Single-electron transistors
Researchers are building new transistors that actively exploit the quantum properties of electrons
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Read article: Single-electron transistors
Lasers, chaos, and bow-ties
Laser technology has come a long way since the 1960s. The very earliest lasers, such as ruby and helium-neon devices, were formidable contraptions. They relied on dilute active media with discrete energy levels such as gases or dopant ions scattered in a solid, external pumping mechanisms such as bulky coiled flashlamps or auxiliary gases excited […]
Putting the fizz back into physics
The fascination of physics, for me, lies in its supremely exotic nature. Although it is a subject grounded in experimental test and rigorous verification, it nonetheless spans an awesome range of weird and wonderful concepts. The power of physics to describe the real world is persuasive, but it is its power to describe other worlds […]
Controversy reigns over ‘dark matter’ claim
Alcock and co-workers have been searching for MACHOs – massive compact halo objects – with a technique known as gravitational lensing. In this the gravitational field of a heavy object acts like a lens when it passes in front of a background star, magnifying the star’s light. Researchers have so far found 15 such events […]
Deuterium ‘shocked’ into metallic state
Gilbert Collins and colleagues used the NOVA laser at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California to carry out the experiments (Science 281 1178). The deuterium was placed in a small copper cell with a plunger fitted at one end. When the laser hits the plunger, it sends a shock wave through the chamber. By […]
Global warming confirmed from space
Previously satellite measurements have suggested that the atmosphere was cooling at 0.05 Kelvin per decade, while ground-based instruments showed an increase of 0.13 Kelvin per decade. However, as polar satellites orbit the Earth, they suffer atmospheric drag. The thickness and height of the Earth’s atmosphere is dependent on the sun’s solar activity. When solar activity […]
Product testing to destruction
Most automobile vibration testing is sinusoidal in nature, in which a regular pattern of rapid, slow and zero vibrations vary in a predictable pattern to mimic driving conditions. Hu’s random vibration testing is more realistic. It uses several random processes to mimic different driving routes and styles – and hence mimic the stresses on the […]
Scientists hail SOHO
“This is the best news I’ve heard since we lost contact with SOHO” says Roger Bonnet, ESA’s director of science. “We should just hope that the damage sustained by SOHO’s enforced period of deep freeze does not affect the scientific payload too much.” SOHO is a $1 billion joint venture between the European Space Agency […]
European radio astronomers silence satellites
Signals produced by the satellites are over a 100 times stronger than the radio sources studied by astronomers. Under the new agreement, European radio astronomers will get 24 hours of ‘unpolluted’ observation time from 1 January 2006. However, they will have to negotiate for ‘restricted’ observation times with Iridium until that date. The CRAF has […]
Cosmic rays: the puzzles continue
Speculation on the origin of high energy cosmic rays has existed for some time. The best candidates are massive supernova explosions or the decay of superheavy particles near the beginning of the universe. The AGASA results show that the energy spectrum extends beyond 1020 eV, but they have been unable to identify sources for any […]
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