The text on this screen may appear stable enough, but every molecule, atom, and electron in it is in constant motion. The laws of quantum physics require that on the atomic scale nothing is ever truly at rest. Nano-sized motion also keeps us warm, cooks our food, lights our smartphones, and enables all of our senses of hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch.
Pioneering X-ray experiments at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source (ALS) helped bring to life decades-old theories about exotic topological states of matter, and the ALS continues to play an important role in this flourishing field of research.
A new study has found that nonlinear systems can indeed reach equilibrium. The finding has implications in materials science and other fields.
Got a millionth of a billionth of a second? There’s science that actually happens on this timescale. Join us online for a week of ultrafast science from April 17 to 21. Learn more about how scientists and engineers use electron beams and bright pulses of light from the Linac Coherent Light Source X-ray laser and other advanced lasers to capture some of nature’s speediest processes that occur in just femtoseconds, or quadrillionths of a second.
Recent observations of Jupiter's icy moon Europa by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered a probable plume of material erupting from the moon's surface at precisely the same location as a similar apparent plume seen two years earlier by Hubble. These images bolster evidence that the plumes are a real phenomenon, flaring up intermittently in the same region on the satellite.
One MTSU student engineering team placed in the top 10 in the world while a second team earned two major technical awards at the 2017 NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge.
Particle physicist Don Lincoln is the winner of the 2017 Andrew Gemant Award, an annual prize recognizing significant contributions to the cultural, artistic or humanistic dimension of physics, the American Institute of Physics (AIP) announced today.
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have revealed extraordinary details about a recently discovered far-flung member of our solar system, the planetary body 2014 UZ224, more informally known as DeeDee.
Building on efforts to tease out a new and mostly hidden feature of our galaxy, a team from UW-Madison’s astronomy department developed WHAM, a spectrometer capable of detecting the faint, diffuse light emanating from the space between the stars.
Indistinguishable photons are critical for quantum information processing, and a group of researchers in Japan is tapping nitrogen impurity centers found within gallium arsenide to generate them -- making a significant contribution toward realizing a large number of indistinguishable single-photon sources.
A group of researchers at Zhejiang University recently discovered that a new bubbling mechanism may exist within the realm of physics. They made this surprising finding while studying the bubbling phenomena in submerged gas-liquid jets in microchannels. The phenomenon occurred in an immersion lithography machine they had developed, causing vibrations that were damaging exposure quality. They report their work in this week in the journal Physics of Fluids.
A team led by physics associate professor Eun-Ah Kim of Cornell has proposed a topological superconductor made from an ultrathin transition metal dichalcogenide that is a step toward quantum computing.
Critical systems for NASA’s Extreme Universe Space Observatory (EUSO) Super Pressure Balloon have been supplied and calibrated by The University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to take this dazzling photo of Jupiter when the planet was comparatively close to Earth, at a distance of 415 million miles.
TRIUMF – Canada’s national particle accelerator laboratory – announces the formation of TRIUMF Innovations, the lab’s new commercialization arm focused on connecting science with society.
Article describes how pumping heat into the core of plasmas can create sheared rotation that improves the performance of fusion devices.
Results from a new study involving Berkeley Lab scientists could explain a mismatch between predictions and recent measurements of ghostly particles streaming from nuclear reactors -- the so-called “reactor antineutrino anomaly” that has puzzled physicists since 2011.
A UC Riverside-led team of astronomers have taken us a step closer to better understand the formation and destruction mechanisms of dust molecules in the distant universe.
Viscous fingering occurs in porous media where fluids of differing viscosity converge in finger-shaped patterns as a result of growing disturbances at the interface. Such instabilities are encountered in a wide variety of fields. Understanding different aspects of this phenomenon, and the variables that can control things like instabilities and velocity distribution dynamics, can potentially offer options to control and utilize these effects more effectively. Researchers report their findings in this week’s Physics of Fluids.
