 Physics
14 December 2011
Higgs boson: no news is God news
The Higgs boson, the elusive so-called "God particle" that gives other particles mass, is still proving to be elusive, with the release of nebulous findings from the Large Hadron Collider that physicists say "hint" at the particle's existence...
5 November 2011
Fine structure constant may vary across universe
Electromagnetism, measured by the so-called fine-structure constant, is one of the four fundamental forces of nature and underpins Einstein's general theory of relativity. But an Australian physicist's observations of distant galaxies indicate that this constant may in fact be a variable...
23 September 2011
Unfashionably early neutrinos trigger faster-than-light brouhaha
Neutrinos shot out of the CERN particle research center have been arriving at their destination too early; suggesting, say the physicists involved, that the sub-atomic particles are travelling faster than the speed of light...
28 July 2011
Acoustic diode allows one-way sound transmission
Based on a simple assembly of granular crystals that transmit sound vibrations, Caltech researchers have created the first tunable acoustic diode that allows sound to travel only in one direction...
19 July 2011
Galactic spin theory neatly explains Charge Parity violation
Experimental observations of sub-atomic particles known as Kaons and B Mesons have revealed significant differences in how their matter and anti-matter versions decay. This “Charge Parity violation” is an awkward anomaly for physicists but a radical new theory suggests that the rotation of our galaxy may explain the discrepancy...
16 June 2011
Experimental results hint at neutrino flavor change
By shooting a beam of neutrinos through a small slice of the Earth under Japan, physicists say they've caught the particles changing their stripes in intriguing new ways...
6 June 2011
Antimatter bottled-up for 16 minutes
Antimatter remains an enigma, but researchers at CERN may soon be able to ascertain some of its key properties thanks to groundbreaking techniques they've developed that trap and store antimatter for more than 15 minutes...
2 June 2011
Physicists explore negative entropy in computation
A team of physicists have discovered that not only do computational processes sometimes generate no heat; under certain conditions they can even have a cooling effect...
15 April 2011
Bicycle design: back to the drawing board
How a bicycle stays upright while moving has always been something of a mystery to science, with a vague cocktail of gyroscopic effects being the accepted explanation. Now, however, scientists have determined the complex interplay of design characteristics that make a bike stay upright, and radically different bicycle designs may be in the offing...
8 April 2011
Physics community buzzing over possible new particle
Experiments at the Tevatron particle accelerator have produced results that indicate the existence of a new, unknown particle that is not predicted by the fundamental laws of physics...
1 April 2011
Spin sensitivity of DNA surprises researchers
Researchers investigating quantum interactions in biological molecules have shown that DNA is extremely sensitive to particle "spin." Their experiment shows that DNA can somehow discern and "filter" electrons moving through it, a finding that could impact both medical science and electronics research...
16 March 2011
LHC may produce time travelling particles
If the Large Hadron Collider does produce the elusive Higgs boson, then physicists speculate that it will also create a second particle, known as the Higgs singlet, that can move either forward or backward in time and reappear in the future or past...
1 February 2011
First demonstration of coherent control of a quantum multi-resonator architecture
Physicists have put a new slant on the shell game by demonstrating the ability to hide and shuffle "quantum-mechanical peas" - in this case single photons - under and between three microwave resonators acting as quantized shells...
21 January 2011
Naturally quantum critical material identified
In what researchers are calling a "dream system," an exotic new superconductor based on the element ytterbium appears to exist in a quantum critical state naturally; a highly desirable property that could have profound implications for the manufacture of superconductors and electronics...
12 January 2011
Satellite catches thunderstorm producing antimatter bursts
Astronomers using the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope in orbit above the Earth have detected beams of antimatter produced above terrestrial thunderstorms, a phenomenon never seen before...
19 November 2010
Getting to grips with spookiness
Physicists say they have found an equation which shows that non-locality and uncertainty, the two defining properties of quantum physics, are quantitatively linked and that the "amount" of non-locality is determined by the uncertainty principle...
26 August 2010
Solar flares spookily linked to radioactive decay on Earth
Researchers have found that the radioactive decay of some elements sitting in laboratories on Earth seems to be influenced by activities inside the sun, 93 million miles away. This surprising finding, they speculate, may indicate a previously unknown particle emitted by the sun...
