Scientists often complain that the media do not report their work. However, according to Fisher, this is not because journalists are not interested in science but because they have a fear of looking foolish when asking questions. The dunking story, on the other hand, gave journalists the chance to interact with researchers on a topic […]
The French team studied the behaviour of air bubbles on the surface of the sticky polymer film attached to a metal probe. The number and size of the bubbles depends on the surface roughness of the film and probe. They discovered that when the film and the probe are pulled in opposite directions, the air […]
At the DOE, the budget for basic energy science is set to rise by 11%, with two-thirds of this going to meet construction costs for the Spallation Neutron Source being built at Oak Ridge. Fusion research remains static at $222 m. The $13.6 bn requested for NASA represents a fall of 0.6% compared with this […]
The history of science is littered with famous scientists who pushed the ‘wrong idea’, Perl told PhysicsWeb. And research organisations do not have a good track record of controlling the direction of scientific discoveries. He points out that all efforts to produce energy from controlled nuclear fusion have failed, despite the massive investment in fusion […]
Normal metals have an equal number of electrons with spin “up” and spin “down”. However, when there are more spins pointing up than down, or vice versa, the metal becomes a ferromagnet. Furthermore, the unpaired electrons responsible for the magnetism are pinned by the metal lattice and cannot move. This is what happens in iron. […]
On page 38 of this provocative book, Thomas Gold describes how he began “nosing around in the field of petroleum geology” only after establishing himself as an esteemed astronomer and physicist, and having been elected as a member of several prestigious learned societies. He would not recommend a scientist of lesser standing, “however brilliant”, to […]
When it comes to employing new graduates, scientific institutions are increasingly keen to take on people who have practical scientific experience as well as the academic understanding that a physics degree provides. One way in which undergraduate students can gain this vital experience – and hence improve their job prospects – is by doing work […]
Colloids are also immensely important in a range of industries. Although the products themselves are low-tech – paint, mayonnaise, toothpaste and ice cream, for instance – the physics underpinning these industries is extremely complex and challenging. In the early 1990s several multinational companies with R&D centres in the UK realized that they simply did not […]
Two of the most remarkable properties of light – squeezing and solitons – are being combined in a new generation of experiments that could revolutionize optics and communications
Read article: Quantum solitons
Jaakkola observed two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensation (2D BEC) in a gas of specially prepared hydrogen atoms adsorbed on the surface of liquid helium. In Bose-Einstein condensation all the particles in a system collapse into a single quantum state that has many unusual and novel properties. Atomic hydrogen was once considered the epitome of a quantum gas, […]
