Blood tests without needles
Recognising blood cells presents a big challenge for automated counting systems. As blood flows through veins, the cells are deformed in the direction of blood flow. Blood also contains a lot of other...
Shuttle goes on ‘antimatter’ hunt
The known universe consists almost entirely of matter. However, it is thought that equal amounts of matter and antimatter were created during the big bang. One possibility is that this antimatter now ...
Superfluid helium as a vacuum
In an ingenious series of experiments the Göttingen team squirted liquid helium through a fine nozzle to create drops containing about 104 atoms at a temperature of 0.1 K. The team used laser spectro...
Fibre gives X-ray generation a boost
The efficiency with which light of one frequency is converted into a higher frequency in a nonlinear material increases when both frequencies travel through the material with the same phase velocity. ...
Has Hubble photographed an extrasolar planet?
Terebey and colleagues believe that the new planet was in orbit around two stars – TMR-1A and -1B – before it was ejected by a gravitational slingshot mechanism. The planet then created a ...
Pakistan retaliates with nuclear tests
Sharif claimed on national television that the country had exploded five nuclear devices. Presently only two explosions -with 12 and 25 kiloton yields – have been confirmed by seismic monitoring...
First light for Europe’s new telescope
The VLT uses active optics to reduce the effect of atmospheric turbulence on observations. In this technique the optical quality of a star is continually monitored against a reference star and the sur...
Isotope production comes back on-line in Canada and the US
Brookhaven will produce germanium-68, which is used to calibrate positron emission tomography (PET) scanners, and copper-67 for diagnostic and research purposes. It will also make strontium-82: this i...
Salty oceans on Europa
Europa is roughly the size of the Moon and is 85% water by weight. An icy crust reflects most of the light falling on the satellite. In 1979, the Voyager spacecraft flew past Europa and discovered a s...
Teller has no regrets over bomb
Teller played important roles in the development of the atomic and hydrogen bomb. In 1939 he chauffeured another Hungarian physicist, Leó Szilárd, to a meeting with Albert Einstein. Szil...
