News 2019

A puddle freezing on the sidewalk, your humidifier pumping out water vapor, salt trucks melting icy streets-wintertime in Chicago is full of examples of a physics phenomenon called a "phase transition," in which a material changes state. Physicists are fascinated by this phenomenon, which is useful in technology from the basic steam turbine all the way to MRIs.

The development of technologies which can process information based on the laws of quantum physics are predicted to have profound impacts on modern society. For example, quantum computers may hold the key to solving problems that are too complex for today's most powerful supercomputers, and a quantum internet could ultimately protect the worlds information from malicious attacks.

Atomic clocks are used around the world to precisely tell time. Each "tick" of the clock depends on atomic vibrations and their effects on surrounding electromagnetic fields. Standard atomic clocks in use today, based on the atom cesium, tell time by "counting" radio frequencies. These clocks can measure time to a precision of one second per every hundreds of millions of years.

Breakthrough from Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering lets scientists tailor blue phase crystals Liquid crystals have enabled new technologies, like LCD screens, through their ability to reflect certain color wavelengths. Researchers at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory have developed an innovative way to sculpt a liquid "crystal within a crystal." These new crystals could be used for next-generation display technologies or sensors that consume very little energy.

Adult teeth can last a lifetime, withstanding enormous chewing pressures applied hundreds of times each day for decades. In a recent study published , researchers discovered a natural toughening mechanism: small misorientations among the nanocrystal building blocks of human tooth enamel. Enamel is composed of hydroxyapatite, a biomineral that forms long and thin 50-nanometer wide nanocrystals, bundled into rods like uncooked spaghetti in tubes.

Smadar Naoz is an associate professor of physics and astronomy in the UCLA College. She wrote this article for The Conversation. Do supermassive black holes have friends' The nature of galaxy formation suggests that the answer is yes, and in fact, pairs of supermassive black holes should be common in the universe.

A nationwide alliance of national labs, universities, and industry launched today to advance the frontiers of quantum computing systems designed to solve urgent scientific challenges and maintain U.S. leadership in next-generation information technology. The Quantum Information Edge strategic alliance is led by two of the U.S. Department of Energy's national laboratories: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Sandia National Laboratories.

University of Queensland researchers have combined quantum liquids and silicon-chip technology to study turbulence for the first time, opening the door to new navigation technologies and improved understanding of the turbulent dynamics of cyclones and other extreme weather. Professor Warwick Bowen, from UQ's Precision Sensing Initiative and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems said the finding was "a significant advance" and provided a new way to study turbulence.

Combining powerful lasers and bright x-rays, Imperial and STFC researchers have demonstrated a technique that will allow new extreme experiments. The new technique would be able to use a single x-ray flash to capture information about extremely dense and hot matter, such as can be found inside gas giant planets or on the crusts of dead stars.

By Christoph Pelzl Newly discovered properties of magnetically doped topological insulators could significantly accelerate the development of quantum computers. The transmission electron microscope ASTEM, located at Graz University of Technology, played a major role in the success of these discoveries.

A team of astronomers has produced a new image of an arc-shaped object in the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The feature, which resembles a candy cane, is a magnetic structure that covers an enormous region of some 160 light-years. A light-year is the distance light travels in one year — almost 6 trillion miles.

Quantum computers, just like classical computers, are only as good as the instructions that we give them. And although quantum computing is one of the hottest topics in science these days, the instructions, or algorithms, for quantum computers still have a long way to go to become useful. Garnet Chan , Caltech's Bren Professor of Chemistry, is tackling this problem.

An ultrathin coating developed by University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers upends a ubiquitous physics phenomenon of materials related to thermal radiation: The hotter an object gets, the brighter it glows. The new coating - engineered from samarium nickel oxide, a unique tunable material - employs a bit of temperature trickery.

An international team of geoscientists led by Caltech has used fiber optic communications cables stationed at the bottom of the North Sea as a giant seismic network, tracking both earthquakes and ocean waves. The project was, in part, a proof of concept. Oceans cover two-thirds of the earth's surface, but placing permanent seismometers under the sea is prohibitively expensive.

A molecule that's known for its smelly and poisonous nature on Earth may be a sure-fire sign of extraterrestrial life. Phosphine is among the stinkiest, most toxic gases on Earth, found in some of the foulest of places, including penguin dung heaps, the depths of swamps and bogs, and even in the bowels of some badgers and fish.

UCLA scientists James Gimzewski and Adam Stieg are part of an international research team that has taken a significant stride toward the goal of creating thinking machines. Led by researchers at Japan's National Institute for Materials Science, the team created an experimental device that exhibited characteristics analogous to certain behaviors of the brain — learning, memorization, forgetting, wakefulness and sleep.

There are few scientists who would describe condensed matter physics-a branch that studies the behavior of solid matter-as "simple." But to Prof. Giulia Galli, it's less complex than the problems she works on at the University of Chicago.  "Problems like water and energy are much more complicated than what I was trained for in condensed matter physics," she said.

Gold nanoparticles, which are supposed to be stable in biological environments, can be degraded inside cells. This research conducted by teams from the CNRS, l'Université de Paris, Sorbonne Université, and l'Université de Strasbourg will be published in PNAS on December 16 2019, and reveals the ability of cells to metabolize gold, which is nevertheless not essential for their functioning.

New technique for observing reaction products offers insights into the chemical mechanisms that formed them. During a chemical reaction, the molecules involved in the reaction gain energy until they reach a "point of no return" known as a transition state. Until now, no one has glimpsed this state, as it lasts for only a few femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second).

A team of researchers from Freie Universität Berlin, the University of Bochum, and the University of Linz has succeeded in observing the transfer of protons in a hydrogenase reaction. No 391/2019 from Dec 13, 2019 Scientists from Freie Universität Berlin, the University of Bochum, and the University of Linz have found evidence for the design of so-called biomimetic catalysts.