General Physics news

Extra large carbon

Physics / General Physics

14 hours ago | 4.7 / 5 (12) | 7 |

An exotic form of carbon has been found to have an extra large nucleus, dwarfing even the nuclei of much heavier elements like copper and zinc, in experiments performed in a particle accelerator in Japan. ...

Scientist explore future of high-energy physics

Physics / General Physics

20 hours ago | 4.9 / 5 (12) | 8 |

In a 1954 speech to the American Physical Society, the University of Chicago's Enrico Fermi fancifully envisioned a particle accelerator that encircled the globe. Such would be the ultimate theoretical outcome, ...

Leaf veins inspire a new model for distribution networks (w/ Video)

Physics / General Physics

17 hours ago | 5 / 5 (3) | 0 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- Following the straight and narrow may be good moral advice, but it’s not a great design principle for a distribution network. In new research, a team of biophysicists describe a complex netting of interconnected ...

Exploring the characteristics of viscoelastic fluids

Physics / General Physics

Feb 04, 2010 | 4.8 / 5 (10) | 0 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- There are many microorganisms out there, navigating through complex biological fluids. “One of the most common migrations takes place with spermatozoa as it navigates the female reproductive tract,” Joseph ...

Leaves whisper their properties through ultrasound

Physics / General Physics

Feb 03, 2010 | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 1

The water content of leaves, their thickness, their density and other properties can now be determined without even having to touch them. A team of researchers from the CSIC Institute of Acoustics and the ...

Mechanical forces could affect gene expression

Physics / General Physics

Feb 02, 2010 | 4.5 / 5 (2) | 0 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Michigan researchers have shown that tension on DNA molecules can affect gene expression---the process at the heart of biological function that tells a cell what to do.

Peering inside an artificial sun

Physics / General Physics

Jan 29, 2010 | 4.3 / 5 (35) | 27 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- After more than five decades of research, a major milestone toward the harnessing of fusion power is expected within the next year or two. This milestone, known as "fusion ignition," should ...

Optical refrigeration expected to enhance airborne and spaceborne applications

Physics / General Physics

Jan 29, 2010 | 5 / 5 (4) | 2 |

Under an Air Force Office of Scientific Research, multi-university grant, a team led by University of New Mexico professor, Dr. Mansoor Sheik-Bahae created the first-ever all-solid-state cryocooler that can ...

Physicists Investigate Possibility of an 'Unhiggs'

Physics / General Physics

Jan 28, 2010 | 4.6 / 5 (43) | 43 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the biggest goals of the LHC is to discover the Higgs boson, the only particle in the Standard Model that has not yet been observed. In general, physicists are pretty confident that ...

Scientists Produce Unprecedented 1 Megajoule Laser Shot, Step Towards Fusion Ignition

Physics / General Physics

Jan 28, 2010 | 4.7 / 5 (27) | 17 |

US scientists have produced a laser shot with an unprecedented energy level that could be a key step towards nuclear fusion, the US National Nuclear Security Administration said Wednesday.

Glasgow scientists predict mass of new particle

Physics / General Physics

Jan 26, 2010 | 4.7 / 5 (17) | 18 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of physicists from the University of Glasgow has predicted the mass of a new particle which would help explain one of the fundamental forces of the universe.

Going For Exawatts: Building the most powerful laser in the world

Physics / General Physics

Jan 25, 2010 | 4.6 / 5 (22) | 3 |

Producing a laser with a power of a terawatt -- equal to one trillion watts -- used to be impressive, but now the forefront of optical research power is measured in 1 quadrillion-watt units known as petawatts. ...

Superconducting hydrogen?

Physics / General Physics

Jan 25, 2010 | 4.5 / 5 (10) | 2 |

Physicists have long wondered whether hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, could be transformed into a metal and possibly even a superconductor -- the elusive state in which electrons can flow without resistance. ...

Acoustic levitation could be used on Mars

Physics / General Physics

Jan 25, 2010 | 4 / 5 (11) | 7 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- The presence of fine dust on the Moon and Mars may present problems for explorers, such as coating solar panels, penetrating seals and interfering with machinery. Human explorers would also ...

CT scanner checks on well-being of aging U.S. nuclear weapons

Physics / General Physics

Jan 25, 2010 | 3.7 / 5 (3) | 0

A sophisticated X-ray machine co-developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists began providing its inaugural batch of high-resolution images of nuclear weapons' innards this month.

Levitating magnet may yield new approach to clean energy

Physics / General Physics

Jan 24, 2010 | 4.7 / 5 (43) | 14 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new experiment that reproduces the magnetic fields of the Earth and other planets has yielded its first significant results. The findings confirm that its unique approach has some potential ...

How 'random' lasers work

Physics / General Physics

Jan 24, 2010 | 4.8 / 5 (11) | 1 |

When University of Utah scientists discovered a new kind of laser that was generated by an electrically conducting plastic or polymer, no one could explain how it worked and some doubted it was real. Now, ...

A Lawyer's View of the Risk of Black Hole Catastrophe at the LHC

Physics / General Physics

Jan 22, 2010 | 4.2 / 5 (41) | 190 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- Just bringing up the topic of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) creating a black hole that destroys the Earth might seem unscientific and out of place on a science news website. After all, the ...