of the world”, “the thrill of discovery”, “making a meaningful contribution to society”, or “improving people’s lives”.

Breaking news from your editors at Fast Company, with updates all day. Amazon Promises Fire Fix

Chemists at Harvard and three other institutions have created a purified version of an organic semiconductor with electrical properties that put it among a small handful of organic compounds and that provides an important proof of concept for a screening process to find new compounds for solar panels.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Dark matter, the mysterious substance that may account for nearly 25 percent of the universe, has so far evaded direct observation. But researchers from UCLA, Columbia University and other institutions participating in the international XENON collaboration say they are now closer than ever before.

SACRAMENTO--Who owns the dead? In the U.S.