Snooker moves to the atomic scale
Scanning tunnelling microscopes (STMs) rely on an ultrafine ‘tip’ to push atoms over a surface. The atoms are pushed either by the tip itself, or by an electric field. The new technique re...
Astronomers look to ‘virtual’ observatories
The first virtual observatory to receive significant funding will be a European project called ASTROVIRTEL, which is based at the ESO headquarters in Garching, Germany. European astronomers will be ab...
New evidence for superconducting stripes
The neutron scattering experiments were carried out by Herb Mook from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and colleagues, while the ion channelling experiments were performed by Rajeshwar Sharma from th...
Universities receive third funding boost
The JIF scheme is designed to bring facilities at UK universities to the forefront of international research. Nearly £600m has been awarded to 109 projects in 28 different institutions since the ...
High-speed switching at low voltages
Converting electrical signals into optical pulses is one of the speed ‘bottlenecks’ in current telecommunications systems. To reach high data speeds, a series of electro-optic devices call...
Quantum computers think big
The Innsbruck model relies on ions stored in an array of microtraps. Because the microtraps can be fabricated in a solid state device, thousands of traps can be put into an array. The internal quantum...
Comet Hyakutake makes a mark on Ulysses
Ulysses was launched to make continuous measurements of the solar wind, a steady stream of ionized particles that flows outwards from the star. In 1998 Pete Riley and colleagues from Los Alamos Nation...
Dark-matter dispute intensifies
The controversy surrounding evidence for the discovery of “dark matter” particles has heated up following two conflicting talks given at a conference at the end of February. The papers wer...
Read article: Dark-matter dispute intensifies
Polymer outshines other mirrors
Dielectric mirrors are made of multiple layers of transparent materials, each of which reflects a small fraction of the light that hits it. At a specific layer thickness, the reflected light waves mer...
Double first for superfluids
Helium-3 flows without friction when it is cooled below the superfluid transition temperature of 2.6 millikelvin. In the superfluid state the helium-3 atoms, which are fermions and therefore obey the ...
