Putting quantum noise to work
Noise in physics experiments is usually an unwanted annoyance, but Philip Ball investigates new research that's attempting to put quantum noise to work
Martin Ryle: an energy visionary
Alan Cottey looks at the life of Nobel-prize-winner Martin Ryle – celebrated astronomer, renewable-energy advocate and peace activist
Clouding over: the clouds that defy climate models
From Arctic "rave ice" to the reflective stratus of the Southern Ocean, clouds near the poles are causing climate modellers headaches, as Kate Ravilious reports
Physicist on top of the world
Melanie Windridge describes how science and technology has improved the chances of survival on Mount Everest, helping her get to the highest point on Earth safely
How to build a super-magnet
Ziad Melhem outlines the thinking that went into the design and development of the world’s most powerful all-superconducting magnet
Beefing up X-rays at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
A major upgrade to make the light source even brighter will rest on four pillars of instrumentation, as Jon Cartwright reports
Diamond Light Source – when a tool becomes a gem
With an X-ray source 10 billion times brighter than the Sun, Diamond Light Source sheds light on materials conundrums from art conservation and ice-cream to data storage
Creating chemical images, solving industrial problems
How time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry is helping scientists understand commercial challenges in materials science
Studying impossible systems with analogues
Some experiments just can't be done, so scientists turn to analogues. Matthew Francis discusses how these simpler systems can be used to study the complex
Open-science hardware in the developing world
Rachel Brazil looks at the evolution of open-science hardware and why it is a vital lifeline for research in the developing world