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. Very often in science, the unexpected discovery turns out to be the most significant. Rice University Professor Junichiro Kono and his team weren't looking for a breakthrough in the transmission of terahertz signals, but there it was: a plasmonic material that would, with adjustments to its temperature and/or magnetic field, either stop a terahertz beam cold or let it pass completely. http://www.physorg.com/news179426778.html Physics Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:40:01 EST news179426778 (PhysOrg.com) -- Due to their violent nature and long distance from Earth, black holes and their surroundings are very difficult to study. Currently, the main method to observe a black hole is to use an X-ray satellite to detect the X-ray fluorescence emitted by a black hole`s companion star as the star`s material falls into the black hole. But now, scientists have developed a laser-driven method to generate a flash of brilliant Planckian X-rays in the lab that can be used to simulate the X-rays that exist near black holes. The new results contrast with the generally accepted explanation for the origins of these astronomical features, and may also help scientists test the complex computer codes used in X-ray astronomy. http://www.physorg.com/news179398351.html Physics Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:30:02 EST news179398351 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 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 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) -- A physics research team from the University of St Andrews and Cornell University in the USA has managed to 'photograph' the traces left by orbiting electrons in a special oxide material, and their observations could form the basis for the future of electronic technology. http://www.physorg.com/news175518640.html Physics Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:11:44 EST news175518640 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have developed a method using the force of light to gently trap, manipulate and study tiny, active objects as miniscule as viruses -- opening doors to expanded viral research. http://www.physorg.com/news175240202.html Physics Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:51:12 EST news175240202 (PhysOrg.com) -- (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and the Ludwig Maximilians University have succeeded in applying a novel optical method to nano-mechanical oscillators. New fabrication techniques have enabled the development of on-chip mechanical elements whose dimensions are on the nanometer scale. Their application, however, has been limited by the lack of sufficiently sensitive techniques for measuring the motion of these tiny devices. http://www.physorg.com/news174757411.html Physics Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:50:59 EST news174757411 Researchers of Eindhoven University of Technology and the Radboud University Nijmegen in The Netherlands show for the first time why ordinary graphite is a permanent magnet at room temperature. The results are promising for new applications in nanotechnology, such as sensors and detectors. In particular graphite could be a promising candidate for a biosensor material. The results will appear online on 4 October in Nature Physics. http://www.physorg.com/news173881546.html Nanotechnology Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:26:35 EST news173881546 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers say they have found a simple way to improve the semiconducting properties of the world`s thinnest material - by giving it a good tug. http://www.physorg.com/news173340834.html Nanotechnology Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:14:30 EST news173340834 (PhysOrg.com) -- Dr. Dentcho Genov, an assistant professor of physics and electrical engineering at Louisiana Tech University and a Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (LONI) Institute fellow, is featured on the cover of the most recent issue of Nature Physics. http://www.physorg.com/news171805185.html Physics Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:40:27 EST news171805185 Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have developed thin films that exhibit carrier multiplication (CM). This development is of great interest for future solar cells. http://www.physorg.com/news171655252.html Nanotechnology Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:01:14 EST news171655252 (PhysOrg.com) -- Oxford scientists have created a transparent form of aluminium by bombarding the metal with the world`s most powerful soft X-ray laser. 'Transparent aluminium' previously only existed in science fiction, featuring in the movie Star Trek IV, but the real material is an exotic new state of matter with implications for planetary science and nuclear fusion. http://www.physorg.com/news167925273.html Physics Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:55:07 EST news167925273 Dr. Dentcho Genov, an assistant professor of physics and electrical engineering at Louisiana Tech University and a Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (LONI) Institute fellow, is featured in the most recent issue of Nature Physics, one of the most respected and prestigious physics journals in the world. http://www.physorg.com/news167492066.html Physics Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:35:00 EST news167492066 Even Albert Einstein might have been impressed. His theory of general relativity, which describes how the gravity of a massive object, such as a star, can curve space and time, has been successfully used to predict such astronomical observations as the bending of starlight by the sun, small shifts in the orbit of the planet Mercury and the phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. Now, however, it may soon be possible to study the effects of general relativity in bench-top laboratory experiments. http://www.physorg.com/news167315869.html Physics Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:38:13 EST news167315869 For generations, schoolchildren have been taught that raindrops start as micro-droplets that then gather together in clouds with their neighbours to become bigger droplets. http://www.physorg.com/news167315264.html Physics Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:28:10 EST news167315264 Miniature devices for trapping ions (electrically charged atoms) are common components in