Quasicrystals clinch Wolf prize
Quasicrystals are materials that do not have a periodic lattice structure but still display subtle long-range order, such as “five-fold” symmetry, that is not possible in regular crystals....
Ozone mystery is solved
In theory, the creation of ozone – caused by the breakdown of oxygen in the atmosphere by ultraviolet light – is a mass-independent process. However, experiments by Klaus Mauersberger and ...
Macroscopic spin moves
James Kikkawa and David Awschalom of the University of California, Santa Barbara have now shown that they can use electric fields to transport electrons through a distance of 0.1 mm in gallium arsenid...
Patents for microlasers
The world-wide patent rights have been licensed by the university to Nanovation Technologies in Florida. The company hopes to develop an optical circuit which would contain thousands of microcavity la...
Fifth framework to start soon
The fifth framework will focus on four main themes: quality of life and management of living systems (ECU 2.413 bn); the user-friendly information society (ECU 3.6 bn); competitive and sustainable gro...
New leaders for SLAC and ESO
Dorfan was born in South Africa and received his first degree from the University of Cape Town, and his doctorate from the University of California at Irvine in 1976. He has spent most of his career a...
Women sue Lawrence Livermore over equal opportunities
One of the women, Mary Singleton, has been complaining about the inequality for 20 years and says that in 1986 the lab’s management board admitted that female staff were discriminated against. H...
Quantum engineering moves on
One of the central questions is how to manipulate or “engineer” these entangled states in real physical systems. Indeed, very few physical systems satisfy the stringent requirements that m...
Taking a closer look at “big G”
The gravitational constant was first measured by Lord Cavendish in 1798, who used a torsion-balance to measure the force between a pair of lead spheres. Cavendish measured G to be 6.754 x 10-11 metres...
Science chooses accelerating universe as “Breakthrough of the Year”
Astronomers have known for decades that the universe is expanding, based on measurements of the “red shift” of light emitted by galaxies. According to the standard cosmological model, ther...
