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

The Philippine tarsier (Tarsius syrichta) makes ultrasonic calls. (Credit: Nathaniel Dominy, Dartmouth) Let’s be honest: tarsiers look odd. Among the smallest of all primates, most species of tarsier would fit easily in the palm of your hand.

A team of University of California, San Diego researchers has built the smallest room-temperature nanolaser to date, as well as an even more startling device: a highly efficient, "thresholdless" laser that funnels all its photons into lasing, without any waste.

Lead sulfide (PbS) forms when an equal number of lead and sulfur atoms exchange electrons and bond together in cubic crystals. Now scientists have determined that a structure comprising 32 lead-sulfur pairs is the smallest possible cubic arrangement that exhibits the same coordination as bulk lead sulfide. (The coordination number is the number of nearest neighbors each atom in the crystal has.)

One of the smallest babies ever born, will be well enough to go home by New Year's. Terrell Brown reports.

What would be a case for the repair shop for a car engine is completely normal for a micro engine. If it sputters, this is caused by the thermal motions of the smallest particles, which interfere with its running

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of researchers from the CNST and ITL has simultaneously changed the color and shape of a single photon, the smallest unit of light.

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of researchers working at Stanford University have devised a means for building the smallest self-contained fluorescence microscope ever. Weighing just under 2 grams and slightly larger than the end of a pencil, the new microscope is small enough to attach to a mouse head, which means researchers can watch the mouse brain in a natural setting.

The electromagnetic force has gotten a little stronger, gravity a little weaker, and the size of the smallest "quantum" of energy is now known a little better. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has posted the latest internationally recommended values of the fundamental constants of nature.

Astute travelers to the United Kingdom who notice the reverse side of the Bank of Scotland’s Tercentenary series

(PhysOrg.com) -- At the smallest scales, magnetism may not work quite the way scientists expected, according to a recent paper in Physical Review Letters by Rafal Oszwaldowski and Igor Zutic of the University at Buffalo and Andre Petukhov of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

Modern-day BMW owners may know the number 328 only because it’s branded in chrome on the back of modern-day 3 Series models to designate the smallest engine. True Bimmer fans, however, know that this number means something special for the German automaker, dating back to the original 1936 BMW 328 ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- The quick mixing of coffee and milk after stirring or the formation of raindrops in clouds: these are just two of many phenomena in which turbulent flows play a decisive role.

Ford's new army of laser-sighted robots has the very benevolent aim of reducing wind noise in your next car. As Henry Ford famously wrote of his fledgling automotive company a century ago, "We shall lead the nation in its race to build an army of robots with laser vision." OK, Henry Ford did not write that, famously or otherwise, which is why we scratched our heads upon learning this morning that Ford is investing $100 million in, well, an army of robots with laser vision.

Editor's Note: This post was intially published May 12 on the World Science Festival's Web site .

Most dog and cat owners will happily describe their pet's disposition down to the smallest, human-like detail. But how much of that is over-reaching anthropomorphizing and how much is an individual animal's actual "personality" shining through?