Physics and Matter News Archives Page 4

New 'snapshots' aid quest for fusion energy (3/1/2008)

Physicists at MIT and the University of Rochester have devised a new way to take "snapshots" of the high-energy, high-temperature reactions seen as key to achieving the long-held dream of controlled nuclear fusion. ...> Full Article

'Two-Faced' Particles Act Like Tiny Submarines in Study (2/29/2008)

For the first time, researchers at North Carolina State University have demonstrated that microscopic "two-faced" spheres whose halves are physically or chemically different - so-called Janus particles - will move like stealthy submarines when an alternating electrical field is applied to liquid surrounding the particles. ...> Full Article

Physicists compete against, collaborate with each other in search for dark matter (2/28/2008)

A race is on in Case Western Reserve University's physics department and around the world to be the first research group to capture signals from WIMPs (weakly interactive massive particles)-the substance that comprises dark matter. ...> Full Article

Physicists Unravel Five Decade-Old Mystery Surrounding Carbon-14 Dating (2/27/2008)

The mystery has dogged scientists for 50 years about why carbon-14 dating works. And now, physicist Ruprecht Machleidt and a team of researchers have helped close a gap in the theory of carbon dating that has, until now, gone unsolved. ...> Full Article

By color-coding atoms, new electron microscope promises big advance in materials analysis (2/26/2008)

A new electron microscope recently installed in Cornell's Duffield Hall is enabling scientists for the first time to form images that uniquely identify individual atoms in a crystal and see how those atoms bond to one another. And in living color. ...> Full Article

Structure of protein collagen seen at unprescedented level of detail (2/24/2008)

The structure and behavior of one of the most common proteins in our bodies has been resolved at a level of detail never before seen ...> Full Article

Most powerful supercomputer in the world built in Texas (2/23/2008)

Ranger, the most powerful supercomputing system in the world and one in which Arizona State University researchers played a key role in its development and operation, was dedicated Feb. 22 in a ceremony at the University of Texas-Austin. The $59 million computer project is led by UT-Austin and funded through the National Science Foundation (NSF). ...> Full Article

Cosmic ray effect on microchips benefits from accelerated neutron testing (2/21/2008)

Neutron scientists are tackling the challenge of cosmic radiation and its damaging effect on sensitive microchips in the aviation industry in the drive to develop more robust electronic equipment. Accelerated testing of microelectronic components at the Science and Technology Facilities Council's (STFC) world leading ISIS neutron research centre replicates the effect of thousands of hours of flying time in just a few minutes. ...> Full Article

Experiment Tightens Limits On Dark Matter: Physicists Revive Bubble Chamber Technology To Search For WIMPs (2/21/2008)

Scientists working on the COUPP experiment at the Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory have announced a new development in the quest to observe dark matter. The Chicagoland Observatory for Underground Particle Physics experiment tightened constraints on the "spin-dependent" properties of WIMPS, weakly interacting massive particles that are candidates for dark matter. Their results, combined with the findings of other dark matter searches, contradict the claims for the observation of such particles by the Dark Matter experiment (DAMA) in Italy and further restrict the hunting ground for physicists to track their dark matter quarry. ...> Full Article

New X-ray technique may lead to better, cleaner fuel injectors for automobiles (2/20/2008)

Standard microscopy and visible light imaging techniques cannot peer into the dark and murky centers of dense-liquid jets, which has hindered scientists in their quest for a full understanding of liquid breakup in devices such as automobile fuel injectors. ...> Full Article

Physicist to describe strange world of quarks, gluons (2/19/2008)

One of the great theoretical challenges facing physicists is understanding how the tiniest elementary particles give rise to most of the mass in the visible universe. ...> Full Article

Scientists help create a key piece of one of the world's most powerful cameras (2/17/2008)

A team of Purdue University researchers and students built a piece of one of the world's most powerful cameras that will provide information about the universe and physical laws that govern existence. ...> Full Article

New laser beam believed to set record for intensity (2/16/2008)

If you could hold a giant magnifying glass in space and focus all the sunlight shining toward Earth onto one grain of sand, that concentrated ray would approach the intensity of a new laser beam made in a University of Michigan laboratory. ...> Full Article

New Experimental Atomic Clock Surpasses Accuracy Of Current U.S. Standard Time Clock (2/15/2008)

A next-generation atomic clock developed by researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado at Boulder has been shown to be accurate to within one second over 200 million years, surpassing the accuracy of the current U.S. time standard atomic clock more than two-fold. ...> Full Article