17 August 2010
New insight into matter-antimatter conundrum
Physicists have observed that short-lived B meson particles produced from proton collisions break down into debris that includes slightly more matter than antimatter, just the sort of matter/antimatter asymmetry that could explain the prevalence of matter over antimatter in the universe...
30 July 2010
Graphene stress produces gigantic pseudo-magnetic fields
Researchers have reported the creation of pseudo-magnetic fields far stronger than the strongest magnetic fields ever sustained in a laboratory - just by putting the right kind of strain onto a patch of graphene...
3 June 2010
Scientists' frustration with frustration at an end
Frustration, the term used to describe a system's interacting components when they cannot settle into a state that minimizes each interaction, has been extremely difficult to study because even systems with few components have interactions so complex that they cannot be modeled effectively on the most powerful computers. Now, however, a team of researchers has simulated frustration in a quantum system in a precisely controllable experimental arrangement. The breakthrough should provide new insights into a host of puzzling phenomena that affect systems from neural networks and social structures to protein folding and magnetism...
19 May 2010
Ball lightning all in the mind, say physicists
Physicists have shown that the magnetic fields produced by lightning discharges have the same properties as transcranial magnetic stimulation, a technique used in psychiatry that can produce images of luminous shapes in the brain...
11 May 2010
Robustness of quantum entanglement in photosynthesis surprises researchers
Scientists have conducted the first study in which quantum entanglement has been examined and quantified in a real biological system...
27 April 2010
Atomic spin captured in image
The use of atomic spin to create nanoscale magnetic storage devices – a field known as spintronics – is a hot topic in physics and computing, but until now no one had actually seen the spin...
22 April 2010
Physicists get a glimpse of fault-tolerant qubits
Rice University physicists have uncovered a bizarre state of matter which possesses what the researchers call a "quantum registry," making it immune to information loss from external quantum perturbations...
7 April 2010
Black hole effect created with nanotube
Harvard physicists have found that a high-voltage nanotube can cause cold atoms to spiral inward under dramatic acceleration before disintegrating violently - an atomic scale destructive force that is eerily similar to the inexorable attractive force that black holes exert on matter at the cosmic scale...
29 March 2010
E8 "theory of everything" looking rocky
The exceptionally simple theory of everything - known as E8 - proposed by a physicist surfer dude in 2007, does not hold water, says a rock-climbing Emory mathematician...
12 March 2010
Physicists to probe flu virus for macro quantum effects
European scientists have described an experiment to test for quantum superposition states in objects composed of as many as one billion atoms, specifically, a flu virus...
16 February 2010
Mirror symmetry broken at 4 trillion degrees
Mirror symmetry, the behavior that normally characterizes the interactions of quarks and gluons, has been observed to break down during extremely energetic particle collisions, raising the tantalizing prospect of different symmetries governing space, time and the behavior of fundamental particles...
18 January 2010
Tying light in knots
A team of physicists has used knot theory - a branch of abstract mathematics - to create holograms where light can flow in whirls and eddies, forming lines in space called optical vortices...
8 December 2009
Lightning unleashes radiation cocktail for air travelers
Physicists have estimated that airplane passengers could be exposed to a radiation dose equal to that from 400 chest X-rays if their plane happens to be near a lightning discharge...
1 December 2009
LHC revs up to set new world record
The Large Hadron Collider yesterday become the world’s highest energy particle accelerator, shooting twin beams of protons to an energy of 1.18 TeV and beating Tevatron's previous 2001 record of 0.98 TeV...
16 November 2009
Universal quantum processor demonstrated
Physicists have demonstrated a "universal" programmable quantum information processor that uses two quantum bits of information to run any program allowed by quantum mechanics...
24 August 2009
Boffins ponder DIY black hole
Dartmouth College researchers have proposed a new way of creating a reproduction black hole in the laboratory, albeit on a much-tinier scale than their celestial counterparts...
31 July 2009
UK boffins split electron
Physicists from the Universities of Cambridge and Birmingham have shown that electrons, which are indivisible in isolation, can divide into two new particles called spinons and a holons when crowded into in a narrow wire...
14 July 2009
The repulsive side of light
A team of Yale scientists has discovered a "repulsive" light force that can be used to control tiny components, meaning future nanodevices could be manipulated by light rather than electricity...
30 June 2009
Laser-lens promises attosecond shutter-speeds
A virtual lens created by two counterpropagating laser beams could theoretically deliver incredibly fast shutter speeds, making the real-time observation of matter at the molecular level a real possibility...
