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

(PhysOrg.com) -- Working out of Tokyo University, scientists in the Department of Materials Science, have developed a new metal alloy that unlike other “superelastic” alloys can resume its original shape in temperatures ranging from -196 to 249 degrees Celsius. Prior to this discovery, such alloys were only able to revert to their original form in the much narrower range of -20 to 80 degrees Celsius.

Counting on food with fake fats to help you slip into last year’s bathing suit?

A newborn’s immune system needs time to figure out what should be fought and what should be left alone. Conventional wisdom had it that early exposure to potential troublemakers, from peanuts to pets, could lead to allergy issues later. But recent research shows that having a dog or cat at home isn't likely to make children allergic to animals

When the internet first got kicking, some scholars of democracy and civil society thought that online discussions could create what they called a "conversational democracy”: an ongoing town hall without bricks and mortar. But the internet may not be as democratic as they'd imagined, according to a study in the journal Communication Research .

You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. And you shouldn’t judge a species by its place of origin

The quadratic equation may have instilled horror in many of us. But for some five to seven percent of the population even basic math--like the concept of the numbers five and seven--causes anxiety. You may never have heard of the disorder called dyscalculia, yet it’s as common as dyslexia, according to research in the journal Science .

From a laptop warming a knee to a supercomputer heating a room, the idea that computers generate heat is familiar to everyone. But theoretical physicists have discovered something astonishing: not only do computational processes sometimes generate no heat, under certain conditions they can even have a cooling effect

Scientists at Imperial College London have made the most accurate measurement yet of the shape of the humble electron, finding that it is almost a perfect sphere, in a study published in the journal Nature today.

A study in the journal "Lancet" documents an experimental therapy that enabled a paralyzed patient to stand up and take steps on his own. Dr. Jon LaPook reports on an exciting approach to treating a devastating problem

In a four-decade, Holy Grail-like quest to fully understand what it means to be in a "supersolid" state, physicists have found that supersolid isn't always super solid. In other words, this exotic state of frozen helium appears to have liquid-like properties, says a new paper published in the journal Science on May 13, 2011.

While large-scale efforts to curb greenhouse gases aren't likely to happen in the near future, advocates are thinking of smaller ways to reduce emissions in the meantime. Recently, Vanderbilt University professor Michael Vandenbergh and two others proposed the idea of voluntarily labeling carbon footprints on products in the journal Nature Climate Change . [More]

Cities have a lot to offer: theater, music, restaurants, birds. Yes, birds.

Scientists recognize how important a role electrical fields play in nature and technical areas. By adjusting these fields, the transmission of nerve impulses becomes possible and the operation of modern data storage is fulfilled by saving electrical charges (so-called Flash Memories)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Harvard physicists have expanded the possibilities for quantum engineering of novel materials such as high-temperature superconductors by coaxing ultracold atoms trapped in an optical lattice -- a light crystal -- to self-organize into a magnet, using only the minute disturbances resulting from quantum mechanics. The research, published in the journal Nature, is the first demonstration of such a “quantum magnet” in an optical lattice.

Creatures that live in the dark may lose their sight over evolutionary time. They may even lose their eyes entirely. Now it appears that they also lose sleep