New upper limit to neutrino mass
The team studied the radioactive decay of germanium 76, which cannot occur by normal beta decay in which one electron and one antineutrino would be emitted. The nucleus can, however, undergo double be...
Brookhaven neutron source to close
The HFBR had become trapped in a economic and political battle between the Department of Energy and the US congress, with the latter refusing to release funds to restart the reactor. Moreover, it was ...
Mountain waves seen from space
Eckermann and Preusse analysed data from the cryogenic infrared spectrometer and telescope for the atmosphere (CRISTA), which was flown on the Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1994. They discovered that the ...
Eclipse confirms extrasolar planet
According to calculations by Marcy and colleagues, the planet has 63 percent of the mass of Jupiter and orbits the star every 3.5 days. On Thursday, the next time the star is eclipsed, more telescopes...
Hubble Space Telescope shuts down
This is only the third time Hubble has been shut down since its launch in 1990. Three weeks of scientific data will be lost. During the repair mission, astronauts will replace all six gyroscopes, a fi...
E-beams tackle E. coli
For over a century milk has been pasteurised by heating it to 65 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes and then rapidly cooling it to below 10 degrees Celsius for storage. The new technique relies on energet...
Ultrafast X-rays watch matter melt
The germanium sample was bombarded with powerful laser pulses to excite the electrons and cause thermal melting. In this process, unlike normal melting, the metallic crystal goes from a cold solid to ...
UN promotes space science for developing nations
During the 1990s the UN and ESA organized a series of workshops to promote the development of small telescopes in countries such as Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Colombia and Jordan. Over 800 astronomer...
Storing fuel in nanotubes
Carbon nanotubes are rolled up sheets of graphite that can have lengths of about 30-100 nanometers and diameters of about a nanometer. Two years ago it was discovered that carbon nanofibres – wh...
Electron transfer made easy
Electron transfer in protein results from quantum tunnelling between reduction- oxidation (redox) centres. “There’s a widely accepted idea that electrons get from one redox centre to anoth...