2 June 2009
Incandescent light bulbs: not quite down and out
It may not be game-over for incandescent bulbs after all. US researchers report vast improvements in energy efficiency and brightness by briefly exposing an ordinary bulb to an extremely bright laser which creates nano-scale structures on the bulb's tungsten filament...
29 May 2009
Breakthrough in controlling superposition quantum states
Superposition states are a fundamental concept in quantum mechanics and for the first time they have been controllably created with light...
28 May 2009
Tantalizing glimpse of macroscopic quantum effects
The weird laws of quantum mechanics govern how molecules, atoms and smaller particles behave, but quantum phenomena sometimes “leak up” to macroscopic scales, researchers have found...
11 May 2009
Entanglement of photon detected across four locations
Caltech scientists have shown how entanglement in the form of beams of light simultaneously propagating along four distinct paths can be detected with a surprisingly small number of measurements...
6 May 2009
Modified Newtonian dynamic could do away with dark matter
The number of physicists questioning the existence of dark matter has been increasing for some time now. And while competing theories of gravitation have been developed independent of dark matter, they conflict with Newton's theory of gravitation. Now, some physicists are suggesting that Newton might be wrong...
24 March 2009
Cold fusion a hot topic – again
In a sign of science's reinvigorated quest for new energy sources, the American Chemical Society's annual shindig features no less than 30 papers on the topic of cold fusion - or Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions as it is now known - with some of the presenters saying their findings are "very significant"...
10 March 2009
Physicists observe single top-quark
Fermilab scientists have observed particle collisions that produce single top quarks. The result confirms important parameters of particle physics, such as the total number of quarks, and has significance for the ongoing search for the Higgs boson...
4 February 2009
"Holographic noise" may herald new era in physics
Physicists at the Centre for Gravitational Physics in Germany are in a lather over what appears to be "holographic noise," minute quantum convolutions of space-time that may prove we exist in a holographic universe...
8 January 2009
Physicists clock elusive repulsive Casimir force
Researchers have detected and measured, for the first time, a repulsive quantum mechanical force that could be harnessed and tailored for a wide range of novel nanotechnology applications...
6 January 2009
Central tenet of theory of relativity looks shaky
Physicists have developed a promising new way to identify a possible abnormality in a fundamental building block of Einstein's theory of relativity, which, if confirmed, would disprove that the laws of physics remain the same for any two objects traveling at a constant speed...
26 September 2008
Metallic vapor behind noctilucent reflectivity?
Noctilucent clouds are highly reflective to radar, an unusual property that has long puzzled scientists. Now, a Caltech physicist has proposed that it may be metal atoms at high altitude that are causing this unusual radar reflecting behavior...
12 August 2008
String Theory Faster-Than-Light Drive Proposed
Two physicists have come up with a new method to travel faster than the speed of light without breaking the laws of physics. The only drawback? The drive requires a massive amount of energy. How much? Think about converting Jupiter's entire mass into pure energy...
7 August 2008
Quantum "Uncollapse" Muddies Definition Of Reality
Measuring (observing) a quantum object forces it to collapse from a waveform into one position. This collapse, according to quantum mechanics dogma, is what makes objects "real," but new verification of "collapse reversal" suggests that we can no longer assume that measurements alone create reality...
1 July 2008
Lab-Created Giant Atom Goes Classical
Physicists have built a giant millimeter-sized atom whose sole electron orbits it in a classical manner as envisaged by Niels Bohr when he suggested a planetary orbit analogy for how atoms and electrons might behave...
27 June 2008
Novel Molecule Shows Intriguing Quantum Behavior
Purdue University researchers have created a hybrid molecule whose quantum state can be intentionally manipulated with an externally applied electrical field - a required step in the construction of a quantum computer...
13 June 2008
Physicists Create Quantum-Entangled Images
Using a technique known as "four-wave mixing," researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute and the University of Maryland have created "quantum images," pairs of information-rich visual patterns whose features are entangled so that changes in one image are instantaneously replicated in the other image, regardless of the distance separating them...
16 May 2008
The Great Escape
A mechanism for how information might escape from a black hole has been proposed by a team of physicists at Penn State who say that if quantum gravity is considered, then space-time becomes much larger and there is room for information to reappear in the distant future on the other side of what was first thought to be the "end" of space-time...
