When light strikes a metallic array of tiny openings, smaller than the wavelength of the light itself, interesting entities known as plasmons may be created. An electromagnetic phenomenon like light itself, the plasmons are waves of electrons that move on the surface of a material like ripples on a pond, but they can oscillate back and forth at the frequency of the incoming light. Like water ripples on a pond surface, plasmons travel in the plane of the metal but with a wavelength smaller, sometimes considerably smaller, than the original light.

Methamphetamine exposure in young adults may lead to long-term behavioral consequences later in life. The new work examines the idea that methamphetamine puts young users at risk of developing deficits later in life that are symptomatic of Parkinson's disease in individuals with depletion of glial derived neurotrophic factor, a protein that protects and repairs dopamine in areas of the brain related to movement control. Loss of nerve cells that produce dopamine is a major factor in the disease.

Scientists report that they have rigorously proved that Chinook, the computer program, cannot ever lose.

NASA's twin STEREO spacecraft snap the first 3D portraits of the Sun, revealing holes and loops in the Sun's outer atmosphere