http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Northwestern University researchers have achieved a breakthrough in quantum cascade laser output power, delivering 120 watts from a single device at room temperature. http://www.physorg.com/news178907017.html Physics Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:00:01 EST news178907017 (PhysOrg.com) -- A group in The Netherlands has achieved a first: injection of spin-polarized electrons in silicon at room temperature. This has previously been observed only at extremely low temperatures, and the achievement brings spintronic devices using silicon as a semiconductor a step closer. http://www.physorg.com/news178526124.html Physics Fri, 27 Nov 2009 06:36:59 EST news178526124 (PhysOrg.com) -- In 1811, Joseph Fourier, the 43-year-old prefect of the French district of Isčre, entered a competition in heat research sponsored by the French Academy of Sciences. The paper he submitted described a novel analytical technique that we today call the Fourier transform, and it won the competition; but the prize jury declined to publish it, criticizing the sloppiness of Fourier`s reasoning. According to Jean-Pierre Kahane, a French mathematician and current member of the academy, as late as the early 1970s, Fourier`s name still didn`t turn up in the major French encyclopedia the Encyclopędia Universalis. http://www.physorg.com/news178356724.html Other Sciences Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:35:16 EST news178356724 At the 2009 Supercomputing Conference in Portland, Oregon, the high-performance computer QPACE (QCD Parallel Computing on the Cell) was recognized today as the most energy-efficient supercomputer in the world. http://www.physorg.com/news177944567.html Electronics Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:20:02 EST news177944567 Physicists at UC Santa Barbara have made an important advance in electrically controlling quantum states of electrons, a step that could help in the development of quantum computing. The work is published online today on the Science Express Web site. http://www.physorg.com/news177938057.html Physics Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:18:55 EST news177938057 (PhysOrg.com) -- In everything from computer processor chips to car engines to electric powerplants, the need to get rid of excess heat creates a major source of inefficiency. But new research points the way to a technology that might make it possible to harvest much of that wasted heat and turn it into usable electricity. http://www.physorg.com/news177761180.html Physics Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:07:11 EST news177761180 Initiatives to provide geothermal heating or power at the Pueblo of Jemez and the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology campus are receiving Los Alamos National Laboratory assistance, thanks to recent American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) funding. http://www.physorg.com/news177604342.html Technology Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:20:03 EST news177604342 Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have demonstrated the first "universal" programmable quantum informationprocessor able to run any program allowed by quantum mechanics -- the rules governing the submicroscopic world -- using two quantum bits (qubits) of information. The processor could be a module in a future quantum computer, which theoretically could solve some important problems that are intractable today. http://www.physorg.com/news177515046.html Physics Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:45:25 EST news177515046 (PhysOrg.com) -- Flying robot fairies are joining human actors in Texas A&M University?s production of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which runs through Sunday (Nov. 15) in the Rudder Forum. http://www.physorg.com/news177347142.html Other Sciences Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:06:11 EST news177347142 (PhysOrg.com) -- In a recently published paper, Aram Harrow at the University of Bristol and colleagues from MIT in the United States have discovered a quantum algorithm that solves large problems much faster than conventional computers can. http://www.physorg.com/news177011105.html Physics Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:20:02 EST news177011105 A pioneer in solar power in the 1990s before it became "sexy," University of Houston Professor Alex Freundlich recently entered into a collaborative research agreement with U.K.-based start-up QuantaSol for the development of the next generation of super efficient solar cells. http://www.physorg.com/news176999193.html Technology Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:40:02 EST news176999193 (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 In the 1995 Halloween episode of The Simpsons, Homer Simpson finds a portal to the mysterious Third Dimension behind a bookcase, and desperate to escape his in-laws, he plunges through. He finds himself wandering across a dark surface etched with green gridlines and strewn with geometric shapes, above which hover strange equations. One of these is the deceptively simple assertion that P = NP. http://www.physorg.com/news176037013.html Technology Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:10:40 EST news176037013 A multidisciplinary team of UC researchers is the first to find an innovative and novel way to control an electron's spin orientation using purely electrical means. http://www.physorg.com/news175871026.html Nanotechnology Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:05:04 EST news175871026 (PhysOrg.com) -- For more than 50 years, physicists have been intrigued by the concept of closed time-like curves (CTCs). Because a CTC returns to its starting point, it raises the possibility of traveling backward in time. More recently, physicists have theorized that CTC-assisted computers could enable ideal quantum state discrimination, and even make classical computers (with CTCs) equally as powerful as quantum computers. However, a new study argues that CTCs, if they exist, might actually provide much less computational benefit than previously thought. http://www.physorg.com/news175421039.html Physics Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:40:01 EST news175421039