The fantastic progress in the miniaturization of electronic devices that has taken place in the past few decades has largely been made possible by perfecting a century-old technique called lithography. Devices are built up layer by layer, the pattern on each layer being defined by a lithographic “mask”. In this “top-down” approach we start with […]
Scientists at the research laboratory of the Museums of France in Paris compared the painting with nine of the 70 works accredited to Van Gogh during his time at Auvers. However, they were not allowed to remove samples from the painting, and could not use the lab’s synchrotron X-ray source since radiation can sometimes heat […]
Stanley and colleagues looked at five different measures of research activity in universities: the annual expenditure on R&D, the number of papers published each year, the number of patents awarded, whether R&D funds had been transferred from one university to another by a funder, and the size of schools and departments within universities. They compared […]
During the 1980s the European Court of Justice in Strasbourg agreed that the British workers had been discriminated against, and in 1996 the court ordered the European Commission to settle the case. The workers can now expect to receive between £70000 and £100000 each. A major reason for the settlement is the collapse of the […]
Nearly all the quantum models of the brain depend on how long the brain can keep quantum coherence. Penrose argues for example, that microtubles – small hollow cylinders that help cells keep their shape in the brain – operate like a quantum computer and can keep information stored as ‘quantum waves’ for long periods of […]
Jeremy Newton, chief executive of NESTA, says that the fund will support projects across the whole spectrum of science, art and technology, particularly interdisciplinary research. But with such a wide remit and limited resources, funding will have to be highly selective. A key feature of NESTA, explains Newton, will be its willingness to take risks […]
The meeting, “Preserving the Astronomical Sky,” was held in Austria a few days before UNISPACE III, a major conference sponsored by the United Nations (UN) that will look at the impact and influence of space research and industry in the 21st Century. Light pollution has become an increasing problem in recent decades, with the resolution […]
The RHIC seeks to recreate the primordial “soup” of particles that existed immediately after the big bang and from which everyday matter formed. Today quarks only exist inside strongly interacting particles, called hadrons, where they are held together by gluons. By colliding two beams of relativistic heavy ions – such as gold ions travelling near […]
X-ray observations with Chandra will complement infrared images from the Hubble Space Telescope and higher-energy observations by the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. Chandra will have a resolution that is 8 times better than any previous X-ray telescope, while its sensitivity will be 20 times better. It will detect X-rays from stellar flares, exploding supernovae, white […]
Brown joined the science committee in 1965 and became chairman in 1990, losing his position when the Republicans gained control of Congress in 1995. The current chairman of the committee, James Sensenbrenner, was one of the many people to pay tribute to Brown. Others included President Clinton, vice-president Al Gore and NASA chief Dan Goldin. […]
