A team including theoretical physicists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has taken a step toward building objects out of photons, and the findings hint that weightless particles of light can be joined into a sort of “molecule” with its own peculiar force. In a paper forthcoming in Physical Review Letters, the […]
It’s known that airplane crews at high altitude are exposed to potentially harmful levels of radiation from cosmic rays, but could these cosmic rays pose hazards even at sea level? A new study into these potential terrestrial effects has just been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. Study co-author Adrian Melott, professor of physics […]
Scientists from the Moscow Institute Of Physics And Technology and Tulane University (New Orleans) have for the first time described the behavior of electrons in a previously unstudied analogue of graphene, two-dimensional niobium telluride, and, in the process, uncovered the nature of two-dimensionality effects on conducting properties. Their findings will help pave the way for […]
Scientists are capable of measuring the position of an object with unprecedented accuracy, but the Heisenberg uncertainty principle ultimately places a fundamental limit on such measurements (known as the standard quantum limit). Now, however, Caltech researchers have found a way to filter this quantum background “noise” and make measurements that go beyond the limits imposed […]
To run integrated circuits at faster and faster speeds, University of Pittsburgh scientists are proposing a new spin on an old method: a change from the use of silicon electronics back to vacuum technology for electron transport – a shift they believe would overcome a significant stumbling block in the ongoing development of faster and […]
Weizmann Institute 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” the electrons moving through it, a finding that could impact both medical science and electronics research. Quantum phenomena are generally associated with extremely small systems, usually […]
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. Reporting on their work in Science, the researchers explained that while single electrons seem to be impossible to break apart, […]
Is that a particle accelerator in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me? Scientists investigating the mysteries of the sub-atomic domain could soon benefit from the dramatic results achieved with a micro-accelerator for electron beams. In a remarkable demonstration of the potential of laser-wakefield acceleration, scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory […]