atomic clocks and quantum computing research. Now, a novel ion trap geometry demonstrated at the National Institute of Standards and Technology could usher in a new generation of applications because the device holds promise as a stylus for sensing very small forces or as an interface for efficient transfer of individual light particles for quantum communications. http://www.physorg.com/news165668548.html Physics Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:02:59 EST news165668548 A group of University of Oklahoma researchers led by Dr. James P. Shaffer, Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy, have discovered giant Rydberg molecules with a bond as large as a red blood cell. Determining how Rydberg molecules interact is important because Rydberg atoms are a key ingredient in atom based quantum computation schemes. http://www.physorg.com/news165059097.html Physics Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:45:28 EST news165059097 (PhysOrg.com) -- Our cells are more than inert bags of proteins and genes whose complex signaling networks confound the world`s most powerful computers. They also have a physical side whose brawny feats may guide our basic good health. http://www.physorg.com/news163349672.html Medicine & Health Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:54:56 EST news163349672 French physicists said on Sunday they had used ultra-fast lasers that could accelerate storage and retrieval of data on hard discs by up to 100,000 times, pointing the way to a new generation of IT wizardry. http://www.physorg.com/news162995052.html Physics Sun, 31 May 2009 13:24:50 EST news162995052 (PhysOrg.com) -- Columbia seismologists who have intensively studied North Korea`s nuclear testing efforts say Monday`s blast was certainly a nuclear bomb, roughly five times larger than the country`s first test in 2006. The scientists, at Columbia University`s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, say signals picked up by seismic stations, including one in China, showed clear characteristics of a shallow underground nuclear explosion with a force of probably several kilotons. http://www.physorg.com/news162658701.html Space & Earth Wed, 27 May 2009 15:59:55 EST news162658701 A team of researchers at the University of Illinois has demonstrated that, counter to classical Newtonian mechanics, an entire collection of superconducting electrons in an ultrathin superconducting wire is able to "tunnel" as a pack from a state with a higher electrical current to one with a notably lower current, providing more evidence of the phenomenon of macroscopic quantum tunneling. http://www.physorg.com/news162650639.html Nanotechnology Wed, 27 May 2009 13:48:12 EST news162650639 Scientists have devised a new technique for real-time detection of freely moving individual neutral atoms that is more than 99.7% accurate and sensitive enough to discern the arrival of a single atom in less than one-millionth of a second, about 20 times faster than the best previous methods. http://www.physorg.com/news161787101.html Physics Sun, 17 May 2009 13:52:16 EST news161787101 (PhysOrg.com) -- New work by condensed-matter theorists at the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory points to a material that could one day be used to make faster, more efficient computer processors. http://www.physorg.com/news161615953.html Physics Fri, 15 May 2009 14:21:02 EST news161615953 Molecular biologists, including the cool dudes from CSI, use gel electrophoresis to separate DNA fragments from each other in order to analyze the DNA. A team of researchers under the leadership of Vici winner Serge Lemay, has now shown for the first time how the gel influences the movement of the DNA. The researchers drove a single DNA molecule through a nanopore in order to analyze the forces on the DNA. The results of the research were published on March 29 in Nature Physics. http://www.physorg.com/news161519158.html Nanotechnology Thu, 14 May 2009 11:26:30 EST news161519158 An article by Dr. Xavier Trepat, senior researcher of the Cellular and respiratory biomechanics group at the University of Barcelona, Spain, contributes for the first time an experimental answer to the question of how cells move during biological processes as diverse as the development, metastasis, or regeneration of tissues. http://www.physorg.com/news160834200.html Physics Wed, 06 May 2009 13:10:38 EST news160834200 Proteins, the work-horse molecules necessary for virtually every human action from breathing to thinking, have proved an almost ghostly presence, daring scientists to fully grasp their structure and behavior. Now, physicists at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee have developed powerful imaging techniques that promise to tell us much more about what proteins are and what they do, how they change shapes and how they work together in a cell. http://www.physorg.com/news158941208.html Physics Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:20:32 EST news158941208 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory have proposed theoretical models to explain the normal magnetic properties in iron-based superconductors. This research was published in the December 21, 2008 issue of Nature Physics. Their research builds on earlier research they conducted proposing a theoretical model for superconductivity in newly discovered iron-based superconductors. That earlier research was published in Physical Review Letters. http://www.physorg.com/news158859865.html Physics Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:44:44 EST news158859865 Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have proposed theoretical models to explain the normal magnetic properties in iron-based superconductors. This research was published in the December 21, 2008 issue of Nature Physics. Their research builds on earlier research they conducted proposing a theoretical model for superconductivity in newly discovered iron-based superconductors. That earlier research was published in Physical Review Letters. http://www.physorg.com/news156435623.html Physics Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:20:49 EST news156435623 By reversing a process that converts electrical signals into sounds heard out of a cell phone, researchers may have a new tool to enhance the way computer chips, LEDs and transistors are built. http://www.physorg.com/news156432003.html Physics Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:20:28 EST news156432003