A Queen’s University Belfast expert has made a major discovery on the formation of icy bodies within the Kuiper Belt, unlocking unique evidence that Neptune’s movement during early planet formation was a “smooth and calm” journey.
U Wisconsin-Milwaukee postdoctoral research associate Sarah Caudill will receive the Honorary CUR Fellows Award on Apr26 during CUR's 2017 Posters on the Hill event on Capitol Hill.
Feature describes source of acceleration of common type magnetic reconnection.
Watch our expert panel discussion featuring two astronomers as they disclose the latest discoveries of the Very Large Array, or VLA as its known, and ALMA, the trailblazing Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. Hear about future upgrades for these powerful instruments and the next generation of radio telescopes.
Much like two friendly neighbors getting together to chat over a cup of coffee, the minuscule particles in our sub-atomic world also come together to engage in a kind of conversation. Now, nuclear scientists are developing tools to allow them to listen in on the particles’ gab fests and learn more about how they stick together to build our visible universe. The first complex calculations of a particle called the sigma have been carried out and published in Physical Review Letters.
Hubble Space Telescope astronomers searched the gauzy remains of a Type Ia supernova in a neighboring galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud. They found a sun-like star that showed signs of being associated with the supernova. Further investigations will be needed to learn if this star is truly the culprit behind a white dwarf's fiery demise.
NASA has selected 28 Fellows for its prestigious Einstein, Hubble, and Sagan fellowships. Each post-doctoral fellowship provides three years of support to awardees to pursue independent research in astronomy and astrophysics. The new Fellows begin their programs in the fall of 2017 at a host university or research center of their choosing in the United States.
When tilling soil, the blade of the tool cuts through dirt, loosening it in preparation for seeding. The dirt granules are pushed aside in a way that looks random -- but might not be. Now, researchers have found a way to distinguish whether such a process is truly random, or is actually deterministic -- which can lead to deeper understanding and the ability to control the process. They describe the analysis in the journal Chaos.
When it comes to creating new materials, single crystals play an important role in presenting a clearer picture of a material’s intrinsic properties. A typical material will be comprised of lots of smaller crystals and the grain boundaries between these crystals can act as impediments, affecting properties such as electrical or thermal resistance.
The new Albert Chadwick Research Room inside the Roberts Proton Therapy Center is no ordinary laboratory space. In fact, there’s nothing else quite like it anywhere else in the United States, and whether it’s treating patients with cancer or helping NASA with its plans to send astronauts to Mars, the discoveries that could propel scientists forward will happen right here.
Using ALMA, astronomers have directly observed a pair of Milky Way-like galaxies seen when the universe was only eight percent of its current age. These progenitors of today’s giant spiral galaxies are surrounded by "super halos" of hydrogen gas that extend many hundreds-of-thousands of light-years beyond their dusty, star-filled disks.
An international team of astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered a supermassive black hole that has been propelled out of the center of the distant galaxy 3C 186. The black hole was most likely ejected by the power of gravitational waves.
A new Berkeley Lab-led study provides detailed 3-D views of space dust in the Milky Way, which could help us understand the properties of this dust and how it affects views of distant objects.
Hans Georg Dehmelt, Nobel physics laureate and professor emeritus at the University of Washington, died in Seattle on March 7, 2017 at age 94. Dehmelt was a celebrated scientist who developed methods to isolate atoms and subatomic particles and measure their fundamental properties with high accuracy.
In just a few years, researchers have achieved remarkable power conversion efficiency with materials with perovskite crystal structure, comparable with the best photovoltaic materials available. Now, researchers have revealed the physics for how an important component of a perovskite solar cell works -- a finding that could lead to improved solar cells or even newer and better materials. They describe their experiments in this week's issue of the journal Applied Physics Letters.
A new computer simulation helps explain the existence of puzzling supermassive black holes observed in the early universe. The simulation is based on a computer code used to understand the coupling of radiation and certain materials.
