news 2017

Dark matter, a mysterious form of matter that makes up about 80 percent of the mass of the universe, has evaded detection for decades. Although it doesn't interact with light, scientists believe it's there because of its influence on galaxies and galaxy clusters. It extends far beyond the reach of the furthest stars in galaxies, forming what scientists call a dark matter halo.

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have shown for the first time that dark fiber - the vast network of unused fiber-optic cables installed throughout the country and the world - can be used as sensors for detecting earthquakes, the presence of groundwater, changes in permafrost conditions, and a variety of other subsurface activity.

Molecular electronics is a growing research area where scientists study electrical properties of the molecules with a chemically programmed function. Molecules can function as diodes, switches and transistors, all with a typical length of few nanometers. An international group of scientists from University of Bern, Leiden University, Delft University of Technology, and Chuo University has developed the first switchable molecular diode.

Plasmas, gas-like collections of ions and electrons, make up an estimated 99 percent of the visible matter in the universe, including the sun, the stars, and the gaseous medium that permeates the space in between. Most of these plasmas, including the solar wind that constantly flows out from the sun and sweeps through the solar system, exist in a turbulent state.

By forcing light to go through a smaller gap than ever before, researchers have paved the way for computers based on light instead of electronics. Light is desirable for use in computing because it can carry a higher density of information and is much faster and more efficient than conventional electronics.

The first study to compare ancient and living female bones shows the routine manual labour of women during early agricultural eras was more gruelling than the physical demands of rowing in Cambridge University's famously competitive boat clubs. Researchers von der University of Cambridge und der Anthropologe Ron Pinhasi von der Universität Wien say the findings suggest a "hidden history" of women's work stretching across millennia.

A team of scientists working at the University of Bristol have developed a new nanomapping microscope - powered by the laser and optics found in a typical DVD player. The new technology is being used to transform the way disease-causing genetic mutations are diagnosed and discovered. This microscope maps hundreds of chemically barcoded DNA molecules every second in a technique developed in collaboration with a team of US scientists led by Professor Jason Reed at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Dropping a smartphone on its glass screen, which is made of atoms jammed together with no discernible order, could result in it shattering. Unlike metals and other crystalline material, glass and many other disordered solids cannot be deformed significantly before failing and, because of their lack of crystalline order, it is difficult to predict which atoms would change during failure.

BERKELEY, CA / ARGONNE, IL - A team of Department of Energy (DOE) scientists at the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) has discovered the fastest magnesium-ion solid-state conductor, a major step towards making solid-state magnesium-ion batteries that are both energy dense and safe. The electrolyte, which carries charge back and forth between the battery's cathode and anode, is a liquid in all commercial batteries, which makes them potentially flammable, especially in lithium-ion batteries.

Quantum devices allow us to accomplish computing and sensing tasks that go beyond the capabilities of their classical counterparts. However, protecting quantum information from being corrupted by errors is difficult. An international team of researchers from Innsbruck, Harvard, Copenhagen and Waterloo put forward a new method to protect quantum information stored in trapped ions.

MIT researchers have developed a new system that could potentially be used for converting power plant emissions of carbon dioxide into useful fuels for cars, trucks, and planes, as well as into chemical feedstocks for a wide variety of products. The new membrane-based system was developed by MIT postdoc Xiao-Yu Wu and Ahmed Ghoniem, the Ronald C. Crane Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and is described in a paper in the journal ChemSusChem .

The IceCube Laboratory at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, in Antarctica, hosts the computers collecting raw data. Due to satellite bandwidth allocations, the first level of reconstruction and event filtering happens in near real-time in this lab. Only events selected as interesting for physics studies are sent to UW-Madison, where they are prepared for use by any member of the IceCube Collaboration.

The world of an atom is one of random chaos and heat. At room temperatures, a cloud of atoms is a frenzied mess, with atoms zipping past each other and colliding,  constantly changing their direction and speed. Such random motions can be slowed, and even stopped entirely, by drastically cooling the atoms.

IceCube has measured for the first time the probability that neutrinos are absorbed by Earth as a function of their energy and the amount of matter that they go through. This measurement of the neutrino cross section using Earth absorption has confirmed predictions from the Standard Model to energies up to 980 TeV.

Famously, neutrinos, the nearly massless particles that are a fundamental component of the universe, can zip through a million miles of lead without skipping a beat. Now, in a critical measurement that may one day help predict new physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics - the model that seeks to explain the fundamental forces of the universe - an international team of researchers with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory has shown how energized neutrinos can be stopped cold as they pass through the Earth.

Picture a grasshopper landing randomly on a lawn of fixed area. If it then jumps a certain distance in a random direction, what shape should the lawn be to maximise the chance that the grasshopper stays on the lawn after jumping? The grasshopper problem is a rather nice one, as it helps us try out techniques for the physics problems we really want to get to.

When bonding two pieces of metal, either the metals must melt a bit where they meet or some molten metal must be introduced between the pieces. A solid bond then forms when the metal solidifies again. But researchers at MIT have found that in some situations, melting can actually inhibit metal bonding rather than promote it.

In the outer atmosphere of the Sun a form of turbulence has been discovered that has always been considered impossible: the turbulence is not caused by colliding waves, but by waves moving into the same direction. With the discovery of this phenomenon - called 'uniturbulence' - a number of KU Leuven mathematicians have earned their place in the physics handbooks for future generations.

Pop the top off a can of mixed nuts and, chances are, Brazil nuts will be at the top. This phenomenon, of large particles tending to rise to the top of mixtures while small particles tend to sink down, is popularly known as the "Brazil nut effect" and more technically as granular segregation. Look down at the top of a riverbed and it's easy to draw a parallel: the top of a riverbed is typically lined with larger cobbles, while finer sand and small gravel particles make up the deeper layers.