'Quantum Hall-like effect' found in a bulk material without an applied magnetic field

These images collected by Princeton University scientists show (top) the first direct image of the dancing pattern of electrons on the edge of the bismuth-antimony bulk crystal, which is a quantum Hall insulator; (center) a schematic and another image showing the electron distribution in three dimensions; and (bottom) a schematic and an image conveying the distribution of edge-electrons in two dimensions. Images: Zahid Hasan


Next up: 'The Nano Lisa'

Aug 14, 2007

Two atomic-sized images resulting from scientific work at IBM's labs are part of an art exhibit opening today at the United States Patent and Trademark Museum in Alexandria, Virginia.


It's all in the spin: Quantum physics cools down computers

Sep 25, 2007

The future of Moore's famous law—that the number of transistors squeezed onto a computer chip can be doubled about every two years—is widely seen as threatened by the damaging heat generated by the chips themselves as their ...


Human genetic variation -- Science's 'Breakthrough of the Year'

Dec 20, 2007

In 2007, researchers were dazzled by the degree to which genomes differ from one human to another and began to understand the role of these variations in disease and personal traits. Science and its publisher, AAAS, ...


Physicists find new explanation for superconductivity's 'glue'

Dec 20, 2007

A team of Boston College researchers led by Asst. Prof. Vidya Madhavan (Physics) has identified an alternative explanation for the microscopic origins of the “glue” that binds electrons during high-temperature superconductivity, ...


Modified electron microscope identifies atoms

Feb 21, 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. ...


Switchyard for single electrons

Feb 25, 2008

German scientists achieved to transfer very small charge "packets", comprising a well-defined number of few electrons, between metallic electrons precisely by using a single-electron pump. A single-electron transistor, being ...


Researchers find the ties that bind electrons in high-temperature superconductivity

Apr 10, 2008

For more than 20 years since the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity, scientists have been debating the underlying physical mechanism for this exotic phenomenon, which has the potential to revolutionize ...


Scientists find new 'quasiparticles'

Jun 02, 2008

Weizmann Institute physicists have demonstrated, for the first time, the existence of 'quasiparticles' with one quarter the charge of an electron. This finding could be a first step toward creating exotic types of quantum ...