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A research team at Michigan State University has developed a laser that could detect roadside bombs – the deadliest enemy weapon encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan.

(PhysOrg.com) -- By finding a clever way to use the Earth itself as a scientific instrument, members of a SLAC-led research team turned the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope into a positron detector – and confirmed a startling discovery from 2009 that found an excess of these antimatter particles in cosmic rays, a possible sign of dark matter.

German physicists led by Prof. Dr. Hartmut Zabel have demonstrated the spin pumping effect in magnetic layers for the first time experimentally.

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new x-ray microscopy technique that allows scientists to make images 60 times faster than before has been developed by an Australian research team including Garth Williams, who is now an instrument scientist at SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source. The method, called polychromatic coherent diffractive imaging, or polyCDI, will also enable sharper and more accurate images of floppy biological molecules and fast-moving materials structures.

The debate over the mechanism that causes superconductivity in a class of materials called the pnictides has been settled by a research team from Japan and China.

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of researchers from Columbia Engineering, the Italian National Research Council, Princeton University, University of Missouri, and University of Nijmegen (Netherlands) has developed an artificial semiconductor structure that has superimposed a pattern created by advanced fabrication methods that are precise at the nanometer scale.

An international research team has successfully developed a widely applicable method for discovering the physical foundations of complex fluids for the first time. Researchers at the University of Vienna and University of Rome have developed a microscopic theory that describes the interactions between the various components of a complex polymer mixture. This approach has now been experimentally proven by physicists from Julich, who conducted neutron scattering experiments in Grenoble

At the Radioactive Isotope Beam Facility (RIBF) of the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator Science in Wako, a research team has measured the time it takes for 38 extremely rare isotopes to decay by half. This is the first study of half-lives for 18 of the isotopes. The data provide a long-awaited test of theoretical predictions of the rate at which these isotopes decay, and will help nuclear physicists to understand a fundamental source of many of the atomic elements and their isotopes

Optical data carriers such as DVDs, Blu-rays and CD-RWs store data in layers of so-called "phase change materials". In the future, these materials will enable the development of fast, non-volatile and energy-saving main memories. A prerequisite for this is a low thermal conductivity

To keep your car purring, you have to change the oil. Such maintenance produces eight billion gallons of used motor oil annually. Some waste oil does get re-refined to produce oil for lubrication or heating.

Elephants are smart, social animals. And now we know that they can organize themselves into teams to accomplish tasks. A research team that included renowned primatologist Franz de Waal taught 12 Thai elephants--who already work with human trainers called mahouts--to get a bowl of food by pulling a rope attached to an out-of-reach table