Unified Physics Theory Explains Animals' Running, Flying, Swimming
Fish
A First: Hydrogen Atoms Manipulated Below the Surface of a Palladium Crystal
The writing is less than half an Angstrom (0.00005 microns) "tall" off the surface. The characters are less than 500 Angstrom (0.05 microns) high. They were created when Weiss and his team moved hydrogen atoms underneath a palladium surface using a custom-built, ultrastable, low-temperature, scanning tunneling microscope.
Scientists Discover How to Flip a Molecular Switch
Credit: Lewis et al. Sequential STM images of FAPPB/R1ATC9 obtained at alternating sample biases of +1.0 and -1.0 V. The majority of the FAPPB molecules (apparent protrusions, displayed as bright spots) switch conductance states between OFF at +1.0 V and ON at -1.0 V sample bias. The red and green boxes follow one FAPPB molecule that exhibits this bias dependence. Imaging conditions: 4000 Å × 4000 Å, I = 2 pA.
New Microprinting Technique Improves Nanoscale Fabrication
A demonstration of microdisplacement printing, in which a weakly bound film is displaced by contact stamping with molecules that bind more strongly to the substrate. This process leaves a patterned film with regions of strongly bound molecules (where the weakly bound molecules were displaced) and regions of the remaining weakly bound molecules.
Brain Scientists Offer Insight Into Vision
Credit: Picower Center for Learning and Memory at MIT In these contour maps of the visual center in the brain, variations in color indicate how much individual neurons are oriented toward a particular feature of a visual scene.
New Material Could Improve Fabrication of Nanoscale Components
Paul Weiss
Molecular Chains Line Up to Form Protopolymer
Protopolyphenylene is composed of molecules lined up for reaction and held in place by the copper substrate surface and intermolecular interactions. The image of a 270-angstrom (27-nanometer) square area of the surface was recorded with a scanning tunneling microscope at 77 K in ultrahigh vacuum. The ridged ring structure is the protopolymer; the angled lines are one-atom-high steps of the copper substrate.
Experiment Confirms Existence of New Electronic State in Superconductors
Picture of a strontium ruthenate Sr2RuO4 SQUID used to demonstrate that strontium ruthenate is an odd-parity superconductor. A thin layer of a conventional superconductor is deposited on the front and two sides of a black Sr2RuO4 crystal. Au wires of 25 microns in diameter are attached to the SQUID for current measurements. Credit: John Passaneau,Penn State
Eberly College of Science Co-op Student of the Year Named
Vulnerability of Power Grid Centers on Key Junctions
Reka Albert Named a Fellow of the American Physical Society
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