29 April 2008
Graphene's "Muffin-Tin" Nanodots Explained
Researchers believe they now understand how graphene - a featureless, flat sheet of carbon atoms - lying on an equally featureless iridium surface, converted itself into a kind of "muffin tin" that formed identically sized and spaced muffins out of applied iridium atoms...
28 April 2008
Quantum-Hall Effect Observed, Sans Magnetic Field
The quantum-Hall effect (where electrons condense into an exotic quantum fluid) was thought to only occur in specially prepared materials under the influence of an intense magnetic field, but US researchers have observed the effect in a bulk crystal of bismuth-antimony without any magnetic field being present...
11 March 2008
Real And Virtual Systems Merged In Mixed Reality State
Using a virtual pendulum and its real-world counterpart, scientists using "bidirectional instantaneous coupling" have created the first mixed reality state in a physical system...
13 December 2007
Engineers Generate "Rogue Waves"
UCLA researchers have succeeded in creating and capturing optical rogue waves, freakish, brief pulses of intense light that are very similar to the infamous oceanic monsters...
26 October 2007
Physicists Mull Big Bang Detritus
Physicists may have discovered an example of a cosmic defect, a remnant from the Big Bang called a "texture"...
2 October 2007
New Algorithm Speeds Lattice QCD Equations
A new mathematical algorithm that quickly solves Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics linear equations overcomes a significant bottleneck experienced by researchers...
6 July 2007
Physicists Surf New Type Of Electron Wave
Physicists have proven the existence of a new type of electron wave on metal surfaces: the acoustic surface plasmon...
2 July 2007
Before The Big Bang
Using Loop Quantum Gravity theory, physicists have proposed a new mathematical model for what the universe looked like before the Big Bang...
15 June 2007
Kinematics - The Language Of Invention
Machinery is so ubiquitous these days that it has almost become invisible to us – at least until it breaks down. But even less recognized is the theoretical system of machine design notation known as "kinematics" that paved the way for complex machines. Now, a new book looks at the interesting and important aspects of kinematics that have become lost or forgotten down through the ages...
31 May 2007
Tantalizing Hint Of Room-Temperature Superconductor
Nanoscale imaging has revealed that isolated pockets of superconductivity can exist in certain materials at higher temperatures than thought previously possible...
13 April 2007
Quantum Shenanigans Of Photosynthesis Mapped
It's thanks to a remarkably long-lived wavelike electronic quantum coherence that plants can turn sunlight into chemical energy with such astonishing efficiency...
21 March 2007
Manganese Key To Radiation-Proofing Of Organisms
Protein oxidation appears to be the mechanism behind the uncanny ability of a bacterium to resist damage from radiation, say researchers from the US military...
23 February 2007
5 Minutes To Doomsday
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists recently reset their Doomsday Clock forward 2 minutes, just to show everyone that once again we are all on the brink of catastrophe (as if we'd have it any other way). But what exactly does the Doomsday Clock achieve, and why should we take any notice of the time-setting habits of a bunch of boffins anyway?
8 February 2007
Casimir Force Gets Hot And Sticky
Researchers have found that the Casimir-Polder force of attraction is stronger when the surface of a material is heated...
5 February 2007
Physicists Hope For Glimpse Of Extra Dimensions
Looking backward in time to an instant after the big bang, physicists have devised a way to unlock the hidden shapes of alternate dimensions of the universe...
26 January 2007
The Universe As Magic Roundabout: Part II
If Lynds is right, then we live in a universe where there is no past or present, and one that is deterministic, even if it is impossible for us to recognize it as such. But there are a number of pressing questions in regard to Lynds' model. How does it fit in with current research that claims that the universe will expand forever? Does Lynds' model imply that the universe somehow "knows" to play events over and over? And will we all have to relive our lives backward?
19 January 2007
 The Universe As Magic Roundabout
The model of the universe that Lynds is proposing, similar to others before him, is that the universe is in fact closed and subject to an infinite cycle of big bangs and big crunches. However, the difference between Lynds' theory and those that have gone before it is that in Lynds' model the big bang is no more the beginning of the universe than the big crunch is its end. That while the universe is finite, there is no arrow of time; there is no past or present, and that in neither a big crunch nor big bang is a singularity ever reached...
24 January 2007
Physicists Propose Test For String Theory
String theory could soon be put to the test, thanks to the Large Hadron Collider which begins operations this year...
