‘Microlens’ could bring dark matter into focus
A nearby white dwarf behaving as a lens could help to explain the nature of dark matter
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Solar cell edges towards endless energy
A new semiconductor uses visible light to extract 'clean' hydrogen fuel from water
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Ice crystals pull together
Avalanche defence and ski safety could benefit from the discovery of a new structural feature in packed snow
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Are physicists useful?
“But the greatest error of all is mistaking the ultimate end of knowledge. For some men covet knowledge out of a natural curiosity and inquisitive temper; some to entertain the mind with variety and delight; some for ornament and reputation; some for victory and contention; many for lucre and a livelihood; and but few for […]
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Collisions feel the cold
For many years atomic-collision experiments basically involved measuring the deflection of fast projectiles that had passed through gaseous targets, or measuring the amount of light given off by atoms and molecules as they were bombarded with different projectiles. In recent years, however, the atomic-physics community has aspired to much more: we want to prepare a […]
A marriage made for the nanoworld
Light is beautiful. It can probe matter in a multitude of ways, but there are limitations when we try to use it to investigate the revolution in nanotechnology that is currently taking place. The first problem with light in the nanometre domain is diffraction. Light cannot be focused to a point smaller than half its […]
Guglielmo Marconi: radio star
A lack of formal education, high-powered family connections and an unstoppable will to succeed helped Guglielmo Marconi to transmit the first radio signal across the Atlantic and launch the wireless-communications industry
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The reality of a brane new world
This review first appeared in the news section of PhysicsWeb on 8 November. It is said that one of the world’s most eminent quantum-gravity theorists was once asked to explain in his institution’s annual report what he did. He declined, claiming that his work was far too complicated for the general public to understand. All […]
Marconi’s painful centenary
The Marconi story (see article) has featured a cast of interesting characters. Marconi himself was a larger-than-life scion of a wealthy Irish-Italian family, an energetic mix of entrepreneur, inventor and playboy. Until the mid-1990s the Marconi legacy was maintained by GEC, which was Britain’s largest manufacturing company, with interests ranging from defence to medical electronics. […]
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Beefing up the strong force
Protons and neutrons are composite objects that consist of quarks bound by the strong force. Free quarks, and the gluons that hold them together, are not observed in nature because the coupling strength between quarks becomes stronger as the distance between them increases. The theory describing this strong force is called quantum chromodynamics. In the […]
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