Home – Physics World

Today's headlines

Earthquakes could be detected using undersea telecoms cables

Friction has memory, say physicists

Discovery could boost our understanding of why earthquakes occur

Compensator expands global access to advanced radiotherapy

A ring-based compensator system enables intensity-modulated radiotherapy without the need for complex multileaf collimators

Silicon carbide LEDs make bright single photon sources

Discovery of new colour centres in SiC confirms once again that it is a good material out of which to make qubits

Research news

3D printed biomaterial promotes tissue regeneration

Photoacoustic CT looks to replace mammography

Photo of the EcoLink wildlife overpass in 2014, soon after its construction. Courtesy: By Benjamin P. Y-H. Lee (University of Kent). [CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Smoke from El Niño fires subdued dawn chorus in Singapore

Giant lasers pass new milestone towards fusion energy

Fusion energy output at NIF is double input kinetic energy

Printed metal-polymer conductors make stretchy biodevices

Applications include cardiac patches, wearable glove keyboards, soft robotics and medical implants

Ambitious climate targets could protect millions from heat waves

Fraction of world population exposed to severe heat waves every five years becomes three times larger under 2 °C warming

Super spins appear in carbon sheet

Researchers say they have seen evidence for spin superfluidity and very long distance spin transport in a graphene antiferromagnet for the first time

Cost of fossil fuel investment is too high

Fossil fuel investment is not just bad for the global climate. It could also be dangerous for investors, and for national economies.

Software creates personalized ‘virtual brain’ models

Researchers have created virtual models of the brain individually tailored to patients' functional MR images

Warming up for the World Cup

Roberto Carlos of Brazil scores against France

Football and its physics connections

Putting a scientific spin on the FIFA World Cup

How physics can improve your football

Scientists have worked out how to maximise the length of a soccer throw-in

Image of the FIFA 2018 tournament ball being tested

Physics of footballs, FIFA 2018 World Cup probabilities revealed

EGU 2018: how to distinguish football celebrations from dancing

I’m a football fan…get me out of here

Physics World podcasts

Sterile neutrinos, climate change and smart cities

A computer-generated image of the International Prototype kilogram (IPK)

Getting the measure of measurement

Explore in depth

Riding the gravity wave

Benjamin Skuse reviews On Gravity: a Brief Tour of a Weighty Subject by Anthony Zee

Alternatives to plastic packaging by Sulapac.

100% biodegradable packaging company expands

Aiming to reduce plastic waste in food packaging, Sulapac joins forces with Fazer

The carrot and the stick

How intellectual property strategy can help start-ups attract investors and deter competitors

Tracing the spread of cancer

Endomagnetics co-founder Simon Hattersley on starting a company that makes magnetic nanoparticle systems for detecting cancer

Hunting submarines from the air

Aircraft play an important role in searching for submarines in the ocean depths. Jason Furlong and John Ryder describe how physics helps them hunt the unseen enemy

The asteroid trillionaires

With private companies turning their attention to the riches of asteroids, the first trillionaire could be made in space. Andrew Glester explores the challenges of mining sp...

The wow and the woo

Jean Bricmont's latest book Quantum Sense and Nonsense "exists in a superposition of states", writes Philip Moriarty

Nanotechnology in action

Read our special collection to explore some of the challenges and opportunities associated with turning advances in nanotechnology into commercial products

Video showcase

Photo of David Smeulders from TU Eindhoven

Testing the waters in New Orleans

Smart cities, the Dutch approach

Latest articles

Photo of farmer collecting silage in front of wind turbines. Courtesy: iStock/Stephen Meese

UK renewables: a ‘hostile environment’?

The good news is that renewables now supply nearly 30% of UK electricity. Yet the wider investment picture looks grim.

UK space sector set for take-off

Joanna Hart from the Harwell Space Cluster outlines how the UK space industry has an international outlook

The power of images

Enrico Sacchetti says that photography can be an effective way to communicate science to the general public

Riding the gravity wave

Benjamin Skuse reviews On Gravity: a Brief Tour of a Weighty Subject by Anthony Zee

The dark-energy deniers

20 years after discovering that the universe is expanding with increasing speed, scientists still argue about whether dark energy explains it. Keith Cooper explores the deba...

