Clinton nominates energy secretary
The move surprised observers. Most people expected Elizabeth Moler, Peña’s deputy, to get the position because of her experience in a number of important issues. Over the next few months th...
Fallout from nuclear tests continues
Under the CTBT, a network of seismic stations around the world is being set up to monitor the treaty and automatically send information to an International Data Centre (IDC) in Vienna, Austria. A prot...
Holographic storage sees light
Their technique works by using a process called two-colour holography. One wavelength of light records information on the crystal and another is used to read the data. Their method fires two light sou...
Light makes insulator conduct
The researchers cooled the manganese oxide compound (Pr0.7Ca0.3MnO3) to below 200 K in a zero magnetic field. At this temperature the electrons drop into a low energy state, which minimizes their natu...
Nanotubes for the Mass Market
Carbon nanotubes – which can be thought of as a rolled-up graphite sheet – were discovered in 1991. One way to produce large quantities of nanotubes is to place two water-cooled carbon ele...
Sloan Survey sees first light
The 2.5 m Sloan telescope is based at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico. The telescope has an unusually wide field of view and one of the most advanced digital cameras ever built. The camera cons...
Computer heal thyself
Researchers are investigating new ways to make computer chips in an effort to increase processing speed. It is likely that these new methods, such as chemical fabrication and assembly, will produce la...
Crosswords and cross words on the Internet
The crossword puzzle was created using a software package developed by Lewis. The instructor simply types the clues and their answers into the program, which then creates the crossword grid. Although ...
Doomsday Clock moves closer to midnight
The Doomsday Clock was set up in 1947 by atomic scientists concerned at the growing nuclear tensions between the US and Soviet Union. Initially the clock read seven minutes to midnight, and moved to t...
Hackers attack Stanford accelerator
The hacker or hackers managed to gain password access to SLAC by intercepting the username and password of a registered user accessing data inside SLAC’s firewall. The random behaviour of the ha...
