Experimentalists at CERN will use a cloud chamber to mimic the Earth’s atmosphere in order to try and determine whether cloud formation is influenced by solar activity. According to the Danish theory, charged particles from the Sun deflect galactic cosmic rays (streams of high-energy particles from outer space) that would otherwise have ionized the Earth’s […]
The team looked in particular for ‘lag time’ effects in the data. For example, the eruption of Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991 lowered the global temperature by 0.3 C in the following year as fine aerosols of volcanic ash and sulphuric acid caused a cooling effect. However, the team believes that volcanic eruptions […]
Semiconductor lasers are usually monocromatic because the electrons stored in energy bands do not emit any photons unless they move out of the semiconductor’s conduction band. Federico Capasso and colleagues have created the multi-wavlength laser by modifying the conduction band by building 25 different sandwich layers of material into the device. Each sandwich consists of […]
The 1995 image was taken in a small patch near the Big Dipper constellation, which astronomers previously thought was completely blank. This new image taken by the Space Telescope Science Institute and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center last month, was of the constellation Tucana, near the south celestial pole. “We have eagerly awaited this new […]
The 24 ton Zarya (meaning “daybreak”) module is based on the long experience the Russian Space Agency has had with the Mir space station. Unlike the US space station Skylab, which was until Mir the largest object in orbit, the module can stay in space for 430 days without re-fuelling. The Russian space company Khrunichev […]
Fibre-optic cables usually consist of an inner core of highly refractive glass sheathed inside glass with a lower refractive index. Light travels along the inner core fibre by total internal reflection. However, despite their popularity, standard optical fibers have a number of limitations. They are difficult to manufacture, light can leak from the inner core, […]
The CPLEAR collaboration studied the decays of neutral kaons produced in proton- antiproton collisions. The collisions produce both neutral kaons – which contain a down quark and an anti-strange quark – and their antiparticles. These particles can decay in many ways. The CPLEAR team study so-called semileptonic decays in which the neutral kaons decay into […]
Doctors need to measure blood conductivity to calculate the internal pump volume of the heart and the blood circulation rate. However, when patients receive additional fluids – for example, water, drips or drugs during surgery – the conductivity can fluctuate. The new system is able to measure these changing conductance levels in real time. The […]
Attempts to scale down current laser designs have been made before, but the devices were not efficient enough for real applications. Now a group of researchers from Darmstadt University of Technology, the University of Frankfurt and IMM in Mainz have found a zeolite that can trap the dye molecules with the correct alignment and orientation […]
Hawking was one of ten famous names asked by the National Portrait Galley to pick photographs that defined the 20th century. He was the only scientist in a group that included the film producer David Puttnam, the fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, and David Bowie. “I have concentrated on scientists and women, the important members of […]
