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Physics and Matter News - March 2010 Archives
An experiment led by a University of Alberta researcher, at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, could dramatically change our concepts of basic physics, revolutionize our understanding of the Universe and could eventually lead to technologies in future generations that right now only exist in science fiction.
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 | Using the latest in aberration-corrected electron microscopy, researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and their colleagues have obtained the first images that distinguish individual light atoms such as boron, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. ...> Full Article |
Self-repairing materials within nuclear reactors may one day become a reality as a result of research by Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists. In a paper appearing today in the journal Science, Los Alamos researchers report a surprising mechanism that allows nanocrystalline materials to heal themselves after suffering radiation-induced damage.
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Physicists at New York University have created "handshaking" particles that link together based on their shape rather than randomly. Their work marks the first time scientists have succeeded in "programming" particles to join in this manner and offers a type of architecture that could enhance the creation of synthetic materials.
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 | Controlling x-rays with ultrashort slices of light is a step toward controlling how matter behaves, shaping x-rays with other x-rays, and eventually directing the paths chemical reactions can take. Working with the femtosecond beamline at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Advanced Light Source, a team of scientists shows how it can be done. ...> Full Article |
Complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology is used today in all forms of electronic devices. However power dissipation and variability, saturation of device performance, are two major issues the market will need to overcome as it continues to scale down its devices. In a new study published in Nature Materials, Kang L.Wang, professor of electrical engineering at UCLA and his team report on the creation of a new material incorporating spintronics that could lead to a new generation of devices.
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 | New insights into the Big Bang, the mysterious properties of dark matter and perhaps even extra dimensions in the universe could be discovered by the Large Hadron Collider, the world's highest-energy particle accelerator. ...> Full Article |
 | "Cold fusion," a controversial energy source once relegated to the scientific equivalent of banishment to Siberia, is now moving closer toward acceptance by the mainstream scientific community. A special two-day symposium entitled "New Energy Technology" will include 46 oral presentations on this topic and more than a dozen posters -- among the largest presentations of their kind to date -- March 22-23 at the American Chemical Society's 239th National Meeting. ...> Full Article |
 | Desktop experiments could point the way to dark matter discovery, complementing grand astronomical searches and deep underground observations. According to recent theoretical results, small blocks of matter on a tabletop could reveal elusive properties of the as-yet-unidentified dark matter particles that make up a quarter of the universe. This finding was announced today by theorists from the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science, a joint institute of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University. ...> Full Article |
 | A team led by Princeton University scientists has tested Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity to see if it holds true at cosmic scales. And, after two years of analyzing astronomical data, the scientists have concluded that Einstein's theory, which describes the interplay between gravity, space and time, works as well in vast distances as in more local regions of space. ...> Full Article |
 | In an attempt to explain away invisible dark matter and dark energy, some theorists have offered modified theories of gravity that try to improve on Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. A new study based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and inspired by the work of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory cosmologist Uros Seljak indicates that at least one of these alternate theories is wrong. ...> Full Article |
The March Meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) -- the largest physics meeting of the year -- will take place from March 15-19, 2010 in Portland, Ore., at the Oregon Convention Center and the Hilton Portland and Executive Tower Hotel.
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 | A team of physicists headed by Christian Roos and Rainer Blatt from the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences realize a quantum walk in a quantum system with up to 23 steps. It is the first time that this quantum process using trapped ions is demonstrated in detail. ...> Full Article |
 | A German-Spanish research group, split between the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching and the Institute of Photonic Sciences, is using the principles of an iconic quantum mechanics thought experiment -- Schrödinger's superpositioned cat -- to test for quantum properties in objects composed of as many as one billion atoms, possibly including the flu virus. ...> Full Article |
 | New experiments show that it's possible to focus light through opaque materials and detect objects hidden behind them, provided you know enough about the material. ...> Full Article |
Friction in human relations is all too obvious and prevalent, but friction in physics has had a "secret life" of its own that has now been revealed by scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
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 | Ten Kent State University researchers are part of a team of international scientists who have discovered the most massive antinucleus discovered to date. They are part of an international team of scientists studying high-energy collision of gold ions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collidor, a 2.4 mile-circumference particle accelerator at the US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y. ...> Full Article |
 | A worldwide team of researchers, including 10 from Texas A&M University, have for the first time created a particle that is believed to have been in existence immediately after the creation of the universe -- the so-called "Big Bang" -- and it could lead to new questions and answers about some of the basic laws of physics because in essence, it creates a new form of matter. ...> Full Article |
 | Astronomers from the United States and Europe have used a gravitational lens -- a distant, light-bending clump of dark matter -- to make a new estimate of the Hubble constant, which determines the size and age of the universe. ...> Full Article |
 | Princeton engineers have made a breakthrough in an 80-year-old quandary in quantum physics, paving the way for the development of new materials that could make electronic devices smaller and cars more energy efficient. ...> Full Article |
 | Using large-scale supercomputer calculations, researchers have analyzed how the placement of metallic contacts on graphene changes the electron transport properties of the material as a factor of junction length, width and orientation. ...> Full Article |
 | Subatomic particles called neutrons are poised to play a big role in fighting HIV, slowing global warming, and improving manufacturing processes. The reason: They are the focus of a process called neutron scattering that provides unprecedented ways to study the chemistry of a wide range of important materials, including coal and biological cells, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News, ACS' weekly news magazine. ...> Full Article |
Scientists offer new insights into dark matter, for more than 70 years as mysterious and unknowable a subject to science as the legendary island of Atlantis has been to history.
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