Physics has dined out on the invention of the transistor, the laser and various medical scanners for years. However, the success of these inventions has depended on researchers leaving their labs R...
Read article: Physics goes commercial
Technology transfer is alive and kicking in the high-energy physics community and has led to a wealth of applications in industry and medicine, as Valerie Jamieson discovers
Read article: Particles for profits
There has never been a better time for physicists to set up their own firms. We profile some of those who have gone into business and seek their advice for would-be entrepreneurs
Read article: Physics goes commercial
Matin Durrani looks at physics-based companies that have succeeded in dominating their market
Read article: Triumph of the small business
A burning issue for fatties like me is whether you can make a low-fat Black Forest gateau. The answer, surprisingly, can be found in two new science books. The Pursuit of Perfect Packing by Tomaso Ast...
Read article: Pack your cherries to perfection
While theorists have been battling to understand high-temperature superconductivity, industry is developing devices ready for a global marketplace potentially worth billions of dollars
Read article: Industry warms to superconductors
One of the challenges facing any physics magazine is to adequately cover the activities and interests of physicists working in industry. For a long time Physics World has followed a policy that the be...
Investment in “knowledge”, which is defined as research and development, software and public spending on education, now accounts for 8% of the OECD’s total gross domestic product (GD...
Physicists are rightly proud of the way that basic research in the past has paid off in terms of technology that is widely used everyday. We all know the examples: transistors, lasers, optical fibres,...
The National Science Foundation report also discovered that the US, Russia and Japan have the lowest number of patents awarded to foreign inventors. In all the other countries surveyed, over two-third...
