http://www.physorg.com/physics-news/ en-us Physorg.com provides the latest news on physics, materials, nanotech, science and technology. Updated Daily. A peckish bird briefly knocked out part of the world's biggest atom smasher by causing a chain reaction with a piece of bread, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said Monday. http://www.physorg.com/news176969873.html Physics Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:18:45 EST news176969873 (PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists at Harvard University have created a quantum gas microscope that can be used to observe single atoms at temperatures so low the particles follow the rules of quantum mechanics, behaving in bizarre ways. http://www.physorg.com/news176569616.html Physics Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:07:42 EST news176569616 (PhysOrg.com) -- Harvard materials scientists have come up with what they believe is a new way to model the formation of glasses, a type of amorphous solid that includes common window glass. http://www.physorg.com/news176567658.html Physics Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:35:06 EST news176567658 (PhysOrg.com) -- In 2008, scientists built a loudspeaker made of carbon nanotubes that produced sound and music based on the thermoacoustic effect. Now, a different team of scientists has built a loudspeaker made of tiny aluminum wires suspended like a bridge between two supports, producing sound in a similar way. The new wire bridge also has the advantage of being much easier to fabricate than the nanotube device, offering the potential for a wide range of audio applications. http://www.physorg.com/news176543078.html Physics Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:00:01 EST news176543078 Cornell researchers have developed an ingenious method to time-compress optical signals. The process could enable optical communication systems to carry many more bits per second or could also be used to generate short bursts of light with complex waveforms needed to control chemistry and physics experiments where changes are induced by light.. http://www.physorg.com/news176486984.html Physics Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:00:01 EST news176486984 (PhysOrg.com) -- The first stars in the universe may have been very different from the stars we see today, yet they may hold clues to understanding some of the mysterious features of the universe. These "dark stars," first theorized in 2007, could grow to be much larger than modern stars, and would be powered by dark matter particles that annihilate inside them, rather than by nuclear fusion. In the early universe, dark stars would have emitted visible light like the Sun, but today their light would be redshifted into the infrared range by the time it reaches us, and so dark stars would be invisible to the naked eye. http://www.physorg.com/news176457990.html Physics Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:40:01 EST news176457990 (PhysOrg.com) -- Research by Michigan State University scientists has shed new light on the properties of neutron stars, galactic oddities that are formed when a large star runs out of fuel and collapses. http://www.physorg.com/news176409161.html Physics Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:33:35 EST news176409161 In the quest to produce nuclear fusion energy, researchers from the DIII-D National Fusion Facility have recently confirmed long-standing theoretical predictions that performance, efficiency and reliability are simultaneously obtained in tokamaks, the leading magnetic confinement fusion device, operating at their performance limits. Experiments designed to test these predictions have successfully demonstrated the interaction of these conditions. http://www.physorg.com/news176402578.html Physics Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:30:03 EST news176402578 (PhysOrg.com) -- The first experiments are now underway using the world's most powerful X-ray laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source, located at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Illuminating objects and processes at unprecedented speed and scale, the LCLS has embarked on groundbreaking research in physics, structural biology, energy science, chemistry and a host of other fields. http://www.physorg.com/news176388048.html Physics Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:10:07 EST news176388048 (PhysOrg.com) -- Many scientists believe that quantum entanglement is required in order for effective quantum computing. Entanglement takes place when there is a connection that exists between two objects - even when they are spatially separated - that allows what happens to one to happen to the other. The link is such that each entangled object cannot be adequately described without its counterpart. So far, entangling qubits for practical use has been difficult, since scientists want to be able to entangle several qubits at once. http://www.physorg.com/news176364815.html Physics Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:20:01 EST news176364815 Using Einstein's theory of special relativity to speedup computer simulations, scientists have designed laser-plasma accelerators with energies of 10 billion electron volts (GeV) and beyond. These systems, which have not been simulated in detail until now, could in the future serve as a compact new technology for particle colliders and energetic light sources. http://www.physorg.com/news176382250.html Physics Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:04:53 EST news176382250 An international team of physicists at Los Alamos National Laboratory has succeeded in using intense laser light to accelerate protons to energies never before achieved. Using this technique, scientists can now accelerate particles to extremely high velocities that would otherwise only be possible using large accelerator facilities. Physicists around the world are examining laser particle acceleration and laser produced radiation for potential future uses in cancer treatment. http://www.physorg.com/news176375335.html Physics Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:09:30 EST news176375335 (PhysOrg.com) -- Terms such as the "invisible hand," laissez-faire policy, and free-market principles suggest that economic growth and decline in capitalist societies seem to be somehow self-regulated. Now, scientists Arto Annila of the University of Helsinki and Stanley Salthe of Binghampton University in New York show that economic activity can be regarded as an evolutionary process governed by the second law of thermodynamics. Their perspective may provide insight into some fundamental economic questions, such as the causes of economic growth and diversification, as well as why it`s so difficult to predict economic growth and decline. http://www.physorg.com/news176365278.html Physics Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:00:03 EST news176365278 