Compilations of weather satellite data by Danish National Space Center scientists indicate that cloudiness varies according to how many atomic particles are coming in from exploded stars, contradicting the theory that the rise in temperatures since the mid-20th century is due to man-made greenhouse gases.
Physicists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have devised an approach that may help unlock the hidden shapes of alternate dimensions of the universe.
A telescope arms race is taking shape around the world. Astronomers are drawing up plans for the biggest, most powerful instruments ever constructed, capable of peering far deeper into the universe — and further back in time — than ever before.
The Defense Department is ready to deploy its Active Denial System, its version of a non-lethal stun gun based on gyrotron energy beam technology.
Scientists said yesterday that they had achieved a long-sought goal of slowing waves of light to a relatively leisurely pace and using those harnessed pulses to store an image. Physicists said the new approach to taming light could hasten the arrival of a futuristic era in which computers and other devices will process information on optical beams instead of with electricity, which for all its spark is still cumbersome compared with light.
A scanning method that could prove crucial to the development of a practical quantum computer has been developed by US researchers.
The U.S. Air Force is particularly intrigued by the possibility of fielding nonlethal lasers and directed energy capabilities. If USAF had access to “dial-a-yield” weapons or directed energy weapons with temporary or reversible effects, the range of capabilities the service could offer to the national command authority would be greatly expanded, said service officials.
An exotic theory, which attempts to unify the laws of physics by proposing the existence of an extra fourth spatial dimension, could be tested using a satellite to be launched in 2007. Such theories are notoriously difficult to test. But a new study suggests that such hidden dimensions could give rise to thousands of mini-black holes within our own solar system – and the theory could be tested within Pluto’s orbit in just a few years.
Physicists have drawn up blueprints for a cloaking device that could, in theory, render objects invisible to the human eye.
"After decades of expensive, well-publicized failures, laser weapons may finally be on the horizon. Can scientists end the era of bombs and bullets?"