physicist news stories on Newser

Physicist Gets Out of Ticket With 4-Page Paper

Evann Gastaldo — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:38:23 CDT

Dmitri Krioukov is a physicist at UC San Diego, so when he got pulled over for failure to stop at a stop sign, he knew what to do: write a four-page paper explaining how his alleged offense was simply not possible according to the laws of physics. Krioukov's paper utilized...

Accused Los Alamos Physicist Now Under House Arrest

Nick McMaster — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:21:46 CDT

The Los Alamos physicist and his wife accused of trying to peddle nuclear secrets to Venezuela were released to house arrest today, the AP reports. While under the impression that he was in touch with agents of Hugo Chavez's government, Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni is charged with offering to help Venezuela...

Hadron Collider Physicist Admits He Was Al-Qaeda Mole

Mary Papenfuss — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:43:06 CDT

A top-level nuclear physicist working on the Hadron Collider has admitted being an Al-Qaeda spy, French officials are reporting. Adlène Hicheur, 32, is expected to be charged today after investigators discovered he suggested targets to the terror organization, reports the Independent . French officials believe the Stanford University Ph.D. was...

After 4 Decades, Physicist Solves Mystery of Moon Dust

Matt Cantor — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 08:26:00 CDT

Moon dust has been a “bloody nuisance” to NASA for decades, says a physicist: it sticks to spacesuits, clogs instruments, and could be a health risk for future colonists. Scientists believe the stickiness is due to a positive charge from the sun’s rays, NASA says. Now the physicist, 75 and...

Obama Picks Physicist as Science Adviser

Matt Cantor — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:48:00 CST

Barack Obama will appoint Harvard physicist John P. Holdren as science adviser this weekend, pointing to an expanded role for science in the next administration, the Boston Globe reports. Holdren is versed in energy, climate change, and nuclear proliferation. Coming on the heels of Nobel laureate Steven Chu’s nomination as...

Experts: Warp Drive Is Possible

Rob Quinn — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 05:20:26 CDT

Two physicists believe the fictional "warp drive" of Star Trek fame could someday become a reality, the Daily Telegraph reports. The scientists theorize that a mysterious cosmic force called dark energy could be harnessed to warp space around a vessel, allowing a spacecraft to travel faster than light—"like a...

MIT Scientists Pull the Plug on Electricity

Dustin Lushing — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 05:30:47 CDT

Researchers at MIT are getting ready to pull the power cord on your laptop, with wireless electricity—dubbed WiTricity—that would recharge everything from cell phones to iPods from 15 feet away. The team recently lit a 60-watt bulb from 7 feet off, using a carefully designed magnetic field, the...