Physics has dined out on the invention of the transistor, the laser and various medical scanners for years. However, the success of these inventions has depended on researchers leaving their labs – where the experiment only has to work once – to enter the world of industry where engineers are more interested in devices that […]
Read article: Physics goes commercial
Astronomers have long known that an isolated gravitational system, such as a star, has a negative heat capacity: when energy is added it expands and cools. Now Hellmut Haberland and co-workers at the University of Freiburg in Germany have demonstrated a more down-to-earth example. Recently they have shown that an isolated cluster of 147 sodium […]
Optoelectronics is flourishing in Scotland with new firms spinning off from local universities every month. Valerie Jamieson finds out why it is boom time for the region
Read article: Laser jocks reach the big time
Superconductivity – the complete loss of electrical resistance in certain metals when cooled to low temperatures – continues to hold surprises. Hot on the heels of the discovery of charge-induced superconductivity at 50 K on the surface of carbon-60 molecules late last year comes the discovery of bulk superconductivity at temperatures approaching 40 K in magnesium diboride. […]
Read article: New metallic superconductor makes an immediate impact
Now Ahmed Zewail and co-workers at the California Institute of Technology have developed a method of ultrafast electron diffraction that can resolve both the structure of a molecule and its dynamics during a chemical reaction in far greater detail (H Ihee et al. 2001 Science 291 458). The group now plans to investigate the structural […]
English-language versions, where they exist, are given in brackets. 1 Eine Kurze Geschichte der Zeit (Buy: Amazon.de) (A Brief History of Time) Stephen Hawking (Rowohlt) 2 Im Hyperraum (Buy: Amazon.de) (In Hyperspace) Michio Kaku (Rowohlt) 3 Kosmos Himmelsjahr 2001 (Buy: Amazon.de) Hans-Ulrich Keller (Kosmos) 4 Einsteins Traum (Buy: Amazon.de) (Black Holes and Baby Universes and […]
A traditional printing process could help cutting-edge liquid crystal technology
The ability to control a single positive charge could improve our definition of the amp
Experts identify the most pressing problems in physics today
Competition hots up for the world's next major accelerator
Read article: Linear collider race gets serious
