Page 34 - Corresponding Editor News Today

How a Swirling Tail Helps Microbes Swim  May 11, 2021• Physics 14, s61 A microswimmer that rotates its body and tail in opposite directions can propel itself in elastic, non-Newtonian fluids. J. Binagia/Stanford University × Like human swimmers, microorganisms employ various techniques to propel themselves through fluids. But the fluids that these microswimmers navigate, such as mucus in the human body, are often complex and non-Newtonian, enabling strokes that wouldn’t work in a s...

Cloaking and Shielding Objects in a Fluid Flow May 6, 2021• Physics 14, s57 By injecting momentum into the fluid around an object, researchers can freely switch between obscuring the object’s presence and canceling hydrodynamic forces on it. V. Bacheva/Technion – Israel Institute of Technology; IBM Research Europe V. Bacheva/Technion – Israel Institute of Technology; IBM Research Europe × Among the best-known technologies deployed by Star Trek’s starships are their invisibil...

Keeping Time on Entropy’s Dime May 6, 2021• Physics 14, s54 An experiment with a nanoscale clock verifies that a clock’s entropy per tick increases as the clock is made more precise. banusevim/stock.adobe.com × Entropy generally increases with each tick of time, so it is natural that a timekeeping device produces an uptick in entropy as it runs. Building on previous work with quantum clocks, researchers now show that a simple classical clock—whose ticks are the vibrations of a ...

Do Merging Dwarf Galaxies Explain a Peculiar Gravitational-Wave Detection?    May 5, 2021• Physics 14, s52 The hard-to-explain masses of two coalescing black holes could be accounted for if they were the central black holes in two distant, tiny galaxies that merged. A. Palmese/Fermilab × On May 21, 2019, the LIGO and Virgo collaborations recorded an unexpected gravitational-wave detection. The signal, designated GW190521, emanated from the coalescence of two black holes whose mass...

Multi-Echo Imaging Physics 14, 65 With a one-pixel detector and a pulsed emitting device, researchers are able to produce a 3D image of a room from multiple echoes. A. Turpin et al. [1] Self reflection. This simulation shows an image of a person in a room, assuming a camera could record all of the reflections from surfaces. The figure on the right in black is the direct image of the person, whereas the other figures are indirect (multi-bounce) images of the same person (see videos below). Sel...

Linking Glaciers on Earth to the Climate on Mars April 30, 2021• Physics 14, 62 Geophysicist Jack Holt explains how Earth’s debris-covered glaciers can teach us about the climate history of Mars. Jack Holt × As a student, Jack Holt had three loves: geology, exploring remote mountain regions, and aviation. Now, as a geophysicist at the University of Arizona, he’s merged those loves into his academic pursuits. Holt has tracked the history of Earth’s magnetic field, which required ...

Maximizing Volatility in Magnetic Tunnel Junctions April 29, 2021• Physics 14, s51 A device usually associated with stable information storage can be modified to be extremely sensitive to thermal noise, offering a source of randomness for probabilistic computing. K. Y. Camsari K. Y. Camsari × Kerem Camsari at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and colleagues might have devised the worst possible computer-memory device. Their array of electronic structures—called magnetic...

Detecting Dark Matter in Exoplanets April 22, 2021• Physics 14, s46 Measuring the temperatures of massive exoplanets could reveal the effect of dark matter, potentially allowing researchers to confirm the galactic distribution of this mysterious substance. Artsiom P/stock.adobe.com × For dark matter detectors, bigger is usually better, as that means that the detector can potentially interact with more dark matter particles. But even the largest are tiny compared to a newly proposed de...

Cubes Keep Their Distance Physics 14, s42 Cubes suspended in a liquid are less likely than spheres to form clusters and fall out of solution. A. Seyed-Ahmadi and A. Wachs [1] A. Seyed-Ahmadi and A. Wachs [1] × Particle-laden flows are ubiquitous in natural and industrial processes. Models that describe how particles behave in a suspension are vital for, among other things, explaining river deposits and designing waste-water treatment plants. But these models assume that particles are spherical...

Coffee, Donuts, and Semiconductors Physics 14, 61 During the Semiconductors for Breakfast meeting, researchers woke up to talks on light-emitting nanorods and hairy cavities. E. Fadaly/Eindhoven University of Technology Recent work shows that nanorods of silicon-germanium can emit light, unlike pure silicon crystals. Researchers grew these semiconductor materials with the necessary hexagonal crystal structure by seeding them on hexagonally shaped nanowires. E. Fadaly/Eindhoven University of Te...