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of scientists from France have worked out why teapots dribble at low flow rates, and how to stop them. The effect is called the "teapot effect", and solving it could finally put an end to tea stains from dribbling teapots. http://www.physorg.com/news176363839.html Physics Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:00:02 EST news176363839 (PhysOrg.com) -- Finally, an optical frequency comb that visibly lives up to its name. Scientists at the University of Konstanz in Germany and the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the U.S. have built the first optical frequency comb -- a tool for precisely measuring different frequencies of visible light -- that actually looks like a comb. http://www.physorg.com/news176046009.html Physics Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:41:00 EST news176046009 (PhysOrg.com) -- Using precision techniques for making superconducting thin films layer-by-layer, physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified a single layer responsible for one such material's ability to become superconducting, i.e., carry electrical current with no energy loss. The technique, described in the October 30, 2009, issue of Science, could be used to engineer ultrathin films with "tunable" superconductivity for higher-efficiency electronic devices. http://www.physorg.com/news176045082.html Physics Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:25:20 EST news176045082 A team of researchers led by a Case Western Reserve University physicist is planning the world's largest, most sensitive experiment to catch the stuff of dark matter, stuff that's proved way beyond invisible. http://www.physorg.com/news176041529.html Physics Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:10:02 EST news176041529 Does your laptop sometimes get so hot that it can almost be used to fry eggs? New technology may help cool it and give information technology a unique twist, says Jairo Sinova, a Texas A&M University physics professor. http://www.physorg.com/news176037299.html Physics Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:15:50 EST news176037299 (PhysOrg.com) -- "Scientists have been working with dipole fields for quite some time," Peter Barker tells PhysOrg.com. "However, most of the work is focused on very small particles, like atoms, or on larger particles, such as for use as optical tweezers. There is an interim region between atoms and large particles, and that is what we are looking at. We want to be able to control molecules a little differently." http://www.physorg.com/news176032268.html Physics Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:52:22 EST news176032268 (PhysOrg.com) -- By taking advantage of the vagaries of the natural world, Duke University engineers have developed a novel approach that they believe can more efficiently harvest electricity from the motions of everyday life. http://www.physorg.com/news175966447.html Physics Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:35:22 EST news175966447 Racing across the universe for the last 7.3 billion years, two gamma-ray photons arrived at NASA's orbiting Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope within nine-tenths of a second of one another. The dead-heat finish may stoke the fires of debate among physicists over Einstein's special theory of relativity because one of the photons possessed a million times more energy than the other. http://www.physorg.com/news175965994.html Physics Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:27:56 EST news175965994 Sandia researchers have developed a process that can mix tiny volumes of liquid, even in complicated spaces. http://www.physorg.com/news175873414.html Physics Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:44:59 EST news175873414 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Cornell researchers recently tested their work on the mysterious physical phenomenon of flux pinning aboard a near-zero gravity aircraft. http://www.physorg.com/news175868095.html Physics Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:15:24 EST news175868095 (PhysOrg.com) -- A PhD student from the London Centre for Nanotechnology has won a prize for solving a decade-long mystery central to understanding modern magnetic systems. http://www.physorg.com/news175857283.html Physics Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:15:30 EST news175857283 Most schoolchildren learn that everything in the universe is a solid, a liquid or a gas. But those lessons miss the fourth and by far most common state of matter: plasma. http://www.physorg.com/news175855071.html Physics Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:39:39 EST news175855071 During the last weekend (23-25 October) particles have once again entered the LHC after the one-year break that followed the incident of September 2008. http://www.physorg.com/news175812230.html Physics Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:44:21 EST news175812230 Red blood cells, which make up 45 percent of blood, normally take the shape of circular cushions with a dimple on either side. But they can sometimes deform into an asymmetrical slipper shape. A team of physicists have used simulations to explore how fluid flow might be responsible for this deformation, as well as how the deformation in turn affects blood flow. The insights could help understand the mechanisms involved in arterial disease and other blood flow-related ailments. Their research is reported in Physical Review Letters and highlighted with a Viewpoint in the October 26 issue of Physics. http://www.physorg.com/news175781298.html Physics Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:08:56 EST news175781298 Ultrasound and underwater sonar devices could "see" a big improvement thanks to development of the world's first acoustic hyperlens. Created by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the acoustic hyperlens provides an eightfold boost in the magnification power of sound-based imaging technologies. Clever physical manipulation of the imaging sound waves enables the hyperlens to resolve details smaller than one sixth the length of the waves themselves, bringing into view much smaller objects and features than can be detected using today's technologies. http://www.physorg.com/news175702307.html Physics Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:12:53 EST news175702307 (PhysOrg.com) -- The remarkable eyes of a marine crustacean could inspire the next generation of DVD and CD players, according to a new study from the University of Bristol published today in Nature Photonics. http://www.physorg.com/news175702057.html Physics Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:08:17 EST news175702057 An ancient Confucian philosopher once said, "I love the lotus because while growing from mud, it is unstained." http://www.physorg.com/news175430726.html Physics Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:46:37 EST news175430726