Phone batteries dying, spiderwebs of power cords — powering mobile technology can be pretty annoying for the average iPhone or iPad user.  But it’s ever more annoying — not to mention potentially dangerous — if you’re a soldier on patrol in Afghanistan losing juice on a critical gadget. Yes, troops in the field use their fair share of handheld gear, too. Now, the Pentagon is hoping to give them a power up with a wireless charging system.

Darpa, the Defense Department’s advanced research shop, announced Wednesday that they’re looking to build a short-range wireless power transmission system for...

This is the way the world ends: not with a bang but a higher harmonic generation.

The same researchers who used exotic substances called metamaterials to make a benchtop Big Bang have mimicked the end of time, also known as the Big Crunch.

Light traveling through metamaterials is described mathematically by equations used to describe space and time, allowing physicists to probe cosmic questions in a controlled manner.

In this experiment, the photons underwent a “higher harmonic generation,” or a sudden rise in frequency and energy. Put another way, “the end of time looks very hot,” said electri...