Polymers are long chain-like molecules made up of smaller molecules called monomers. It is well known that polymer chains often tie themselves in knots, but it was not clear how this influenced the mechanical properties of the polymer. Klein and colleagues modelled what happens when a knotted polymer chain consisting of 144 carbon atoms was […]
Almost everyone has heard of the “Oppenheimer affair”. It took place between 1953-54 when the father of the atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, was subjected to a humiliating show trial by the Atomic Energy Commission and subsequently permanently stripped of his security clearance. But most people, including most historians of science, know little else about the […]
Read article: Atomic secrets and the red scare
Geophysicists realised that the Earth’s crust consisted of a series of tectonic plates when they noticed that as magma flowed out of the ocean ridges and cooled, iron in the magma magnetized in the direction of the Earth’s magnetic field. This field changes direction roughly every 10000 years. The material from the ocean ridge gradually […]
Under the terms of the new European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA), JET would no longer carry out one common programme of work approved by the EU. Instead, the JET facilities would be run by the UKAEA on behalf of Euratom. Visiting teams of researchers from JET’s 16 member states or “associations”, which include the UK, […]
Galaxies have been forming since the universe was less than 10% of its current age – as supercomputer simulations predict and observations have confirmed
Read article: How are galaxies made?
Will the patents taken out on quantum computers expire before such computers are ever built?
Physicists are rightly proud of the way that basic research in the past has paid off in terms of technology that is widely used everyday. We all know the examples: transistors, lasers, optical fibres, magnetic resonance scanners and so on. These inventions have all made lots of money for individuals and companies somewhere in the […]
Li-Jun Wu from Columbia University and colleagues from Colorado State University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences used the radiological research accelerator at Columbia to pass precise quantities of alpha particles through the cytoplasm. They found that it only required eight alpha-particle “hits” in the cytoplasm to increase the normal level of mutations by a […]
Cosmic rays are particles from outer space that continually bombard the Earth. The nature and origin of cosmic rays with energies below 1015 eV are well understood. However, physicists have no idea of what the highest-energy cosmic rays, which have energies of more than 1020 eV, are made of, or how they are accelerated. These […]
The IPP runs a tokamak called ASDEX and is also building a stellarator fusion device known as Wendelstein 7-X at it lab in Greifswald. If ITER is built in Japan, Bradshaw says he will lobby for Garching to become the European control room. He also hopes to upgrade ASDEX. “After the Joint European Torus is […]
