UK physics to be scrutinised
The survey is similar to a study of engineering research being undertaken by the Royal Academy of Engineering and will draw on existing data, assessments from a body of selected international experts,...
Bi-directional laser breakthrough
Light is emitted from a quantum cascade laser when an electron falls from an excited energy level in a quantum well to a lower level. The quantum wells are defined by alternating layers of semiconduct...
NASA plans astrometric mission
Like ESA’s recent Hipparcos mission, FAME will use the parallax method to determine the stars’ positions: as the telescope and the Earth orbit the sun, the position of the stars will chang...
Could carbon-60 molecules be used in particle physics?
As the highly energetic particles pass through conventional carbon-rich rocks, they would form carbon-60 molecules in their wake. The fact that these geological detectors have been “collecting d...
Read article: Magnetic resonance sees the heart beat
Magnetic resonance sees the heart beat
Ultrasound is commonly used to look at the heart, but it is unsuitable for the 10-20% of the population that have breathing difficulties (emphysema) or who are medically obese. In both techniques, pat...
US rejects nuclear test ban treaty
The treaty will only come into effect if the 44 countries that have the capability to develop nuclear weapons ratify it. Although 26 countries, including France and the UK, have ratified the treaty, R...
Wave-particle duality seen in carbon-60 molecules
The Vienna team sent a collimated beam of carbon-60 molecules through a slit made of silicon nitride and detected the interference pattern by ionizing the molecules with a laser and then counting the ...
Nobel prize goes to ‘t Hooft and Veltman
‘t Hooft and Veltman were both born in the Netherlands. In 1966 Veltman was appointed as professor of physics at the University of Utrecht, and ‘t Hooft became his PhD student in 1969. By ...
Chemical physicist wins Nobel chemistry prize
Prior to Zewail’s work chemists had thought that chemical reactions occurred on the same time scale as molecular vibrations — that is, on the femtosecond scale. In the late 1980s, Zewail d...