18 January 2007
Prussian Blue Wrangled Into Data Storage Duty
French scientists, manipulating the pigment known as Prussian Blue, have created an extremely effective magnetic data storage medium...
12 January 2007
String Theory? Knot!
Ever since string theory was first proposed in 1969 it has been plagued by controversy. Now, its chief proponent has come out and conceded that his initial model is likely only one small part of a much more complex multifaceted megaverse. But recent discoveries in astrophysics may tie a Gordian knot in string theory...
14 December 2006
Atom-Smashers Get Peek At Top Quark
Physicists have gotten their first look at the top quark, a subatomic particle that was spat out of the Department of Energy’s Tevatron Collider without its antimatter partner...
7 December 2006
Cousin Of Higgs Boson Detected
After 30 years of looking, an independent physicist claims to have detected axion particles, members of a family of particles that likely also includes the Higgs boson...
19 October 2006
Magnetic Appeal Of Schizophrenic Superconductors
Ultra-narrow wires can behave as either superconductors or insulators, depending on the influence of magnetic fields. Now, scientists think they know why...
17 October 2006
Scientists Create Super-Heavy Element 118
After months of particle accelerator shenanigans, scientists have managed to create three atoms of the newest super-heavy element, element 118...
25 September 2006
Honey, I Shrunk The Particle Accelerator
Is that a particle accelerator in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me? Investigating the mysteries of the sub-atomic domain could soon become much easier thanks to new micro-accelerator technology...
6 September 2006
Gravity Equations Useful In Modeling Earthbound Phenomena
Sir Isaac Newton would be proud. His classical equations used to calculate gravitational force have also been found to be accurate in modeling the spread of diseases by insects...
17 August 2006
Magnetic Field Creates Bizarre Superconducting Effects
One physicist has opened a can of worms with his theorem that Cooper-pair wave symmetry and time-reversal symmetry both break down when superconductors are exposed to strong magnetic fields...
28 July 2006
Memory And Computation Set For Cohabitation
Scientists have turned semiconductors into magnets, potentially opening the door for computer chips that can both calculate and store data...
24 July 2006
Hacking The Speed Of Light
Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy have literally found a back-door to an otherwise rock-solid physical tenet - the speed of light...
30 June 2006
Strange Quarks' Role In Proton Revealed
Physicists have found that strange quarks do indeed contribute to the structure of the proton; in particular, the proton's electric and magnetic fields...
5 June 2006
The Strange Case Of The Missing Dimension
When exposed to very high magnetic fields at very low temperatures, barium copper silicate enters a rarely observed quantum critical state of matter; where the magnetic waves go from a three-dimensional to a two-dimensional pattern...
29 May 2006
Hunt On For Fourth Spatial Dimension
Scientists have developed a new mathematical framework that they say competes with Einstein's General Theory of Relativity...
12 May 2006
Faster Than Light Effect Baffles Boffins
Physicists are scratching their heads after seeing light travel through a doped optical fiber almost instantaneously. The researchers plan on taking the experiment further and putting one of Einstein's key tenets to the test...
2 May 2006
Neutron Source Fires Up
Scientists have finally witnessed the Spallation Neutron Source in action at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and predict it will herald a new generation of materials research...
3 April 2006
MINOS Project Detects Ghostly Particles Changing "Flavor"
In an experimental first, an international team of scientists has managed to observe the all but massless neutrino particle transform from one "flavor" to another...
31 March 2006
Solitons Observed In A Solid
Only theorized as possible twenty years ago, a team of scientists say they have observed evidence of solitary vibrations (solitons) in a solid...
27 March 2006
Not So Fast Einstein!
A quantum theory of gravity could be within reach, as scientists report having measured the gravitational equivalent of a magnetic field...
15 March 2006
The Strange Matter Of Superfluidity
Recent experiments into superconductivity and superfluidity may have recreated the same quantum conditions that occur in the heart of quark stars; stars believed to be comprised of strange matter...
10 March 2006
What's Normal About Renormalization?
For a number of physicists, there is an increasing sense of unease about the current state of physics. Much of this disquiet is to do with the way modern physics relies on some sneaky techniques to explain away the trickiest bits of the accepted model. Without these corrective bolted-on components, much of modern physics simply doesn’t stand up to scrutiny...