The inner Van Allen belt has less radiation than previously believed, according to a recent study in the Journal of Geophysical Research. Observations from NASA’s Van Allen probes show the fastest, most energetic electrons in the inner radiation belt are actually much rarer and harder to find than scientists expected. This is good news for spacecraft that are orbiting in the region and can be damaged by high levels of radiation.
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have found what may be the missing piece of a cosmic puzzle; the third, long-lost member of a star system in the Orion Nebula that broke apart 500 years ago.
Kirby Runyon wants to make one thing clear: Regardless of what one prestigious scientific organization says to the contrary, Pluto is a planet. So, he says, is Europa, commonly known as a moon of Jupiter, and so is the Earth’s moon, and so are more than 100 other celestial bodies in our solar system that are denied this status under the prevailing definition of “planet.”
New ALMA data reveal that a massive protostar, deeply nestled in its dust-filled stellar nursery, recently roared to life, shining nearly 100 times brighter than before.
Researchers in Italy hope to measure Earth’s rotation using a laser-based gyroscope housed deep underground, with enough experimental precision to reveal measurable effects of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. The ring laser gyroscope technology enabling these Earth-based measurements provide, unlike those made by referencing celestial objects, inertial rotation information, revealing fluctuations in the rotation rate from the grounded reference frame. The group discusses their work in this week’s Review of Scientific Instruments.
To study conditions in the ionosphere, Cornell University research engineer Steven Powell, and others in the College of Engineering, have developed the FOTON (Fast Orbital TEC for Orbit and Navigation) GPS receiver. This year, the FOTON hitched a ride aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to begin a long-term project at the International Space Station.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory has successfully created the first pure, single-crystal sample of a new iron arsenide superconductor, CaKFe4As4, and studies of this material have called into question some long-standing theoretical models of superconductivity.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has found that the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy ate its last big meal about 6 million years ago, when it consumed a large clump of infalling gas. After the meal, the engorged black hole burped out a colossal bubble of gas weighing the equivalent of millions of suns, which now billows above and below our galaxy's center.
In an abandoned gold mine one mile beneath Lead, South Dakota, the cosmos quiets down enough to potentially hear the faint whispers of the universe’s most elusive material — dark matter. Shielded from the deluge of cosmic rays constantly showering the Earth’s surface, the mine, scientists think, will be the ideal setting for the most sensitive dark matter experiment to date.
Data research for a Berkeley Lab-led dark energy experiment benefits citizen science project that seeks the public's help in the hunt for a hypothesized Neptune-like Planet Nine.
The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego have been awarded a NASA ACCESS grant to develop a cyberinfrastructure platform for discovery, access, and visualization of data from NASA’s ICESat and upcoming ICESat-2 laser altimeter missions.
NASA is partnering with the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and the Northrop Grumman Corporation to highlight the James Webb Space Telescope at South by Southwest (SXSW) from March 12 to 18, 2017. The Webb telescope exhibit will be located at the Austin Convention Center, 500 E. Cesar Chavez Street, Austin, Texas.
Almost all information that exists in contemporary society is recorded in magnetic media, like hard drive disks. Researchers are studying the motion of vortex domain walls -- local regions of charge that collectively store information via their configuration -- driven by magnetic fields in ferromagnetic nanowires, which are configured in a straight line with an asymmetric Y-like branch. They discuss their work in this week’s Journal of Applied Physics.
As transistor dimensions within integrated circuits continue to shrink, smooth metallic lines are required to interconnect these devices. If the surfaces of these tiny metal lines aren’t smooth enough, it substantially reduces their ability to conduct electrical and thermal energy -- decreasing functionality. Engineers report an advance this week in Applied Physics Letters, in modeling results that establish electrical surface treatment of conducting thin films as a physical processing method for reducing surface roughness.
RSS
Medicine keyboard_arrow_right
Sciencekeyboard_arrow_right
Life keyboard_arrow_right
Business keyboard_arrow_right
Journal News keyboard_arrow_right
By Location keyboard_arrow_right
Meetings, Grants, and Events keyboard_arrow_right