Physical Sciences

Thomas Mallouk Wins American Chemical Society's 2008 National Award in the Chemistry of Materials
Eklund Receives Japan Carbon Award for Lifetime Achievement
Laguna Elected to Mexican National Academy of Sciences
Tethered Molecules Act as Light-Driven Reversible Nanoswitches
Illustration of the light-activated switch made by the Paul Weiss lab at Penn State.
Scientists Discover That Protons Partner with Neutrons More Often Than with Other Protons
Theoretical work by Penn State Professor of Physics Mark Strikman predicted that fast-moving protons would have a surprisingly high tendency to form pairs with fast-moving neutrons. Credit: Joanna Griffin, U. S. Department of Energy, Jefferson Lab, courtesy of Penn State
Study Finds New Properties in "Non-Magnetic Materials"
Figure A ("non-magnetic" material): The "non-magnetic" crystal structure of strontium titanate, SrTiO 3 , is composed of strontium (blue balls), titanium (red balls), and oxygen (yellow balls). Credit: Sava Denev, Penn State
New Map Locates Metals in Millions of Milky Way Stars
The new metallicity map, shown as the colored inset, indicates that the disk is composed of high-metallicity stars that typically are just a few billion years old (red and yellow shades). Credit: Zeljko Ivezic, University of Washington, SDSS-II Collaboration
A Slimmer Milky Way Revealed by New Measurements
The visible, stellar part of our Milky Way in the middle is embedded into its much more massive and more extended dark matter halo, indicated in dim red. Credit: Axel Quetz, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (Heidelberg), SDSS-II Collaboration
Heart of the Crab Pulsar Probed — First Direct Look Into the Core of a Neutron Star
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Gehrz (University of Minnesota) New information about the heart of one of the most famous objects in the sky -- the Crab Pulsar in the Crab Nebula -- has been revealed by an international team of scientists searching for gravitational waves. The team's achievement also is the first direct look into the interior of a neutron star.
NASA's Swift Satellite Catches First "Normal" Supernova in the Act of Exploding
Seemingly out of nowhere, Supernova 2008D burst onto the scene on January 9, 2008, as seen in ultraviolet images (upper right) and X-ray images (beneath) taken by NASA's Swift satellite, giving scientists the unique opportunity to witness the birth of a supernova. CREDIT: NASA Swift team.
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