3 March 2006
Intra-Molecular Movement Of Protons Observed
Using time-slices of just 100 attoseconds, UK scientists say they can now track individual protons moving in a molecule, paving the way for the direct observation of chemical reactions...
23 February 2006
Quantum Computer Computes, While Not Operating
Scientists demonstrating counterfactual computation say that “quantum mechanics doesn't get any more mysterious than this..."
22 February 2006
Joining The Quantum Dots
Scientists have found a way to make the artificial atoms known as quantum dots communicate with one another using light energy...
1 February 2006
Turbulent 73 Years Over For Physicists
Scientists believe they can now explain a phenomenon that has baffled physicists for over 70 years - fluid turbulence...
30 January 2006
Soundwave Fusion Rocks On
To silence their critics, an international research team have used sound waves to induce nuclear fusion without the need for an external neutron source...
23 December 2005
Gravity Grind - A Day In The Life Of A Gravity Detective
In a remote forest outside the world’s most isolated city, engineer Chunnong Zhao begins his day’s work at the Australian International Gravitational Observatory, one of four such observatories spread around the Earth that are searching for Albert Einstein's elusive gravity waves...
13 December 2005
Probe Set To Dial 1-800-ENTANGLEMENT
A new nano-probe could allow physicists to manipulate on-demand a single electron into what’s known as quantum critical states...
1 December 2005
Atoms Coaxed Into Quantum “Cat” State
Scientists have managed to manipulate atoms into a Schrödinger "cat" state, where the atoms exist in two states simultaneously, in this case, spinning in opposite directions at the same time...
28 November 2005
Pimp My Electron Microscope
Observing the quantum world is problematic thanks to the size and speed of particle interactions. But a new souped-up electron microscope that enables researchers track a single electron might change that...
3 November 2005
Study Of Runaway Breakdown Set For Lab
Runaway breakdown, the phenomena supposedly behind terrestrial gamma ray bursts, could soon be studied more closely following electrifying new findings about sparks...
12 October 2005
Atom Wrangling Gets Serious
German researchers report "quasipermanent" storage of an atom between two mirrors for an unprecedented 17 seconds...
29 September 2005
3 And 7 Lucky Numbers For Dimensional Evolution
Physicists say the way our Universe diluted as it expanded favored the formation of three- and seven-dimensional realities...
19 September 2005
Biochemists Turn To Quantum Physics
Physicists aren't the only ones interested in electron spin. Biochemists believe that factoring electron spin into their calculations can help them come to grips with poorly understood biochemical reactions...
30 August 2005
Physicists Propose Search For Dark Energy
An orbiting telescope that would take measurements from distant supernovae could finally answer some of the most intriguing questions about our expanding universe and the dark energy that appears to saturate it...
23 August 2005
Novel Water Switch Displays Intriguing Properties
A switch, based on the clinging technique used by palm beetles but using the electrostatic properties of water to operate, has displayed properties that researchers believe may have a wide range of applications...
15 August 2005
Nanotube Transistor Created
Researchers have reported on the creation of transistors made from synthesized carbon nanotube structures that far outperform conventional electronic transistors...
1 August 2005
New Type Of Molecular Motor Suggested
If nano-machines are to be of any use, they'll need a reliable source of motive power. To this end, two chemists have designed a new kind of electrical motor composed of a single molecule...
29 July 2005
Neutrinos Open Window Into Earth's Interior
A neutrino detector in Japan is using anti-electron neutrinos emanating from inside the earth (geoneutrinos) to open a window into the Earth's interior, revealing previously hidden information...
26 July 2005
Big Bang Produced A "Perfect Fluid"
An unexpected discovery may see physicists heading back to the drawing board in order to update models representing the Universe immediately after the Big Bang...
22 July 2005
Too Much Uncertainty For Quantum Computing?
Dutch theoretical physicists have cast fresh doubt on whether quantum computers will be able to sustain quantum bit coherence for the length of time required to complete a computation. But if quantum mechanics can kiss and make-up with classical physics, then Schroedinger’s kittens just might come to the rescue...
22 July 2005
Single-Atom-Thick Materials Almost Ready For Prime-Time
Two dimensional atomic crystals that can be grown to any size with custom properties could start a new industrial revolution...
24 June 2005
"Holy Grail" Still Elusive
A peculiar force that works at the quantum level has been the subject of some intense examination, and it looks as though the findings could help nanotechnologists solve some troubling problems with future nanotechnology...