Researcher reveals superconducting surprise (2/14/2008)

A better understanding of material could bring 'endless applications' ...> Full Article

Researchers hear the sound of quantum drums (2/9/2008)

Forty years ago, mathematician Mark Kac asked the theoretical question, "Can one hear the shape of a drum?" ...> Full Article

Scientists make breakthrough in single-molecule sensing (2/8/2008)

Simultaneous optical and electronic measurements on same molecule ...> Full Article

Particle Accelerator: Signals Sent Racing Ahead At Light Speed To Keep Particles Colliding (2/7/2008)

Imagine trying to catch up to something moving close to the speed of light - the fastest anything can move - and sending ahead information in time to make mid-path flight corrections. Impossible? Not quite. Physicists at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a particle accelerator at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, have achieved this tricky task - and the results may save the Lab money and time in their quest to understand the inner workings of the early universe. ...> Full Article

'T-ray' breakthrough signals next generation of security sensors (2/5/2008)

A new generation of sensors for detecting explosives and poisons could be developed following new research into a type of radiation known as T-rays ...> Full Article

New Technique Makes Tissues Transparent (2/4/2008)

If humans had see-through skin like a jellyfish, spotting disease like cancer would be a snap: Just look, and see a tumor form or grow. ...> Full Article

Taking ULTRA molecular fingerprints (2/3/2008)

A new laser under development at the Science and Technology Facilities Council's (STFC) Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire will enable UK bio scientists to monitor biological processes at a millionth of a millionth of a second. ...> Full Article

Hidden art could be revealed by new terahertz device (2/3/2008)

Like X-rays let doctors see the bones beneath our skin, "T-rays" could let art historians see murals hidden beneath coats of plaster or paint in centuries-old buildings, University of Michigan engineering researchers say. ...> Full Article

Researchers Use Musical Chords To Analyze And Illustrate Hydrogen Molecule's Response To Laser Pulses (2/2/2008)

For Kansas State University physics professor Uwe Thumm, confirmation of a theory about the behavior of small molecules became music to his ears -- literally. He and colleagues in Heidelberg, Germany, have shown how a hydrogen molecule responds to laser pulses by using the changing musical chord created by the molecule's vibrational motion. ...> Full Article

Squeezed Crystals Deliver More Volts Per Jolt (2/1/2008)

A discovery by scientists at the Carnegie Institution has opened the door to a new generation of piezoelectric materials that can convert mechanical strain into electricity and vice versa, potentially cutting costs and boosting performance in myriad applications ranging from medical diagnostics to green energy technologies. ...> Full Article

Particle accelerator may reveal shape of alternate dimensions (1/31/2008)

When the world's most powerful particle accelerator starts up later this year, exotic new particles may offer a glimpse of the existence and shapes of extra dimensions. ...> Full Article

Magnetism loses under pressure (1/30/2008)

Scientists have discovered that the magnetic strength of magnetite-the most abundant magnetic mineral on Earth-declines drastically when put under pressure. Researchers from the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory, together with colleagues at the Advanced Photon Source of Argonne National Laboratory, have found that when magnetite is subjected to pressures between 120,000 and 160,000 times atmospheric pressure its magnetic strength declines by half ...> Full Article

Heat Pumps 'Go With The Flow' To Boost Output (1/30/2008)

Air-source heat pumps typically deliver 1 1/2 to three times more heating energy to a home than the electric energy they consume. This is possible because heat pumps move heat rather than convert it from a fuel (as combustion heating systems do). National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers are working to improve the performance of these energy superstars even further by providing engineers with computer-based tools for optimizing heat exchanger designs. ...> Full Article

Manchester physicist gets to grips with gravity (1/29/2008)

A physicist from The University of Manchester will appear on national television today (Tuesday 29 January 2008), tackling a question that has baffled the world's greatest scientists for over 400 years - what is gravity? ...> Full Article

Scientists propose test of string theory based on neutral hydrogen absorption (1/29/2008)

Ancient light absorbed by neutral hydrogen atoms could be used to test certain predictions of string theory, say cosmologists at the University of Illinois. Making the measurements, however, would require a gigantic array of radio telescopes to be built on Earth, in space or on the moon. ...> Full Article

Physicist challenges cosmic theory (1/27/2008)

Revisiting the foundations of cosmology has led Dr David Wiltshire (Physics and Astronomy) to an exciting discovery that could solve the "biggest problem" in cosmology - dark energy. ...> Full Article