nanoscale views

Five years ago, there was a controversy in the pages of Nature regarding this paper from 1993, the first to claim atomic-resolution chemica...

Summer blogging has been and will continue to be light, as I try to get some professional writing done. In the meantime, though, I have to ...

I am interested in reading good books or review articles on two particular topics, and I'm hoping that by "crowd-sourcing" to ...

I returned late last week from Germany, where I spoke at a summer school . One fun part of the trip was a tour of the main experimental fac...

As I get ready to head to Germany for my first ever experience lecturing at a Max Planck summer school, I wanted to point out very briefly t...

Improved batteries would be of enormous benefit and utility in many sectors of technology.  A factor of 10 improvement in battery capacity (...

Just in case anyone out there has or is a promising candidate, I wanted to point out that Rice University is looking for a new clean room fa...

I'll get back to physics shortly.  These two articles ( here and here ) explain how, in exchange for $1.5M in donations, the Florida St...

Finally, after only 45 years from conception to publication of results , Gravity Probe B has announced (dramatic pause) that Einstein's...

Sorry about the delay in this posting.  Real life has been busy. Solar energy is an obvious candidate for a long-term solution to many of ...

It might be fun to do a few posts on how nanoscale science can be used to the benefit of our energy concerns.  First, let me specify what I ...

On multiple blogs over the last few months, I've read comments from lay-persons (that is, nonscientists) that say, in essence, "As ...

In the limit of clean surfaces, friction has its origins in the microscopic, chemical interactions at the interface between the two objects ...

I get it - we need to fix the structural problems associated with the US budget.  However, don't these geniuses realize that threatenin...

I had a request a while ago for a post about how to choose a postdoctoral position (from the point of view of a finishing-up grad student, I...

Designing a lab is not trivial, particularly if you have no experience in doing it before.  My new lab (day 2 of the move....) was perhaps t...

Today's the beginning of moving my lab into the new Brockman Hall for Physics here at Rice.  As the week goes on, if I have time I'l...

Two unrelated topics.  First, blogger needs to get their act together regarding comment spam.  They have some attempt at automatic spam dete...

I had to cut my March Meeting a bit short this year, to get back to Rice in time for the dedication of our new Brockman Hall for Physics .  ...

A few brief thoughts at the APS March Meeting (more later....) in Dallas: First time I've ever been at a convention center with a grave...