Newswise: Physics Sponsored By AIP

Muscle Models Mimic Diabetes, Inform Personalized Medicine

Scientists are using in vitro skeletal muscle engineering to gain a better understanding of the complex genetic and environmental factors underlying diabetes, putting lab-grown, healthy skeletal muscle tissues in a state resembling diabetes or growing skeletal muscle from diabetic patients' muscle stem cells. In Biophysics Reviews, researchers describe how skeletal muscle engineering has advanced significantly during the past few decades and recent developments that make it easier to explore diabetes in humans and have led to more personalized medicine.

Peering Deep Into a Flame

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, Yale University and Penn State University refined and used an X-ray technique to measure temperatures in an extremely hot, soot-laden flame produced by combustion.

ESA Solar Orbiter confirms solar switchback origin theory by UAH's Dr. Gary Zank

For the first time a solar switchback has been directly observed that confirms 2020 models by astrophysicist Dr. Gary Zank at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) that theorized how these surprising structures in the solar wind originate.

A breakthrough discovery in carbon capture conversion for ethylene production

A team of researchers has discovered a way to convert 100% of carbon dioxide captured from industrial exhaust into ethylene, a key building block for plastic products.

Innovative FRIB Liquid-Lithium Charge Stripper Boosts Accelerator Performance

A charge stripper is an important component in the process the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) uses to create rare isotopes for scientific research. However, FRIB's particle beam is too powerful for a conventional charge stripper. Researchers developed a new liquid-lithium charge stripper that can produce as high a charge state as a conventional solid charge stripper and last indefinitely.

SUPER Program Expands Undergraduate Research Support

The Summer Undergraduate Program for Exceptional Researchers (SUPER), run by the U.S. ATLAS collaboration, wrapped up a successful season with a new focus to broaden the program's impact. The new initiative paired students from underrepresented minorities and minority serving institutions (MSIs) across the nation with mentors and projects at U.

Chiral quasi bound states in the continuum for high-purity circularly polarized light source

An ultracompact circularly polarized light source is crucial component for the applications of classical and quantum optics information processing.

Modified Microwave Oven Cooks Up Next-Gen Semiconductors

A household microwave oven modified by a Cornell engineering professor is helping to cook up the next generation of cellphones, computers and other electronics after the invention was shown to overcome a major challenge faced by the semiconductor industry.

Researchers Map Rotating Spiral Waves in Live Human Hearts

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and clinicians at Emory University School of Medicine are bringing a new understanding to these complicated conditions with the first high-resolution visualizations of stable spiral waves in human ventricles.

Light accelerates conductivity in nature's 'electric grid'

The natural world possesses its own intrinsic electrical grid composed of a global web of tiny bacteria-generated nanowires in the soil and oceans that "breathe" by exhaling excess electrons.

Upgraded Laser Facility Paves the Way for Next-Generation Particle Accelerators

Berkeley Lab researchers have completed a major expansion of one of the world's most powerful laser systems, creating new opportunities in accelerator research. The expansion created a second beamline for the petawatt laser at the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) Center, enabling the development of next-generation particle accelerators for applications in science, medicine, security, and industry.

Advanced microscope techniques could pave way for improved computer memories

Highly-resolved microscopy technique helps show temperature-dependent phase transitions at tiny and fast scales.

Rensselaer's Catherine Royer To Be Honored for Her Research in Molecular Biology

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Professor Catherine Royer will be honored as a 2023 Society Fellow of the Biophysical Society. Royer is a Chaired Constellation Professor in Biocomputation and Bioinformatics; professor of biological sciences, and chemistry and chemical biology; and director of the graduate program in biochemistry and physics.

Pioneering mathematical formula paves way for exciting advances in health, energy, and food industry

A groundbreaking mathematical equation has been discovered, which could transform medical procedures, natural gas extraction, and plastic packaging production in the future.

Nobel Laureate Barry Barish Appointed Stony Brook University President's Distinguished Endowed Chair in Physics

World renowned experimental physicist and Nobel Laureate Barry Barish, PhD, will be joining Stony Brook University to serve as the inaugural President's Distinguished Endowed Chair in Physics beginning in the fall semester of 2023. Professor Barish shared the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for the observation of gravitational waves with the historic Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) experiment. This research proved the ripples in the fabric of space and time that were predicted by Albert Einstein 100 years earlier. Professor Barish is also the Ronald and Maxine Linde Professor of Physics, Emeritus, at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Biophysical Society Names 2023 Society Award Recipients

ROCKVILLE, MD - The Biophysical Society is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2023 Society Awards. These awards are very competitive in nature and are intended to recognize Society members for excellence in biophysics. The winners will be honored at the Society's 67th Annual Meeting, being held in San Diego, California from February 18-22, 2023.

Artificial Breathing System Reveals Alveoli Function in Lungs

In Biomicrofluidics, scientists in China created a model alveolar system that mimics the breathing action of the human lung and allows visualization of flow patterns within the alveoli. The chip they designed includes tubes arranged like the structure of a bifurcation point in the bronchial network. The upper layer of the chip is made of a flexible polymer molded into small tubes that mimic the alveolar structure. The lower layer is glass, which allows the authors to visualize fluid flow through the tubes.

Department of Energy Announces $35 Million for Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) Partnership in Nuclear Physics

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $35 million for three joint projects in Nuclear Physics (NP) and Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) via a partnership program of Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC).

The physics of walking is simpler than we thought

The physics of walking for multi-legged animals and robots is simpler than previously thought. That is the finding described by a team of roboticists, physicists and biologists in the Sept. 5 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in a paper titled "Walking is like slithering: a unifying, data-driven view of locomotion."

Uncovering the Atomic Mechanism Underpinning Heat Transport in Thermoelectric Materials

To better understand how thermoelectric devices convert thermal energy into electricity at the atomic scale, researchers used neutrons to study single crystals of tin sulfide and tin selenide. The results revealed a strong correlation between changes in the structure at certain temperatures and the frequency of atomic vibrations (phonons). This allowed the researchers to identify temperatures ideal for energy conversion and provided basic scientific knowledge for designing new thermoelectric materials.

'Diamond rain' on giant icy planets could be more common than previously thought

A new study has found that "diamond rain," a long-hypothesized exotic type of precipitation on ice giant planets, could be more common than previously thought. In an earlier experiment, researchers mimicked the extreme temperatures and pressures found deep inside ice giants Neptune and Uranus and, for the first time, observed diamond rain as it formed.