news 2013
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Teams with citizen scientists to solve space mystery
Competition in the Quantum World
Brain training and stimulation improves mental arithmetic ability
Catching graphene butterflies
Billion-year-old water could hold clues to life on Earth and Mars
Observation of Second Sound in a Quantum Gas
Domestic production of medical isotope Mo-99 moves a step closer
New Method of Finding Planets Scores its First Discovery
Pear shaped atomic nuclei
First observations of short-lived pear-shaped atomic nuclei
Exotic atoms hold clues to unsolved physics puzzle at the dawn of the universe
The fluorescent future of solar cells
Tiny Magnets as a Model System
Oxford academics honoured by the Royal Society
Physics
Results 161 - 180 of 266.
Physics - Chemistry - 24.05.2013
Helicopter-light-beams - a new tool for quantum optics
A light wave oscillates perpendicular to its propagation direction - that is what students learn in school. However, scientists of the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) now perform atom-physics experiments with light oscillating in the longitudinal direction. Storing light in a bottle is easier than one might think: Laser light can be coupled into an optical glass fiber in such a way that it does not travel along the fiber but rather spirals around it in a bulged, bottle-like section.
Astronomy / Space - Physics - 23.05.2013

Astrophysicist works with amateur astronomers to confirm theory about light bursts from binary star 370 light-years from Earth. A University of Alberta physicist brought together backyard astronomers and professionals to confirm the mysterious behaviour of two stars more than 300 light-years from Earth.
Physics - 22.05.2013

Innsbruck physicists led by Rainer Blatt and Peter Zoller experimentally gained a deep insight into the nature of quantum mechanical phase transitions. They are the first scientists that simulated the competition between two rival dynamical processes at a novel type of transition between two quantum mechanical orders.
Life Sciences - Physics - 17.05.2013

With just a few days of non-harmful brain stimulation and brain training, scientists have improved people's ability to manipulate numbers for up to six months. In new research, scientists at the University of Oxford and UCL suggest that applying non-invasive stimulation, called transcranial random noise stimulation (TRNS), to the brain can improve its function.
Physics - Electroengineering - 16.05.2013
Stacking 2-D materials produces surprising results
New experiments reveal previously unseen effects, could lead to new kinds of electronics and optical devices. Graphene has dazzled scientists, ever since its discovery more than a decade ago, with its unequalled electronic properties, its strength and its light weight. But one long-sought goal has proved elusive: how to engineer into graphene a property called a band gap, which would be necessary to use the material to make transistors and other electronic devices.
Physics - Computer Science - 16.05.2013

16 May 2013 Wonder material graphene, when combined with other graphene-like materials, paves the way for vast new areas of scientific discovery and previously unheard-of applications, University of Manchester researchers have revealed. Writing in Nature , a large international team led Dr Roman Gorbachev from The University of Manchester shows that, when graphene placed on top of insulating boron nitride, or 'white graphene', the electronic properties of graphene change dramatically revealing a pattern resembling a butterfly.
Astronomy / Space - Physics - 16.05.2013

16 May 2013 A UK-Canadian team of scientists has discovered ancient pockets of water, which have been isolated deep underground for billions of years and contain abundant chemicals known to support life. This water could be some of the oldest on the planet and may even contain life. Not just that, but the similarity between the rocks that trapped it and those on Mars raises the hope that comparable life-sustaining water could lie buried beneath the red planet's surface.
Physics - 15.05.2013

Second sound is a quantum mechanical phenomenon, which has been observed only in superfluid helium. Physicists from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Trento and the National Research Council of Italy, have now proven the propagation of such a temperature wave in a quantum gas.
Health - Physics - 13.05.2013

Irradiated uranium fuel has been recycled and reused for molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) production, with virtually no losses in Mo-99 yields or uranium recovery. Medical isotope production technology has advanced significantly now that scientists have made key advances in separating Mo-99 from an irradiated, low-enriched uranium (LEU) solution.
Physics - Electroengineering - 13.05.2013
Graphene joins the race to redefine the ampere
A new joint innovation by the University of Cambridge and the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the UK's National Measurement Institute, could pave the way for redefining the ampere in terms of fundamental constants of physics. Graphene is constantly revealing exciting new applications and as our understanding of the material advances rapidly, we seem able to do more and more with it Malcolm Connolly The world's first graphene single-electron pump (SEP), described in a paper , provides the speed of electron flow needed to create a new standard for electrical current based on electron charge.
Astronomy / Space - Physics - 13.05.2013