21 June 2005
Howzat! Cricket Hairing Aids
Scientists have replicated a feature of the humble cricket that could lead to a new generation of hearing aids...
16 June 2005
Does Time Exist?
While time may be a convenient metronome that delivers neatly portioned slivers of existence to conscious beings, the idea of a ‘universal time’ is looking increasingly fanciful, at least to some physicists...
4 May 2005
Terrestrial Gamma Ray Mystery Deepens
Researchers studying high-energy gamma ray bursts from earth-bound thunderstorms are mystified as to why relatively low energy lightning strikes can create very high energy gamma ray bursts, and why the gamma ray burst precedes the lightning strike by a split-second...
11 April 2005
Alpha Constant May Not Be Constant
One of the cornerstones of physics, the fine structure - or alpha - constant, may not be a constant after all, according to a physicist studying distant quasars...
4 April 2005
First Synthesis Of Ultracold Molecules Achieved
A completely new field of research called superchemistry has been made possible by the synthesis of complex molecules in a Bose-Einstein condensate...
30 March 2005
New Theory On Origin Of Light
Two physicists believe that light may arise as a direct result of small violations of relativity...
21 February 2005
Universe's Expansion May Be Due To Gravity "Leakage"
The accelerating expansion of the universe is usually attributed to dark energy but a new theory says that the expansion may be speeding up due to gravity leaking into other dimensions...
11 February 2005
Real-World Quantum Effects Demonstrated
A university team has demonstrated a nanomechanical device that bridges the worlds of classic and quantum physics...
1 November 2004
Natural Nuclear Reactor Showed Elegant Simplicity
Researchers have established how Earth's only natural nuclear reactor worked flawlessly for 150 million years without blowing up...
29 October 2004
Taming The Photon
Long distance quantum information exchange moved a step closer as scientists demonstrate precise control of the emission time and pulse shape of single photons...
27 August 2004
Electron Lattice Yields Superconductor Clues
An extremely sensitive scanning tunneling microscope that can locate clusters of electrons is giving insights into how high-temperature superconductors work...
4 August 2004
Dramatic Assymetrical Matter, Antimatter Decay Observed
A Stanford accelerator experiment has revealed a dramatic difference in the behavior of matter and antimatter...
28 July 2004
New Sub-Atomic Particle Proposed
Three physicists are suggesting that neutrinos are influenced by a new force resulting from their interactions with newly recognized particles called "accelerons", with dark energy as the result...
9 July 2004
Neutrino Boogie Upsets Standard Model
Newly observed neutrino oscillatory patterns allow the mass difference between neutrinos to be measured and show that the Standard Model is incomplete...
5 July 2004
New Theory Unites Dark Matter & Dark Energy
A new theoretical model proposes dark matter and dark energy are two aspects of a single unknown force...
24 March 2004
K Meson Decay May Upset Standard Model Of Particle Physics
A rare type of K meson decay that occurs only once in every 7 billion decays suggests a possible discrepancy with the Standard Model...
3 March 2004
Nuclear Fusion From Bubbles Blasted With Sound
More tabletop fusion fun as scientists look into what appears to be nuclear fusion occurring in a liquid bombarded by ultrasound...
26 January 2004
Evidence For New Form Of Atomic Matter - The Pentaquark
Protons and neutrons are composed of three quarks but scientists have found evidence for a new particle made up of five quarks...
13 October 2003
New State Of Matter Mooted
It appears that bosons can exist as a metal which directly contradicts conventional wisdom and likely requires a new state of matter to be recognized...
27 February 2003
Quantum Entanglement Of Three Electrons Achieved
Scientists have demonstrated the quantum entanglement of three electrons using an ultrafast optical pulse and a quantum well of magnetic semiconductor material...
31 October 2002
Scientists Hope To Reveal "Extra Dimensions," Exotic Forces
Physicists have devised a new experiment that will be used in the quest for exotic forces in nature and "additional spatial dimensions"...
7 March 2002
Cold Fusion - The Sequel
Researchers have reported results that suggest the possibility of nuclear reactions during the explosive collapse of bubbles in liquid, a process known as cavitation...
28 December 2001
Controlling Electron Spin Electrically
Researchers demonstrate continuous electrical tunability of spin coherence in semiconductor nanostructures...
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