At the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting in Philadelphia today, Leroy Dubeck from Temple University presented a lecture on teaching science with the help of science fiction. Science fiction movies are well known for breaking physical laws, and although Scotty, the chief engineer on Star Trek, frequently protested that he […]
Magnetic heat engines have been known about since 1889, but the success of gas engines has largely prevented research into this technology. Magnetic engines work by converting heat directly into electricity by taking advantage of temperature differentials to change the strength of magnetic fields. Changes in the magnetic field generate electricity. The growth of semiconductor […]
Bose-Einstein condensation itself was only observed for the first time in 1995. There has been intense interest in the process ever since because of the unique quantum behaviour displayed by matter in the condensate, and because of the possibility of building an atom laser. Just as a conventional laser relies on the stimulated emission of […]
The $40 million Magdalena Ridge Observatory will use optical interferometry to merge light signals from three new telescopes into a single image. Researchers also hope to test new adaptive optics techniques in a attempt to reduce the effect of atmospheric turbulence. Using these methods the observatory should produce images sharper than those obtained from the […]
Galileo declassified The Vatican has finally made public its archives, after four and a half centuries of secrecy. Scholars will be able to access files relating to figures such as Galileo, up to the beginning of this century. The official announcement of the Vatican’s decision was made at a meeting organized by the Accademia dei […]
The merger between Magnox Electric and British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) should be complete within a year, creating a new group with a combined turnover of £1.8 bn and almost 18 000 staff, including 3900 scientists. The move will save the government at least £1.1 bn, but it will still have to pay the merged […]
The good news is contained in the budget request for the fiscal year 1999 (FY99), which begins in October. The National Science Foundation will receive 10% more than this year, while science and technology at the Department of Energy is in line for a 3% rise. However, the request contains bad news for NASA – […]
Luckily the literature is not like a barrel of apples and one bad paper will not ruin all of the others. There are also different types of mistakes with different consequences. Deliberate mistakes are the most damaging and, on the basis of recent high-profile cases, such scientific fraud is largely a problem for life scientists […]
In The Crystal Egg, a short story written in 1897, HG Wells describes how a remarkable object in Mr Cave’s Curiosity Shop allows its owner to gaze at a real-time image from the surface of Mars while sitting in a darkened room on Earth. A century later, we can all do much the same thing, […]
Read article: Paul Dirac: the purest soul in physics
Paul Dirac published the first of his papers on "The Quantum Theory of the Electron" 70 years ago this month. The Dirac equation, derived in those papers, is one of the most important equations in physics
