http://www.physorg.com/physics-news/ en-us PhysOrg Team Physorg.com provides the latest news on physics, materials, nanotech, science and technology. Updated Daily. (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 2009-11-10T15:20:05-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- Sensors, communications devices and imaging equipment that use a prism and a special form of light -- a surface plasmon-polariton -- may incorporate multiple channels or redundant applications if manufacturers use sculptured thin films. http://www.physorg.com/news177086474.html Physics 2009-11-10T14:42:05-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- The NSLS-II Experimental Facilities Division achieved an important milestone in September when the conceptual design reports for the initial six project beamlines were completed and submitted to NSLS-II management. http://www.physorg.com/news177061572.html Physics 2009-11-10T08:00:02-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- All seven contracts for the production of the NSLS-II storage ring magnets have now been awarded -- a significant milestone for the project. The magnets -- 750 in total -- will be made by vendors in the United States, Russia, China, Europe, and New Zealand. http://www.physorg.com/news177020042.html Physics 2009-11-09T20:30:01-07:00 (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 2009-11-09T18:20:02-07:00 The practice of sterilizing medical tools and devices helped revolutionize health care in the 19th century because it dramatically reduced infections associated with surgery. Through the years, numerous ways of sterilization techniques have been developed, but the old mainstay remains a 130-year-old device called an autoclave, which is something like a pressure steamer. The advantage of the autoclave is that the unsterile tools can be packed into sealed containers and then processed, staying sealed and sterile after they are removed. http://www.physorg.com/news176997452.html Physics 2009-11-09T15:30:11-07:00 In an international first, scientists from the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI, Austria) produced a Bose-Einstein condensate of the alkaline-earth element strontium, thus narrowly winning an international competition between many first-rate scientific groups. Choosing the isotope 84Sr, which has received little attention so far, proved to be the right choice for the breakthrough. It can now be regarded as an ideal candidate for future experiments with atomic two-electron systems. http://www.physorg.com/news176994672.html Physics 2009-11-09T13:11:51-07:00 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 2009-11-09T06:18:45-07:00 Nobel Physics prize winner Vitaly Ginzburg, who helped develop the Soviet hydrogen bomb, has died at age 93, the Russian Academy of Sciences said Monday. http://www.physorg.com/news176963593.html Physics 2009-11-09T05:00:02-07:00 (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 2009-11-04T15:07:42-07:00 (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 2009-11-04T14:35:06-07:00 A theoretical physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology has developed a method for calculating the motions and forces of thousands of atoms simultaneously over a wider range of time scales than previously possible. The method overcomes a longstanding timing gap in modeling nanometer-scale materials and many other physical, chemical and biological systems at atomic and molecular levels. http://www.physorg.com/news176555152.html Physics 2009-11-04T11:09:16-07:00 (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 2009-11-04T09:00:01-07:00 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 2009-11-03T17:00:01-07:00 (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 2009-11-03T09:40:01-07:00 A new generation of high-energy (>kJ) petawatt (HEPW) lasers is being constructed worldwide to study high intensity laser matter interactions, including fast ignition. Fast ignition is a laser-based technique for heating and igniting deuterium and tritium fuel to fusion temperatures in a two-step process. In the first phase, laser beams vaporize a fuel pellet and compress it to a thousand times its original density, while in the second phase, electrons accelerated by an intense-laser pulse deposit energy within the fuel assembly, causing rapid heating. This is akin to the way a gasoline engine works with a spark plug. http://www.physorg.com/news176403056.html Physics 2009-11-02T23:00:01-07:00 If you keep twisting a straight elastic string, at some moment it starts kinking in a wild way. Something similar occurs when one increases the electrical current flowing in a magnetized plasma doughnut: it takes on a wild helical shape, which spoils its performance. This phenomenon concerns scientists exploring fusion power, who use powerful magnetic fields to confine plasma during their experiments. http://www.physorg.com/news176402729.html Physics 2009-11-02T20:20:02-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- Many hands -- or many flagella -- make light work. In studies of the motion of tiny swimming bacteria, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory found that the microscopic organisms can stir fluids remarkably quickly and effectively. As a result, the bacterial flagella could act like tiny motors to mix chemicals in biomedical kits, among other applications. http://www.physorg.com/news176412344.html Physics 2009-11-02T20:00:01-07:00 (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 2009-11-02T18:33:35-07:00 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 2009-11-02T17:30:03-07:00 Particle accelerators are among the largest and most expensive scientific instruments. Thirty years ago, theorists John Dawson and Toshiki Tajima proposed an idea for making them thousands of times smaller: surf the particles on plasma waves driven by short intense laser pulses. Since plasmas are free of the damage limits of conventional accelerators, much larger fields can be built up within such waves, enabling much smaller accelerators. http://www.physorg.com/news176402686.html Physics 2009-11-02T17:20:01-07:00 A team of physicists has directly observed a reverse shock wave of light in a specially tailored structure known as a left-handed metamaterial. Although it was first predicted over forty years ago, this is the first unambiguous experimental demonstration of the effect. The research is reported in Physical Review Letters and highlighted with a Viewpoint in the November 2 issue of Physics. http://www.physorg.com/news176397143.html Physics 2009-11-02T15:14:10-07:00 In all the world, there are about 200 types of zeolite, a compound of silicon, aluminum and oxygen that gives civilization such things as laundry detergent, kitty litter and gasoline. But thanks to computations by Rice University professor Michael Deem and his colleagues, it appears there are -- or could be -- more types of zeolites than once thought. http://www.physorg.com/news176391313.html Physics 2009-11-02T13:50:02-07:00 (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 2009-11-02T13:10:07-07:00 (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 2009-11-02T11:20:01-07:00 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 2009-11-02T11:04:53-07:00 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 2009-11-02T09:09:30-07:00 (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 2009-11-02T08:00:03-07:00 (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 2009-11-02T07:00:02-07:00 Superstring theory aims to explain the laws of physics from extremely small strings in various states. Theoretical superstring theory is therefore normally not considered to be particularly relevant for practical particle physics experiments. http://www.physorg.com/news176125202.html Physics 2009-10-30T12:42:37-07:00