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. (PhysOrg.com) -- The Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment II (NDCX-II) now under construction at Berkeley Lab will deliver a high-current pulse of lithium ions to a foil target almost simultaneously, momentarily heating it to a state known as warm dense matter. Designing the accelerator to meet these exacting specifications required extensive computer modeling, including the simulations shown here. http://www.physorg.com/news180287895.html Physics Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:20:03 EST news180287895 (PhysOrg.com) -- Herschel has peered inside an unseen stellar nursery and revealed surprising amounts of activity. Some 700 newly-forming stars are estimated to be crowded into filaments of dust stretching through the image. The image is the first new release of 'OSHI', ESA's Online Showcase of Herschel Images. http://www.physorg.com/news180180910.html Space & Earth Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:15:57 EST news180180910 Next year will mark the 50th birthday of the laser, one of the most productive and widely used mega-inventions of the last century. Scientists hope that 2010 also will see the launch of laser technology's greatest challenge: creating an inexhaustible supply of clean, carbon-free energy. http://www.physorg.com/news180125332.html Technology Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:50:47 EST news180125332 Dying, for stars, has just gotten more complicated. For some stellar objects, the final phase before or instead of collapsing into a black hole may be what a group of physicists is calling an electroweak star. http://www.physorg.com/news180021867.html Physics Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:05:03 EST news180021867 (PhysOrg.com) -- Data from the satellite, says principal investigator and UCLA professor Edward Wright, will help scientists answer fundamental questions about the history of our solar system, the Milky Way and the univese. http://www.physorg.com/news179141981.html Space & Earth Fri, 04 Dec 2009 09:41:24 EST news179141981 MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) and other drug-resistant bacteria could face annihilation as low-temperature plasma prototype devices have been developed to offer safe, quick, easy and unfailing bactericidal cocktails. http://www.physorg.com/news178438994.html Physics Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:24:08 EST news178438994 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has contributed to the discovery of the youngest brown dwarf ever observed -- a finding that, if confirmed, may solve an astronomical mystery about how these cosmic misfits are formed. http://www.physorg.com/news178221292.html Space & Earth Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:55:42 EST news178221292 (PhysOrg.com) -- The investment in nuclear power has been growing around the world over the last few years, being viewed as a means for countries to control their energy security, avoid the price fluctuations of other energy sources, and reduce their carbon dioxide emissions, but concerns are now being raised. http://www.physorg.com/news177839133.html Physics Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:50:06 EST news177839133 (PhysOrg.com) -- Astrophysicists at the University of Warwick and Kiel University have discovered two earth sized bodies with oxygen rich atmospheres - however there is a bit of a disappointing snag for anyone looking for a potential home for alien life, or even a future home for ourselves, as they are not planets but are actually two unusual white dwarf stars. http://www.physorg.com/news177258394.html Space & Earth Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:27:33 EST news177258394 (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 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 The simple picture of star formation calls for giant clouds of gas and dust to collapse inward due to gravity, growing denser and hotter until igniting nuclear fusion. In reality, forces other than gravity also influence the birth of stars. New research shows that cosmic magnetic fields play a more important role in star formation than previously thought. http://www.physorg.com/news171720091.html Space & Earth Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:02:11 EST news171720091 Using one of the greatest sources of radiation energy created by man, University of Nevada, Reno researcher and faculty member Roberto Mancini is studying ultra-high temperature and non-equilibrium plasmas to mimic what happens to matter in accretion disks around black holes. http://www.physorg.com/news171125659.html Physics Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:54:54 EST news171125659 Chemists are preparing to play an important but often unheralded role in determining the success of one of the largest and most important scientific experiments in history - next year's initial attempts at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to produce the world's first controlled nuclear fusion reaction. If successful in taming the energy source of the sun, stars, and of the hydrogen bomb, scientists could develop a limitless new source of producing electricity for homes, factories, and businesses. The experiment could also lead to new insights into the origins of the universe. http://www.physorg.com/news169893112.html Physics Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:50:04 EST news169893112 (PhysOrg.com) -- Currently, most nuclear fusion power plants are large, expensive projects that will take decades to benefit from. But a startup company in Vancouver, Canada, called General Fusion is taking the fast track to fusion, with a plan to build a working prototype fusion power plant within the next decade at a cost of less than a billion dollars. http://www.physorg.com/news168623833.html Physics Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:57:53 EST news168623833 (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 An experimental reactor that could harness nuclear fusion, the power that fuels the Sun, will begin operation in southern France in 2018, the project's governing body announced Thursday. http://www.physorg.com/news164558159.html Technology Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:03:11 EST news164558159 The element 112, discovered at the Centre for Heavy Ion Research (GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung) in Darmstadt, has been officially recognized as a new element by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). IUPAC confirmed the recognition of element 112 in an official letter to the head of the discovering team, Professor Sigurd Hofmann. The letter furthermore asks the discoverers to propose a name for the new element. Their suggestion will be submitted within the next weeks. In about 6 months, after the proposed name has been thoroughly assessed by IUPAC, the element will receive its official name. The new element is approximately 277 times heavier than hydrogen, making it the heaviest element in the periodic table. http://www.physorg.com/news163849658.html Chemistry Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:00:41 EST news163849658 A multi-billion-dollar project to prove whether nuclear fusion, the power that fuels the Sun, can be a practicable energy source is to be scaled down in its early stages, sources said on Monday. http://www.physorg.com/news163683173.html Technology Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:33:38 EST news163683173 Researchers are reporting compelling new scientific evidence for the existence of low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR), the process once called "cold fusion" that may promise a new source of energy. One group of scientists, for instance, describes what it terms the first clear visual evidence that LENR devices can produce neutrons, subatomic particles that scientists view as tell-tale signs that nuclear reactions are occurring. http://www.physorg.com/news157046734.html Physics Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:06:19 EST news157046734 (PhysOrg.com) -- On long, dark winter nights, the constellation of Orion the Hunter dominates the sky. Within the Hunter's sword, the Orion Nebula swaddles a cluster of newborn stars called the Trapezium. These stars are young but powerful, each one shining with the brilliance of 100,000 Suns. They are also massive, containing 15 to 30 times as much material as the Sun. http://www.physorg.com/news154631619.html Space & Earth Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:15:02 EST news154631619 (PhysOrg.com) -- The enormous pressures needed to melt diamond to slush and then to a completely liquid state have been determined ten times more accurately by Sandia National Laboratories researchers than ever before. http://www.physorg.com/news154175827.html Physics Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:37:55 EST news154175827