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. The concept of confinement is one of the central ideas in modern physics. The most famous example is that of quarks which bind together to form protons and neutrons. Now Prof. Bella Lake from Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (Germany) together with an international team of scientists report for the first time an experimental realization and a proof of confinement phenomenon observed in a condensed matter system. http://www.physorg.com/news178724926.html Physics Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:49:37 EST news178724926 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Texas Tech University, Queen's University in Belfast, Ireland, the University of Rome and the National Research Council in Italy recently made a discovery about the non-uniform chemical compositions of ionic liquids that could lead to greater understanding and manipulation of these multi-purpose, designer solvents. http://www.physorg.com/news177087904.html Physics Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:20:05 EST news177087904 Pioneering theorist and Nobel laureate Philip W. Anderson has been named the first recipient of the Richard E. Prange Prize and Lectureship in Condensed Matter Theory and Related Areas. Anderson will receive a $10,000 honorarium and deliver a public presentation at the University of Maryland, College Park on Oct. 20, 2009. http://www.physorg.com/news171900917.html Physics Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:16:04 EST news171900917 Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US, have performed sophisticated laser measurements to detect the subtle effects of one of nature's most elusive forces - the "weak interaction". Their work, which reveals the largest effect of the weak interaction ever observed in an atom, is reported in Physical Review Letters and highlighted in the August 10th issue of APS's on-line journal Physics. http://www.physorg.com/news169124688.html Physics Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:20:01 EST news169124688 The Casimir force, also known as the Casimir effect, is typified by the small attractive force that acts between two close parallel uncharged conducting plates. Today, this force has become an interdisciplinary subject of study, playing an important role in condensed matter physics, quantum field theory, atomic and molecular physics, gravitation and cosmology, and mathematical physics. Most recently the Casimir force has been applied to nanotechnology. http://www.physorg.com/news168796398.html Physics Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:10:01 EST news168796398 (PhysOrg.com) -- Bacteria know that they are too small to make an impact individually. So they wait, they multiply, and then they engage in behaviors that are only successful when all cells participate in unison. There are hundreds of behaviors that bacteria carry out in such communities. Now researchers at Rockefeller University have discovered one that has never been observed or described before in a living system. http://www.physorg.com/news166803657.html Physics Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:21:32 EST news166803657 (PhysOrg.com) -- Random lasing, Robin Kaiser tells PhysOrg.com, is like standard lasing, with a little bit of a twist: `You don`t know the direction the photons will go, as you do with a more standard laser. This is because the feedback normally produced by a cavity, which sets a propagation axis, is now provided by multiple scattering in all directions. Light is randomly scattered throughout the structure of the laser, exciting further light-emitting processes. Light in a random laser does not come out in a precise direction; it comes out in all directions.` http://www.physorg.com/news161863563.html Physics Mon, 18 May 2009 11:06:44 EST news161863563 Researchers in condensed matter physics at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Chicago have created an experimental and computer model to study how jamming, the physical process in which collections of particles are crammed together to behave as solids, might affect the behavior of systems in which thermal motion is important, such as molecules in a glass. http://www.physorg.com/news161439954.html Physics Wed, 13 May 2009 13:27:01 EST news161439954 The investigation of complex materials such as high-temperature superconductors is problematic because of the presence of disorder and many competing interactions in real crystalline materials. "This makes it difficult to identify the role of specific interactions and, in particular, to decide whether repulsive interactions between electrons alone can explain high-temperature superconductivity," says Dr. Theodoulos Costi from the Institute of Solid State Research, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany. http://www.physorg.com/news147623041.html Physics Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:24:01 EST news147623041 Physicists from Rice and Rutgers universities have published a new theory that explains some of the complex electronic and magnetic properties of iron "pnictides." In a series of startling discoveries this spring, pnictides were shown to superconduct at relatively high temperatures. The surprising discoveries created a great deal of excitement in the condensed matter physics community, which has been scrambling to better understand and document the unexpected results. http://www.physorg.com/news137852143.html Physics Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:15:43 EST news137852143