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High-speed switching at low voltages

High-speed switching at low voltages

Converting electrical signals into optical pulses is one of the speed ‘bottlenecks’ in current telecommunications systems. To reach high data speeds, a series of electro-optic devices called modulators, all operating at different wavelengths, are used. The most common modulators are based on a lithium niobate compound, but they require high voltages (5 V) to work. […]

Universities receive third funding boost

Universities receive third funding boost

The JIF scheme is designed to bring facilities at UK universities to the forefront of international research. Nearly £600m has been awarded to 109 projects in 28 different institutions since the UK Government and the Wellcome Trust – the world’s largest biomedical research charity -first funded the scheme. The size of the third round awards […]

Comet Hyakutake makes a mark on Ulysses

Comet Hyakutake makes a mark on Ulysses

Ulysses was launched to make continuous measurements of the solar wind, a steady stream of ionized particles that flows outwards from the star. In 1998 Pete Riley and colleagues from Los Alamos National Laboratory published a paper describing a dramatic drop in the number of protons registered by Ulysses. They suggested that a comet could […]

Quantum computers think big

Quantum computers think big

The Innsbruck model relies on ions stored in an array of microtraps. Because the microtraps can be fabricated in a solid state device, thousands of traps can be put into an array. The internal quantum state of the ions acts as the qubit. A different ion, called the head ion, moves above the array to […]

Collaborating with the enemy?

Collaborating with the enemy?

About a year ago I was asked to speak at a local women’s studies conference on mathematics, science and technology. I didn’t flatter myself at having been chosen, because nearly every local woman who was even vaguely involved with science or mathematics at a professional level had been invited to speak. Nevertheless, I had for […]

Beyond understanding

Beyond understanding

There was an inevitable irony in the timing of a recent report on “science and society” published by the House of Lords select committee on science and technology. The report was released the day after the UK government announced that it was going to invest £530m in the development of a superjumbo jet, and that […]

Polymer outshines other mirrors

Polymer outshines other mirrors

Dielectric mirrors are made of multiple layers of transparent materials, each of which reflects a small fraction of the light that hits it. At a specific layer thickness, the reflected light waves merge and amplify, intensifying the reflection. In earlier dielectric mirrors, the efficiency of the mirror fell as the angle of reflected light increased […]

The hard X-ray background comes into view

The hard X-ray background comes into view

The CXB covers a range of photon energies, with a peak around 40 kiloelectron volts (keV). The soft X-ray part of the background – photon energies between about 0.5 and 2 keV – was extensively studied with ROSAT satellite, and most of it has been resolved into individual objects, mostly distant active galactic nuclei (AGN) […]

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