Category Physics

The transportable strontium optical lattice clock in the Modane Underground Laboratory. Credit: Lisdat/PTB

For the first time, researchers measure gravitation with a portable optical clock, paving the way for standardised measurement of the Earth’s surface. A European collaboration has used one of the world’s portable optical atomic clocks to measure gravitation for the first time. Until now, such delicate clocks have been restricted to laboratories at a few major research institutions, however, researchers at PTB have developed a transportable strontium optical lattice clock, opening up the possibility of performing measurements in the field. The transportable clock was driven in a vibration-damped and temperature-stabilised trailer to the French Modane Underground Laboratory (LSM)...

4-D goggles developed at UC San Diego. Credit: Photo by Ching-fu Chen

A team of researchers at UC San Diego and San Diego State University has developed a pair of “4D goggles” that allows wearers to be physically “touched” by a movie when they see a looming object on the screen, such as an approaching spacecraft. The device was developed based on a study conducted by the neuroscientists to map brain areas that integrate the sight and touch of a looming object and aid in their understanding of the perceptual and neural mechanisms of multisensory integration...

Newly developed polymer can better mimic nature’s color-changing abilities. Credit: American Chemical Society

In nature, colors can serve as a form of communication, but they can also hide animals and plants, camouflaging them from sight. Researchers now report in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces that they have developed polymers that can better mimic nature’s color-changing abilities than existing polymers. They say the materials could enable smart decorations, camouflage textiles and improved anti-counterfeiting measures.

Most of the colors that people are familiar with, such as hues on a piece of paper, are made with pigments...