The carrot and the stick

How intellectual property strategy can help start-ups attract investors and deter competitors

Elekta Unity receives CE mark

The Elekta Unity high-field MR-linac is now CE marked for commercial sales and clinical use in Europe

100% biodegradable packaging company expands

Aiming to reduce plastic waste in food packaging, Sulapac joins forces with Fazer

Avoiding strife on Mars, the physics of football, calling all psychic pets

Excerpts from the Red Folder

Set to be complete in 2026, the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider will increase the discovery range for new particles by around 20-30% over the current LHC

CERN begins major upgrade to the Large Hadron Collider

HL-LHC will see the collider's luminosity increase by a factor of 10

Optical micrograph of a chip containing nanoribbon devices

Silicon nanowires sense single ion channel currents

Nanoelectronic devices that detect the tiny ion currents behind individual action potentials can be CMOS compatible

Astrophysicists pin down jet from merging neutron stars

Faint gamma ray signal is a result of off-axis observation

Integrated platform supports advances in radiation therapy workflow

The SunCHECK platform from Sun Nuclear combines patient-specific and machine-based quality assurance

Tracing the spread of cancer

Endomagnetics co-founder Simon Hattersley on starting a company that makes magnetic nanoparticle systems for detecting cancer

Printed ferromagnetic domains help make fast-moving robot

Tiny device, which can roll, jump and grasp objects, might be used in a host of biomedical applications, like minimally invasive surgery or targeted drug delivery

US politicians call for a national quantum-computing strategy

Two new bills will be considered by Congress

Image of a sexual harassment complaint form

Ethics
News

Urgent reform needed to tackle sexual misconduct in science

National Academies report finds that current policies have failed to halt the issue

Green Electric Plug. Digitally Generated Image isolated on white background. Courtesy: iStock/alxpin

Africa-Europe concentrating solar power link: a solar land grab?

The “desert solar” idea has been around for some time but some see it as neo-colonial

International Day of Light

To celebrate the first ever International Day of Light, this special collection explores the success and commercial impact of research into optics, photonics and lasers

Most read

GOLD SUPPLIERS

brightrecruits

brightrecruits offers a range of opportunities for jobseekers with a background in physics or engineering. At all stages of your career, we can help find the job for you

Featured employer

NWO-NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research is the national oceanographic institute and principally performs academically excellent multidisciplinary fundamental and frontier applied marine research addressing important scientific and societal questions pertinent to the functioning of oceans and seas. Second, NIOZ serves as national marine research facilitator (NMF) for The Netherlands scientific community. Third, NIOZ stimulates and supports multidisciplinary fundamental and frontier applied marine research, education and marine policy development in the national and international context.

View the employer

Physics Connect

Physics Connect offers the latest white papers, news, videos, expertise and case studies from thousands of commercial suppliers and research institutes worldwide

New webinar this week

Life Beyond Earth
There has been, until now, no compelling evidence for biology beyond the confines of our own planet. And yet, people who investigate this topic feel confident that – within two decades – we will trip across life forms that are not, and never have been, earthlings. Why are they so optimistic that we will soon find some cosmic confrères, and what might be the implications of such a discovery?

View the webinar

Featured event

Stay up to date with the latest international conferences, symposia and exhibitions for interdisciplinary scientists working across academic research and industry

The 10th International Workshop on Nanoscale Spectroscopy and Nanotechnology – NSS10

10—13 September 2018, Oxford, UK
NSS10 bringing together experts to discuss and share the information on latest research advances of science and technology in the nanoscale regime including (but not limited to) electronic, optical, magnetic, mechanical and transport properties of nanoscale systems and nanoscale devices, as well as characterisation tools to study them. It will additionally focus on low dimensional materials, catalysis, energy materials, topological materials and their practical applications.

View the event

Topics

Reset your password

Registration complete