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Researchers in the Computational Materials Group at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) have uncovered the fundamental limits on optical transparency in the class of materials known as transparent conducting oxides. Their discovery will support development of energy efficiency improvements for devices that depend on optoelectronic technology, such as light- emitting diodes and solar cells.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Extremely hydrophobic materials cause water to roll right off objects that have been coated with them. Up to now, it was assumed that aircraft or wind turbines coated in such a way did not ice up as easily. However, researchers from ETH Zurich have now shown that, under certain conditions, the surface materials do not influence ice formation.

DOE's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is getting an earlier-than-expected start on a $94 million, nearly three-year project as the next stage of its mission to chart an attractive course for the development of nuclear fusion as a clean, safe and abundant fuel for generating electricity.

Every time you boil water in a kettle, you witness a phenomenon known as a phase transition — water transforms from a liquid to a gas, as you can see from the bubbling water and hissing steam. MIT physicists have now observed a much more elusive phase transition: that from a gas into a superfluid, a state where particles flow without any friction.

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.)

To better understand the fundamental behavior of molecules at surfaces, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are combining the powers of neutron scattering with chemical analysis.

Ultra hot quark-gluon-plasma, generated by heavy-ion collisions in particle accelerators, is supposed to be the "most perfect fluid" in the world. Previous theories imposed a limit on how "liquid" fluids can be

Heisenberg's Uncertainty principle is arguably one of the most famous foundations of quantum physics. It says that not all properties of a quantum particle can be measured with unlimited accuracy.

(PhysOrg.com) -- National Physical Laboratory is well known for having some of the fastest and most accurate clocks in the world, but now new research with the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre has led to the calibration of one of the world's slowest ‑ the argon-argon clock.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Today’s most powerful telescopes collect huge amounts of data from the most distant locations of the universe – yet much of the information is simply discarded because it involves small length scales that are difficult to model. In an effort to waste less data from cosmological surveys, a team of scientists has developed a new technique that allows researchers to use otherwise unusable data by "clipping" some of the highest density peaks, which present the greatest challenge to models. This data could provide a way to address some unsolved problems in physics, including estimating the neutrino mass and investigating theories of modified gravity.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Cornell scientists are boldly going where no water molecule has gone before -- that is, when it comes to pressures found nowhere on Earth.

(PhysOrg.com) -- The world's most accurate metronome keeps stroke to an incredible 10 quintillionth of a second. The device enables slow-motion pictures from the world of molecules and atoms, scientists from the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) in Hamburg, Germany, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) report.

Data are the currency of physics. As data accumulate, measurement uncertainty ranges narrow up to a certain point, increasing the potential for discoveries and making non-observations more stringent, with more far-reaching consequences. In collider physics, the amount of data is measured by the total number of collisions observed, and the rate of those collisions (the luminosity).

Researchers have devised a proposal for the first conclusive experimental test of a phenomenon known as ‘Bell’s nonlocality.’ This test is designed to reveal correlations that are stronger than any classical correlations, and do so between high-energy particles that do not consist of ordinary matter and light.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Forget the Big Bang theory on the origins of the universe.