Physics and Matter News - March 2009 Archives
Chemists at the University of Illinois have created a simple and inexpensive molecular technique that replaces an expensive atomic force microscope for studying what happens to small molecules when they are stretched or compressed.
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 | New experimental results on the behavior of ultracold, two-dimensional gases reported by physicists at the Joint Quantum Institute may help clarify the mysterious phenomenon called "superfluidity" -- frictionless flow. ...> Full Article |
 | Though a year has passed since the discovery of a new family of high-temperature superconductors, a viable explanation for the iron-based materials' unusual properties remains elusive. But a team of scientists working at NIST may be close to the answer. ...> Full Article |
A novel system is enabling high energy physicists at CERN in Switzerland, to make production runs that integrate their existing pool of distributed computers with dynamic resources in "science clouds." The work was presented at the 17th annual conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics, held in Prague, Czech Republic, March 21-27.
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Michigan Tech physicists decode hidden properties of the rare Earths
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Physicists from 35 countries and nearly 200 institutions are coming to Knoxville, Tenn., March 30-April 4, for the International Conference on Ultra-Relativistic Nucleus Collisions, hosted by the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
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 | Researchers are reporting compelling new scientific evidence for the existence of low-energy nuclear reactions, the process once called "cold fusion" that may promise a new source of energy. Scientists describe what they term the first clear visual evidence that LENR devices can produce neutrons, which scientists view as tell-tale signs of nuclear fusion reactions. Their study is scheduled for presentation in March at the 237th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society. ...> Full Article |
 | Scientists of the CDF experiment at the Department of Energy's Fermilab announced yesterday, March 17, that they have found evidence of an unexpected particle whose curious characteristics may reveal new ways that quarks can combine to form matter. The CDF physicists have called the particle Y(4140), reflecting its measured mass of 4140 Mega-electron volts. Physicists did not predict its existence because Y(4140) appears to flout nature's known rules for fitting quarks and antiquarks together. ...> Full Article |
They are at present the most accurate clocks in the world: caesium fountain clocks furnish the second accurate to 15 places after the decimal point. Until they reach this accuracy, caesium fountain clocks, however, need a certain measurement time. This time has now been considerably reduced with the aid of a new method developed at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt which makes the output frequency of the caesium fountains more stable.
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Using rigorous computer calculations, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the Carnegie Institution of Washington have established evidence that supercooled silicon experiences a liquid-liquid phase transition, where at a certain temperature two different states of liquid silicon exist. The two states each have unique properties that could be used to develop new silicon-based materials. Furthermore, the methods developed can be applied to gain a better understanding of other materials.
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 | Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have proposed theoretical models to explain the normal magnetic properties in iron-based superconductors. This research was published in the Dec. 21, 2008 issue of Nature Physics. Their research builds on earlier research they conducted proposing a theoretical model for superconductivity in newly discovered iron-based superconductors. ...> Full Article |
Theory makes predictions about latest high-temp superconductor
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Scientists of the DZero collaboration at the Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory have achieved the world's most precise measurement of the mass of the W boson by a single experiment. Combined with other measurements, the reduced uncertainty of the W boson mass will lead to stricter bounds on the mass of the elusive Higgs boson.
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Discovery may advance diesel engine efficiency and emissions
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The Sherman Fairchild Foundation has awarded $3.1 million to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to support the Caltech-Cornell Program for Simulation of eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) through 2013.
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 | Brown physicists have played a key role in observing particle collisions that produce a single top quark, one of the fundamental constituents of matter. The discovery was announced Monday by scientists of the CDF and DZero collaborations at the Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Meenaskhi Narain, a Brown physics professor who has been involved with DZero since the early 1990s, said the finding is "kind of a dream come true." ...> Full Article |
Research led by the University of Warwick has found a way to use doughnuts shaped by-products of quantum dots to slow and even freeze light, opening up a wide range of possibilities from reliable and effective light based computing to the possibility of "slow glass."
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 | New technology presented at world's largest optical communication conference produces better sources of white light ...> Full Article |
In quantum mechanics, a vanguard of physics where science often merges into philosophy, much of our understanding is based on conjecture and probabilities, but a group of researchers in Japan has moved one of the fundamental paradoxes in quantum mechanics into the lab for experimentation and observed some of the "spooky action of quantum mechanics" directly.
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New species of ancient crocodile discovered
Kitchen gadget inspires scientist to make more effective plastic electronics
Making memories last
Ferroelectric switching discovered for first time in soft biological tissue
Forensic research extends detection of cyanide poisoning
The wild early lives of today's most massive galaxies
What really happened prior to 'Snowball Earth'?
Shakespeare's skill 'more in grammar than in words'
Detailed picture of how myoV 'walks' along actin tracks
Need muscle for a tough spot? Turn to fat stem cells
Earth's energy budget remained out of balance despite unusually low solar activity
Pictures of food create feelings of hunger
Mighty mesh
Sweeten up your profits with the right hybrid
Patterns of antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in Galapagos reptiles
Bilayer graphene works as an insulator
Patterns of chromosome abnormality: The key to cancer?
Advantages of living in the dark: The multiple evolution events of 'blind' cavefish
Snakes improve search-and-rescue robots
Enhancing cognition in older adults also changes personality
Magnetic actuation enables nanoscale thermal analysis
A new artificial intelligence technique to speed the planning of tasks when resources are limited
'Tiger mothers' should tame parenting approach
Film coatings made from whey
Growing US violent extremism by the numbers
If a fat tax is coming, here's how to make it efficient, effective
Bobsled runs -- fast and yet safe
Fruit fly intestine may hold secret to the fountain of youth
Bright lights of purity
How seawater could corrode nuclear fuel
Does antimatter weigh more, less or the same as matter?
Scientists create first atomic X-ray laser
Jupiter's 'Trojans' on an atomic scale
World's longest superconductor cable