General Physics news

Research gives new perspective on periodic table

Physics / General Physics

Dec 28, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (53) | 9

Transforming lead into gold is an impossible feat, but a similar type of "alchemy" is not only possible, but cost-effective too. Three Penn State researchers have shown that certain combinations of elemental ...

Tiny nano-electromagnets turn a cloak of invisibility into a possibility

Physics / General Physics

Dec 22, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (15) | 9

A team of researchers at the FOM institute AMOLF (The Netherlands) has succeeded for the first time in powering an energy transfer between nano-electromagnets with the magnetic field of light.

Accelerators and Light Sources of Tomorrow (Part 1: From Linacs to Lasers)

Physics / General Physics

Dec 22, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (6) | 2

From their humble beginnings as offshoots of the ordinary electric light bulb, particle accelerators have evolved in surprising directions. Among the most productive and promising developments have been light ...

Physicists see through the opaque with 'T-rays'

Physics / General Physics

Dec 18, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (12) | 0

"T-rays" may make X-rays obsolete as a means of detecting bombs on terrorists or illegal drugs on traffickers, among other uses, contends a Texas A&M physicist who is helping lay the theoretical groundwork to make the concept ...

Large Hadron Collider preparing 2010 new science restart

Physics / General Physics

Dec 18, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (14) | 3

At its 153rd session today, the CERN Council heard that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) ended its first full period of operation in style on Wednesday 16 December. Collisions at 2.36TeV recorded since last ...

Beaming in on Warm Dense Matter (w/ Video)

Physics / General Physics

Dec 17, 2009 | 5 / 5 (3) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment II (NDCX-II) now under construction at Berkeley Lab will deliver a high-current pulse of lithium ions to a foil target almost simultaneously, momentarily heating ...

Caltech scientists film photons with electrons

Physics / General Physics

Dec 16, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (21) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Techniques recently invented by researchers at the California Institute of Technology -- which allow the real-time, real-space visualization of fleeting changes in the structure of nanoscale ...

An Advance in Superconducting Magnet Technology Opens the Door for More Powerful Colliders

Physics / General Physics

Dec 16, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (12) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Preparing for as much as a 10-fold increase in the Large Hadron Collider's luminosity within the next decade, U.S. scientists and engineers have demonstrated a powerful magnet based on an ...

Scientists Investigate Cause of 'Singing Dunes'

Physics / General Physics

Dec 15, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (21) | 7

(PhysOrg.com) -- In more than 30 locations around the world, the phenomenon of singing sand dunes has intrigued explorers, tourists, and scientists. When an avalanche occurs or even when the sand is pushed ...

Google Collaborates with D-Wave on Possible Quantum Image Search

Physics / General Physics

Dec 15, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (21) | 5

(PhysOrg.com) -- Always on the cutting edge of new computing technologies, Google has recently announced that it is investigating the use of quantum computing schemes to achieve faster image recognition rates. ...

Large Hadron Collider produces first physics results

Physics / General Physics

Dec 15, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (34) | 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- The first paper on proton collisions in the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - designed to provide the highest energy ever explored with particle accelerators - is published online this week ...

Theorists propose a new way to shine -- and a new kind of star

Physics / General Physics

Dec 14, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (12) | 4

Dying, for stars, has just gotten more complicated. For some stellar objects, the final phase before or instead of collapsing into a black hole may be what a group of physicists is calling an electroweak star.

Scientists discover mechanism behind superinsulation

Physics / General Physics

Dec 14, 2009 | 5 / 5 (12) | 14

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have discovered the microscopic mechanism behind the phenomenon of superinsulation, the ability of certain materials ...

New structure could produce efficient semiconductor laser sources

Physics / General Physics

Dec 14, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have achieved a nanoscale laser structure they anticipate will produce semiconductor lasers in the next two years that are more than twice as efficient ...

A new kind of micro-mobility: Moving tiny particles using magnetic fields (w/ Video)

Physics / General Physics

Dec 14, 2009 | 3.7 / 5 (3) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new microscopic system devised by researchers in MIT's Department of Materials Science and Engineering could provide a novel method for moving tiny objects inside a microfluidic chip, and ...

AOptix Technologies and NuCrypt demonstrate physical-layer quantum encryption

Physics / General Physics

Dec 14, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (5) | 0

AOptix Technologies, a leading edge developer of ultra-high bandwidth laser communication solutions, and NuCrypt, a provider of technology for ultra-high security over optical communication networks, disclosed today the recent ...

Queen Mary scientists shed light on a mysterious particle

Physics / General Physics

Dec 14, 2009 | 3.6 / 5 (5) | 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists at Queen Mary, University of London have begun looking deep into the Earth to study some of nature's weirdest particles; neutrinos.

Elusive 'hot' electrons captured in ultra-thin solar cells

Physics / General Physics

Dec 11, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (12) | 3

Boston College researchers have observed the "hot electron" effect in a solar cell for the first time and successfully harvested the elusive charges using ultra-thin solar cells, opening a potential avenue to improved solar ...