Physical Sciences & Engineering

Lynden Archer to lead Cornell Energy Systems Institute

Lynden Archer, professor of chemical and biolomolecular engineering, is the new director of the Cornell Energy Systems Institute.

Engineers create new architecture for vaporizable electronics

Engineers have demonstrated a new method to remotely vaporize electronics, giving devices and data the ability to vanish.

Across the universe, fast radio bursts ‘shout and twist’

Astronomers have found that the Cornell-discovered fast radio burst FRB 121102 – from 3 billion light years away – passes through magnetized plasma, causing the cosmic blasts to “shout and twist.”

Saturn's moon Titan sports Earth-like features

In two new papers, Cornell researchers find several insights into the topography of Saturn's moon, Titan. 

Physicists take first step toward cell-sized robots

A group led by physics professors Paul McEuen and Itai Cohen has made nanometer-scale machines from graphene and glass, which could be used for sensing, interfacing with electronics and more.

Research reveals ‘shocking’ weakness of lab courses

Researchers from Cornell and Stanford find that introductory physics labs as currently structured don't help students learn physics.

Removable implant may control type 1 diabetes

In an example of cross-campus collaboration, a group led by Minglin Ma has developed a unique implant for controlling type 1 diabetes, which affects more than 1 million Americans.

Randomness a key in spread of disease, other ‘evil’

Mathematician Steve Strogatz posits an answer to an understood but unexplained medical phenomena: The incubation periods of many diseases follow a similar "lognormal" pattern.

Imaging tool could find early signs of arterial plaque

Using multi-photon microscopy developed at Cornell, a group led by Nozomi Nishimura has shown the ability to produce detailed, 3-D images of atherosclerotic plaque.