Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is deep, meaning it may persist even though it is shrinking.
A television reporter reacts to being hit by a heat ray during a demonstration of the U.S. military’s Active Denial System.
Paul J. Richards/AFP via Getty Images
Electromagnetic beams of the right power and wavelength can cause pain and zap electronics. Could they also be used to disrupt a person’s nervous system?
Several countries are developing microwave weapons, like this U.S. Air Force system designed to knock down drones by frying their electronics.
AFRL Directed Energy Directorate
High-power microwave weapons are useful for disabling electronics. A new report says they ‘plausibly explain’ some ailments suffered by US diplomats and CIA agents in Cuba, China and other countries.
For 60 years, physicists thought they knew exactly how coherent a laser could get. Now the ultimate quantum limit to laser coherence has been found, and it’s much much bigger than anybody thought.
Mating laser-driven atomic clocks like the one shown here with microwaves promises more accurate electronic devices.
N. Phillips/NIST
Researchers have made some of the most accurate clocks imaginable in recent years, but the trick is harnessing those clocks to electronics. Using lasers to tune microwaves bridges the gap.
The short answer is that it depends on the material the cups and plates are made of, and even what shape they are.
Marcella Cheng/The Conversation
It’s been five decades of microwave popcorn and piping hot leftovers in home kitchens. A serendipitous discovery helped engineers harness radar to create this now ubiquitous timesaving appliance.
Some say cancer-causing chemicals can leak into packaging and into your food.
osseous/Flickr
Crews patch them, just to see these recurrent potholes come back again. New research focuses on microwaves zapping patches to make a more permanent pothole fix.
Scientists knew the mystery signals were close by the Parkes radio telescope: but what was the source?
Flickr/Amanda Slater
Astronomers used to probing the universe always knew that strange signals detected by the Parkes radio telescope were coming from somewhere closer to home. But finding the source was the tricky bit.
How can you turn lukewarm lager to ice-cold beer in under a minute? A startup has developed a nifty gizmo which does just that, saving both energy and embarrassment at parties. Manufacturer Enviro-Cool…