Lisa Zyga

(Phys.org)—By analyzing the statistical features of thousands of go games played by humans and computers, researchers have found that it's surprisingly easy to tell whether a game is being played by a human or by a computer. ...

(Phys.org)—Researchers have turned to cicada wings to design surfaces with highly antireflective properties, which have potential applications for solar cells, stealth surfaces, antifogging materials, and other optical applications.

(Phys.org)—Recent gravitational wave detections have allowed physicists to confirm with greater and greater precision what Einstein predicted over 100 years ago in the theory of general relativity: that gravity does not act ...

Physicists have proposed a way to test quantum gravity that, in principle, could be performed by a laser-based, table-top experiment using currently available technology. Although a theory of quantum gravity would overcome ...

Researchers have developed a way to transform ordinary windows into solar-powered heaters that use the sun's energy to increase the window temperature by up to 8 K (nearly 15 °F) in cold weather. The researchers expect that ...

Ever since the days of Aristotle, people have made the counterintuitive observation that hot water sometimes freezes faster than cold water. In modern times, the observation has been named the Mpemba effect after Erasto Mpemba, ...

(Phys.org)—It has taken more than 20 years, but researchers have demonstrated for the first time that femtosecond lasers can be used to structurally manipulate bulk silicon for high-precision applications. Since the late ...

(Phys.org)—Researchers have demonstrated that the geometry of a natural spider web can be used to design new structures that address one of the biggest challenges in sound control: reducing low-frequency noise, which is the ...

(Phys.org)—Ever since the early days of quantum mechanics, the decay dynamics of unstable quantum systems has been thought to follow an exponential decay law, just like the one used to describe radioactive decay and many ...

(Phys.org)—For the first time, scientists have determined the equation of state of an infinite chain of hydrogen atoms, which tells the amount of energy each hydrogen atom has, given the bond length between adjacent atoms.

(Phys.org)—In 2011, mathematicians Alexander Plakhov and Vera Roshchina proved that objects with mirror surfaces cannot be perfectly invisible. Now in a new study, Plakhov has returned to the problem, asking just how close ...

(Phys.org)—A new study shows that plant-consuming microorganisms that reside in coalbeds can convert plant carbohydrates into natural gas, potentially offering a sustainable, clean method of energy generation.

(Phys.org)—Physicists have shown that superconducting circuits—circuits that have zero electrical resistance—can function as piston-like mechanical quantum engines. The new perspective may help researchers design quantum ...

(Phys.org)—Egg white—also known as egg albumen—is not only good-tasting, it also has very good dielectric properties, along with a high transparency and high elasticity, that make it a promising material for fabricating transparent, ...

By coating ordinary paper with layers of gold nanoparticles and other materials, researchers have fabricated flexible paper supercapacitors that exhibit the best performance of any textile-type supercapacitor to date. In ...