The move surprised observers. Most people expected Elizabeth Moler, Peña’s deputy, to get the position because of her experience in a number of important issues. Over the next few months the DOE plans to increase competition in the US electricity market; increase shipments of nuclear weapon grade material from Russia to the US; and finally […]
Carbon nanotubes – which can be thought of as a rolled-up graphite sheet – were discovered in 1991. One way to produce large quantities of nanotubes is to place two water-cooled carbon electrodes 1mm apart in a vacuum chamber filled with an inert gas such as argon. A high-current arc between the electrodes creates nanotubes […]
William Van Vorst of the University of California at Los Angles and Addison Bain, an independent consultant, have gathered evidence that hydrogen could not have caused the explosion. Film footage and witnesses of the crash describe bright yellow flames burning downwards, but hydrogen would only burn in an upward direction with a colourless flame. Several […]
The Doomsday Clock was set up in 1947 by atomic scientists concerned at the growing nuclear tensions between the US and Soviet Union. Initially the clock read seven minutes to midnight, and moved to two minutes to midnight after the first hydrogen bombs were tested. Until yesterday the time on the clock was 14 minutes […]
Researchers are investigating new ways to make computer chips in an effort to increase processing speed. It is likely that these new methods, such as chemical fabrication and assembly, will produce large numbers of defective chips. Rather than throw these chips away, James Heath of UCLA and colleagues at Hewlett-Packard are investigating how to build […]
The 2.5 m Sloan telescope is based at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico. The telescope has an unusually wide field of view and one of the most advanced digital cameras ever built. The camera consists of 30 charge-coupled devices (CCDs), each containing four million picture elements. One night’s observing will produce up to 200 […]
The hacker or hackers managed to gain password access to SLAC by intercepting the username and password of a registered user accessing data inside SLAC’s firewall. The random behaviour of the hackers inside the SLAC network suggests that they were trying to gain access to other government and university servers rather than access SLAC data. […]
The crossword puzzle was created using a software package developed by Lewis. The instructor simply types the clues and their answers into the program, which then creates the crossword grid. Although the students are given a hard copy of the puzzle, they have to enter their solutions over the Internet with a Java capable browser […]
In a process called electroencephalogram (EEG), brain activity is measured by strapping electrodes to the scalp. The electrodes record weak electrical waves produced from different parts of the brain and the results plotted on a graph. The algorithm that is widely used to study different states of consciousness (e.g., being asleep or awake) can also […]
In 1992 seven postgraduate students started their PhDs in the high-energy physics group at Imperial College, London. Six years later, three of them now work in international finance in the City of London. Although neither the research councils nor the financial sector keep records of how many physicists enter the City, it is clear that […]
