Physical Sciences

Chance effect of lab's fluorescent lights leads to discovery
Artist's rendition of optically-defined quantum circuits in a topological insulator. Credit: Peter Allen
Graduate students develop sustainability solutions to change the world
Penn State graduate students Freddy Magdama and Sarah Eissler teamed up to tackle the problem of diseases killing banana crops. Their project addressed the need to help farmers save their livelihood. Credit: Penn State
Penn State hosts 19 National Science Foundation graduate researchers
Penn State hosts 19 National Science Foundation graduate researchers
Gerald Mahan honored with 2015 International Thermoelectric Society Outstanding Achievement in Thermoelectrics Award
Gerald Mahan
Quantum computing advance locates neutral atoms
Neutral atom qubits don't take up much space and they don't interact with each other unless they are told to. Credit: iStock Photo monsitj
NSF funds Industry/University Center for Atomically Thin Coatings
Image of an atomically thin coating. Image: M. Breshnehan
New Milky Way Map Reveals Stars in Our Galaxy Move Far from Home
A single frame from an animation shows how stellar orbits in the Milky Way can change. It shows two pairs of stars (marked as red and blue) in which each pair started in the same orbit, and then one star in the pair changed orbits. The star marked as red has completed its move into a new orbit, while the star marked in blue is still moving. Credit: Dana Berry / SkyWorks Digital, Inc.; SDSS collaboration
Clump of a star's gas, catapulting into space at 40 million miles per hour, appears to be picking up speed
This artist's drawing and trio of X-ray images from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory illustrate that a clump of stellar material has been jettisoned away from a double-star system at incredibly high speeds. Credit:X-ray: NASA/CXC/PSU/G.Pavlov et al; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
2D materials researchers aim 'beyond graphene': In the realm of 2D materials, weirdness works
Each of these triangular pieces of material is a monolayer of tungsten disulfide. Under some conditions, as seen here, these monolayers emit red light. Image: The Terrones group, Penn State University
Jane Charlton selected as Penn State Teaching Fellow
Jane Charlton
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