Cambridge, MA - Detecting alien worlds presents a significant challenge since they are small, faint, and close to their stars. The two most prolific techniques for finding exoplanets are radial velocity (looking for wobbling stars) and transits (looking for dimming stars). A team at Tel Aviv University and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has just discovered an exoplanet using a new method that relies on Einstein's special theory of relativity.
Physics - Electroengineering - 09.05.2013

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have shown that some atomic nuclei can assume the shape of a pear which contributes to our understanding of nuclear structure and the underlying fundamental interactions. Most nuclei that exist naturally are not spherical but have the shape of a rugby ball. While state-of-the-art theories are able to predict this, the same theories have predicted that for some particular combinations of protons and neutrons, nuclei can also assume very asymmetric shapes, like a pear where there is more mass at one end of the nucleus than the other.
Physics - 08.05.2013

A team has shown that some atomic nuclei can assume asymmetric, "pear" shapes. The observations contradict some existing nuclear theories and will require others to be amended. Most nuclei have the shape of a rugby ball. While state-of-the-art theories are able to predict this behaviour, the same theories have predicted that for some particular combinations of protons and neutrons, nuclei can also assume asymmetric shapes, like a pear.
Physics - Astronomy / Space - 08.05.2013

ANN ARBOR-An international team of physicists has found the first direct evidence of pear shaped nuclei in exotic atoms. The findings could advance the search for a new fundamental force in nature that could explain why the Big Bang created more matter than antimatter-a pivotal imbalance in the history of everything.
Physics - Chemistry - 07.05.2013
Another ’trophy’ for the chemistry cabinet
The search for cleaner, low temperature nuclear fuels has produced a shock result for a team of experts at The University of Nottingham. First they created a stable version of a 'trophy molecule' that has eluded scientists for decades. Now they have discovered that the bonding within this molecule is far different than expected.
Chemistry - Physics - 07.05.2013
SDSC Assists in Generating Clean Tech Breakthrough
SDSC's Trestles Used to Develop New Tools for Cleaner Air and Energy Production Using the Trestles supercomputer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, chemists at the University of South Florida (USF) and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have discovered a more efficient, less expensive, and reusable material for carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and separation than is currently used to prevent the greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere.
Chemistry - Physics - 06.05.2013

For some solar cells, the future may be fluorescent. Scientists at Yale have improved the ability of a promising type of solar cell to absorb light and convert it into electrical power by adding a fluorescent organic dye to the cell layer. This squaraine dye boosts light absorption and recycles electrons, improving the conversion of light into energy.
Physics - Materials Science - 05.05.2013

In the microscopic world, everything is in motion: atoms and molecules vibrate, proteins fold, even glass is a slow flowing liquid. And during each movement there are interactions between the smallest elements - for example, the atoms - and their neighbours. To make these movements visible, scientists have developed a special model system.
Physics - Chemistry - 03.05.2013

The Royal Society has elected six Oxford University academics as new Fellows. They are Professor Harry Anderson, Professor Judith Armitage, Professor Gideon Henderson, Professor Christopher Schofield, Professor Andrew Wilkie, and Professor Julia Yeomans. Professor Harry Anderson is a professor in the Department of Chemistry and a fellow of Keble College.
Physics - Mechanical Engineering - 03.05.2013
Unique engineering shop looks to another challenge of 21st century physics
Associate instrument innovators Leland Greenler, left, and Dan Wahl measure the individual tension of thousands of tiny woven wires that make up a prototype neutrino-target screen being designed at the UW-Madison Physical Sciences Lab. Photos: Jeff Miller Sequestered in the farmland near Stoughton, an unusual UW-Madison facility — part machine shop, part design lab, part physics outpost — continues to make machines, equipment and detectors for the world's most advanced experiments.
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