Physics news

Scientists investigate how ice melts below freezing due to nanowire's pressure

Physics / Condensed Matter

1hour ago | 5 / 5 (1) | 1 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- The many ways in which water differs from other molecules is both a scientific curiosity and an important factor in shaping the Earth. Among water's unique properties are that it expands when ...

Delving into the world of the ultra-cold

Physics / Quantum Physics

7 hours ago | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 2 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- In Swinburne University's 'cold molecules lab', where temperatures one millionth of a degree above absolute zero are routinely achieved, researchers are making significant advances in understanding the weird ...

Carlos '97 free kick no fluke, say French physicists

Physics / General Physics

8 hours ago | 4 / 5 (5) | 1 |

Roberto Carlos' free kick goal against France in 1997's Tournoi de France is thought by many to have been the most skilful free kick goal - from 35m with a powerful curling banana trajectory - ever scored; but by others to ...

New material may reveal inner workings of hi-temp superconductors

Physics / Superconductivity

Sep 01, 2010 | 4.5 / 5 (4) | 2 |

Measurements taken* at the National Institute of Standards and Technology may help physicists develop a clearer understanding of high-temperature superconductors, whose behavior remains in many ways mysterious decades after ...

Radioactive decay rates vary with the sun's rotation: research

Physics / General Physics

Aug 31, 2010 | 4.4 / 5 (32) | 35 |

Radioactive decay rates, thought to be unique physical constants and counted on in such fields as medicine and anthropology, may be more variable than once thought.

IceCube neutrino observatory nears completion

Physics / General Physics

Aug 31, 2010 | 4.6 / 5 (13) | 8 |

In December 2010, IceCube -- the world's first kilometer-scale neutrino observatory, which is located beneath the Antarctic ice -- will finally be completed after two decades of planning. In an article in ...

LEDs illuminate eye for ocular disease screening

Physics / General Physics

Aug 31, 2010 | not rated yet | 0

A new imaging system using six different wavelengths to illuminate the interior of the eyeball (ocular fundus) may pave the way for doctors to easily screen patients for common diseases of the eye, such as age-related macular ...

First direct observation of unusual magnetic structure could lead to novel electronic, magnetic memory devices

Physics / General Physics

Aug 30, 2010 | 4.9 / 5 (16) | 5 |

In conventional ferromagnets, the individual magnetic moments of the atoms that together comprise the magnetism of the material are all aligned parallel, pointing in a common direction. In ...

Better light measurement through quantum cloning

Physics / Quantum Physics

Aug 30, 2010 | 4.3 / 5 (12) | 0 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- "One of the things we have been studying is how the world works on a really small scale," Bruno Sanguinetti, a scientist at the University of Geneva in Switzerland tells PhysOrg.com. "At the quantum level, ...

Probing spin liquids with a new pulsed-magnet system

Physics / General Physics

Aug 30, 2010 | 4.2 / 5 (5) | 1 |

Entirely new experimental vistas could be opened by a device called a precursor pulsed-magnet system developed by an international team of scientists. This system can generate magnetic fields as high as 30 ...

Producing isolated laser pulses in attoseconds made easier using two-color laser field

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Aug 30, 2010 | 5 / 5 (6) | 0

Ultrafast time-resolved laser spectroscopy is a technique that uses the interaction of light with matter to study the properties of physical systems. Researchers can generate laser pulses lasting mere attoseconds ...

Vulnerability in commercial quantum cryptography

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Aug 29, 2010 | 4.4 / 5 (8) | 0 |

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg together with the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen have recently developed and tested ...

Location determines social network influence, study finds

Physics / General Physics

Aug 29, 2010 | 3.2 / 5 (5) | 0 |

A team of researchers led by Dr. Hernan Makse, professor of physics at The City College of New York (CCNY), has shed new light on the way that information and infectious diseases proliferate across complex networks. Writing ...

Discovery could challenge established theory of the nucleus

Physics / General Physics

Aug 26, 2010 | 4.9 / 5 (58) | 48 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- By analyzing data from experiments performed earlier this decade at the Oak Ridge Electron Linear Accelerator (ORELA), physicists have made observations that seem to conflict with the widely accepted theory ...

Prediction of intrinsic magnetism at silicon surfaces could lead to single-spin magnetoelectronics

Physics / Condensed Matter

Aug 26, 2010 | 5 / 5 (4) | 1 |

The integration of single-spin magnetoelectronics into standard silicon technology may soon be possible, if experiments confirm a new theoretical prediction by physicists at the Naval Research Laboratory and ...

Creating light sources for nanochips

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Aug 25, 2010 | 4.3 / 5 (9) | 0 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- "One of the most important goals in the optics community is to create and manipulate light on chip," Yinan Zhang tells PhysOrg.com. "This is especially important when it comes to improving the performance of sem ...

Major budget cuts to slow world's biggest atom smasher: CERN (Update)

Physics / General Physics

Aug 25, 2010 | 4.6 / 5 (10) | 1

European budget cuts at the world's biggest atom smasher are set to slow down its quest to unlock the deepest secrets of the universe, management and staff warned on Wednesday.

'Spintronics' breakthrough holds promise for next-generation computers

Physics / General Physics

Aug 24, 2010 | 4.9 / 5 (7) | 0 |

Using powerful lasers, Hui Zhao, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Kansas, and graduate student Lalani Werake have discovered a new way to recognize currents of spinning electrons ...