The DFG has been experimenting with different ways of digitizing postgraduate dissertations for some time. These documents are usually one of the hardest sets of scientific information to access because copies are held only at national libraries or at the awarding institution, and students tend to only publish 3 or 4 copies. This new program […]
The technique is based on characteristics of individual photons that are generated randomly between the sender and the receiver. Although researchers have already transmitted quantum encryption keys through optical fibres, atmospheric turbulence had disrupted similar attempts in the open air. William Buttler and colleagues at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US succeeded by carrying […]
Quasar jets are streams of plasma that travel at near the speed of light from supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies. The jets appear at radio wavelengths, but can also be detected in the optical, X-ray and gamma-ray regions of the spectrum. The difficulty for astronomers has been distinguishing between electrons and positrons […]
However,it is the last paragraph that makes the paper unique: “The tragedy of beautiful theories, ” write Chakraverty et al., “is that they are often destroyed by ugly facts. One perhaps can add that the comedy of not so beautiful theories is that they cannot even be destroyed; like figures in a cartoon they continue […]
These latest results, according to Barker et al., indicate “high confidence” that the network being set up to monitor the CTBT can indeed verify small nuclear explosions. Concerns over the effectiveness of the monitoring network have made it extremely difficult for supporters of the treaty to have it ratified by the US congress. Only two […]
With a collision energy of 189 GeV, LEP is currently the world’s highest energy electron-positron collider. It was originally due to be shut down at the end of this year, but physicists working at the facility successfully lobbied to have its life extended and its energy increased to 200 GeV. The extension is to be […]
Bohr had escaped from German-occupied Denmark in September 1943 and crossed the Atlantic to work with British and American physicists on the Manhattan atomic-bomb project at Los Alamos. However, he returned to Copenhagen in August 1945, partly on the advice of his close contact, Sir John Anderson, who was chancellor of the exchequer and political […]
Sensenbrenner has long campaigned against ITER, an international collaboration between fusion labs in Europe, Japan, Russia and the US. He claims that ITER has soaked up valuable funds that could be used for cheaper, more effective fusion programmes, and called last week’s extension “irresponsible.” He argues that the original goal set by the project – […]
Outside it is a warm May evening, as two friends sit deep in discussion in a coffee house in Berne. “Besso, you must help me, I think I am going mad. How is it even thinkable that a light ray could overtake two reference systems with exactly the same speed if one is moving, the […]
The first news story in that first issue was a sneak preview of the Edwards’ report on the future of physics departments in UK universities, which concluded that 20 staff and 200 full-time-equivalent students was the minimum feasible size for a department. Some 20 or so of the 53 departments of the time did not […]
