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(PhysOrg.com) -- For at least 20 years, organic chemists and materials scientists have used microwaves as an alternative energy source to activate materials and break chemical bonds. However, though microwaves are clearly useful, scientists have remained largely in the dark on exactly how they provide special heating properties.

A team of researchers at MIT has found a way to manipulate both the thermal conductivity and the electrical conductivity of materials simply by changing the external conditions, such as the surrounding temperature. And the technique they found can change electrical conductivity by factors of well over 100, and heat conductivity by more than threefold.

Like the billions of tiny neutrinos that zip through the Earth every second, scientific exchanges will be flying thick and fast in Madison.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Four theoretical physicists, led by Allan Widom, of Northeastern University, have published a paper in arXiv, where they show a possible way for some bacteria to produce radio waves. Taking note of the fact that bacteria DNA forms in loops rather than the familiar helix seen in humans, Widom, et al, describe a process whereby free electrons that flow through such a loop by hopping from atom to atom, wind up producing photons when energy levels change.

(PhysOrg.com) -- The AMS particle detector will take off on 29 April 2011 at 21.47 CEST onboard the very last mission of the space Shuttle Endeavour.

Researchers at Northwestern University have created a new kind of cloaking material that can render objects invisible in the terahertz range.

Valley-based electronics, also known as valleytronics, is one step closer to reality. Two researchers at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have shown that the valley degree of freedom in graphene can be polarized through scattering off a line defect. Unlike previously proposed valley filters in graphene, which rely on confined structures that have proven hard to achieve experimentally, the present work is based on a naturally occurring line defect that has already been observed.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Wesleyan University have used computer simulations to gain basic insights into a fundamental problem in material science related to glass-forming materials, offering a precise mathematical and physical description* of the way temperature affects the rate of flow in this broad class of materials -- a long-standing goal.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Portuguese physicists might have finally solved the decades old mystery of why the Pioneer probes, launched in the early 70’s, haven’t been decelerating from the Sun’s gravitational pull at the rate expected; it seems it might be something as mundane as adding in the tiny forces that occur when minute traces of heat from the plutonium on board the probes bounce off their receiving dishes, creating a counterforce, which in turn, causes the craft to slow; if ever so slightly.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Groundbreaking research in quantum light source led by the University of Sydney will result in information speeds many times faster and data that is almost impossible to hack.

(PhysOrg.com) -- When it comes to quantum measurements, interaction with the environment usually limits sensitivity, since it causes decoherence. But in a new study, scientists have shown that the environment can be advantageous.

(PhysOrg.com) -- The development promises significant improvements in optical data processing and transmission and other technologies.

(AP) -- The world's biggest particle physics lab on Tuesday played down claims of a major discovery, after a leaked memo hinting that the elusive Higgs boson - or 'God particle' - may have been found ricocheted around science websites.

When it comes to dreaming about diamonds, energy efficiency and powerful information processing aren't normally the thoughts that spring to mind. Unless, of course, you are a quantum physicist looking to create the most secure and powerful networks around.

(PhysOrg.com) -- The power and resolution of lens-based optical microscopes have improved by orders of magnitude since their invention around 1595. Nevertheless, relying on a high-magnification lens for image clarity has limitations that become more relevant as larger and larger sample volumes need to be viewed