Campbell left his position last Friday after a series of anonymous faxes was sent to officials at the Department of Energy (DOE) saying that he did not have a doctorate degree. Although Campbell finished his PhD coursework at Princeton University, he did not complete his dissertation. Campbell joined Livermore in 1977, and has won a […]
Read article: Top Livermore physicist resigns
Only two other methods have previously been used to manufacture quantum dots: electron beam lithography and epitaxy. Lithography is a top down approach in which the beam defines the dot pattern, whereas epitaxy is a bottom-up approach in which the dots self-organize. Ion bombardment or sputtering is more cost effective and easily controllable than the […]
Results presented at the International Europhysics Conference on High Energy Physics in mid-July provide strong hints that the Higgs boson, one of the holy grails of particle physics, is lurking just around the corner. Over 500 physicists gathered in Tampere, Finland, armed with the latest data and hot on the trail of this elusive particle, […]
“The entire scope of human experience can be viewed as a collective effect resulting from elementary particles dutifully following well-understood equations.” Statements like this excite deep-seated passions and tend to bring out strongly polarized views. The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace by Margaret Wertheim is a product of this passionate debate. This debate is one I […]
The meeting gave the pioneers of “econophysics”, such as Jean-Phillippe Bouchard, János Kertész, Rosario Mantegna and Eugene Stanley, an official forum to present and debate their research on some of the most fascinating dynamical systems. The search for a scientific model that can accurately predict future movements in the financial markets is the investor’s equivalent […]
Currently most ultrasound devices convert an electrical signal directly into mechanical vibrations through the piezoelectric effect. But these devices only operate over a narrow frequency range and have limited output. The idea of using heat to generate sound has been around for over 80 years, but until recently the thermal conduction of porous silicon was […]
Atomic interferometers use lasers to place atoms into superpositions of different quantum states. These states acquire different phases as they move in a gravitational field, and this phase difference can be measured by using other lasers to return the atoms to the initial quantum state. The longer the atoms spend in the superposition state, the […]
Inside a pulsar the neutrons are thought to decay into protons and electrons, which are then accelerated by the pulsar’s powerful magnetic field. Since protons and electrons are charged particles, they release intense synchrotron radiation at radio wavelengths from the magnetic poles of the pulsar. Previously astronomers believed that once a pulsar slowed beyond a […]
Colloidal plasmas contain three different components – electrons, ions and charged microspheres. Although these unusual plasmas can be studied in the laboratory, researchers have only been able to study two-dimensional effects because gravity can overwhelm the electrostatic interactions between the particles. These interactions are responsible for the unusual properties of colloidal plasmas. By reducing the […]
The medium is made of nanocrystals of zinc sulphide doped with samarium. Although the nanocrystals are only 3 nanometres long, they clump together into larger particles to form a powder that can be used as the storage medium. In their experiments Kurita and co-workers used a laser to measure the energy excitation spectrum of the […]
