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Different Types of Neurons (click to enlarge). A. Purkinje cell B

Dawn Higginson thought it was strange when she learned that some diving beetles produce sperm that fuse together at the head like Siamese twins. But when the postdoctoral researcher from the University of Arizona began asking why such conjugate gametes form, things only got even stranger. The sperm of the diving beetle, which gets its name from its ability to swim underwater, occur in many shapes and forms

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have known for quite some time that when light strikes objects, electrons are excited causing a tiny bit of oscillation to occur that results in the creation of an electric field. They also know that the amount of oscillation differs between different types of materials; electrons in metals such as gold and silver, for example, tend to oscillate more than do electrons in other materials.

The notion that robots must be rigid metallic automatons made mobile by wheels, tracks or even legs has constrained the imagination of their designers. The weight of all those rods, gears and motors quickly adds up, and complex mechanical and electrical control systems are needed for robots to handle delicate objects or navigate across different types of terrain. [More]

(PhysOrg.com) -- If quantum computers are ever to be realized, they likely will be made of different types of parts that will need to share information with one another, just like the memory and logic circuits in today's computers do. However, prospects for achieving this kind of communication seemed distant -- until now. A team of physicists working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has shown for the first time how these parts might communicate effectively.

For decades cancer specialists have offered

Using the new beamline, 911-4, at MAX-lab in Lund, Sweden, researchers can study a wide range of different types of material with a resolution of a few nanometres. This could be useful for both basic research and industry in general. The facility is the result of a Danish–Swedish collaboration

The study: "The Social Attachment to Place," by Michael S. Dahl, Aalborg University; and Olav Sorenson, Yale School of Management; published in the journal Social Forces. The finding: Proximity to family and friends is a more important factor than wages when people consider a new job

Carbon capture and storage (CCS), a technique that captures carbon emissions from industrial and coal-fired plants and buries them underground, is understandably controversial.