Phys.org, Author at Spotlight Magazine

Why eating cheap chocolate can feel embarrassing, even though no one else cares

It’s February, and you grab a box of cheap Valentine’s chocolate from the grocery store on your lunch break. Later, you’re eating it at your office desk when you realize someone else is watching. Suddenly, […]

Forget flowers: Lovers in 18th- and 19th-century Ireland exchanged hair

In 18th- and 19th-century Ireland, it was common for courting couples to exchange gifts to mark their developing relationships. Many of these items are familiar gifts today: books, cards, items of clothing, jewelry and sweet […]

New 3D-printing and manufacturing techniques grant more control over energetic material behavior

Much like baking the perfect cake involves following a list of ingredients and instructions, manufacturing energetic materials—explosives, pyrotechnics and propellants—requires precise formulations, conditions and procedures to ensure they are safe and perform as intended.This post […]

What’s in a name? Information structure parallels discovered across cultures—with repercussions for Asian names

First names in Western countries today are more diverse than they were before early modern states evolved. This difference started to emerge in the 17th century in response to a change that took place in […]

New dataset reveals how US law has grown more complex over the past century

A century ago, the section of U.S. federal law governing public health and welfare was relatively small and loosely connected to the rest of the legal system. Today, it is one of the largest and […]

A forgotten battery design from Thomas Edison—how scientists helped reimagine it

A little-known fact: In the year 1900, electric cars outnumbered gas-powered ones on the American road. The lead-acid auto battery of the time, courtesy of Thomas Edison, was expensive and had a range of only […]

Old galaxies in a young universe?

The standard cosmological model (present-day version of “Big Bang,” called Lambda-CDM) gives an age of the universe close to 13.8 billion years and much younger when we explore the universe at high-redshift. The redshift of […]

Scaling-up global solar panel manufacturing sustainably

As solar energy rapidly expands to meet urgent climate targets and increasing demand for electricity, the key challenge is to ensure that this transition is not just scalable but sustainable. Pioneering research led by Northumbria […]

‘Increase’ framing makes research results seem bigger and more important, experiments show

Scientific findings are in the news. They’re cited on food packages and beverage labels. They are discussed in podcasts and argued over by politicians and pundits. And each finding sits within a specific frame. If […]

Social media feeds: Algorithm redesign could break echo chambers and reduce online polarization

Scroll through social media long enough and a pattern emerges. Pause on a post questioning climate change or taking a hard line on a political issue, and the platform is quick to respond—serving up more […]