TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

General Physics Thread

Go To

rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#226: Jan 23rd 2015 at 4:25:11 PM

First-of-its-kind tube laser created for on-chip optical communications: 'Nanophotonics, which takes advantage of the much faster speed of light compared with electrons, could potentially lead to future optical computers that transmit large amounts of data at very high speeds. Working toward this goal, researchers in a new study have developed a tiny laser 100 micrometers long and 5 micrometers in diameter—right at the limit of what the unaided human eye can see. As the first rolled-up semiconductor tube laser that is electrically powered, it can fit on an optical chip and serve as the light source for future optical communications technology."

Physicists find a new way to slow the speed of light: "A team of physicists working at the University of Glasgow has found a way to slow the speed of light that does not involve running it through a medium such as glass or water. Instead, as they explain in their paper published in the journal Science, they caused a change in the speed by first running it through a mask, which changed its shape.

Everyone knows that the speed of light in a vacuum is constant, but now it appears that there is a way to indirectly alter its speed—by running it through a special mask. Doing so apparently causes a change to the shape of the photon, making it move through a vacuum slower than an unaltered photon."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#227: Jan 24th 2015 at 12:58:03 AM

The latest fashion: Graphene edges can be tailor-made: "Theoretical physicists at Rice University are living on the edge as they study the astounding properties of graphene. In a new study, they figure out how researchers can fracture graphene nanoribbons to get the edges they need for applications.

New research by Rice physicist Boris Yakobson and his colleagues shows it should be possible to control the edge properties of graphene nanoribbons by controlling the conditions under which the nanoribbons are pulled apart.

The way atoms line up along the edge of a ribbon of graphene—the atom-thick form of carbon—controls whether it's metallic or semiconducting. Current passes through metallic graphene unhindered, but semiconductors allow a measure of control over those electrons.

Since modern electronics are all about control, semiconducting graphene (and semiconducting two-dimensional materials in general) are of great interest to scientists and industry working to shrink electronics for applications."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#228: Jan 26th 2015 at 4:57:14 PM

Entanglement on a chip: Breakthrough promises secure communications and faster computers: "Unlike Bilbo's magic ring, which entangles human hearts, engineers have created a new micro-ring that entangles individual particles of light, an important first step in a whole host of new technologies.

Entanglement - the instantaneous connection between two particles no matter their distance apart - is one of the most intriguing and promising phenomena in all of physics. Properly harnessed, entangled photons could revolutionize computing, communications, and cyber security. Though readily created in the lab and by comparatively large-scale optoelectronic components, a practical source of entangled photons that can fit onto an ordinary computer chip has been elusive.

New research, reported today in The Optical Society's (OSA) new high-impact journal Optica, describes how a team of scientists has developed, for the first time, a microscopic component that is small enough to fit onto a standard silicon chip that can generate a continuous supply of entangled photons."

Chemists have figured out how to ‘unboil’ an egg: "It’s not just a cool little trick - the ability to quickly return molecular proteins to working order has applications in everything from new medical treatments to more efficient food production."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#229: Jan 27th 2015 at 1:09:32 AM

Researchers make magnetic graphene: "Graphene, a one-atom thick sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, has many desirable properties. Magnetism alas is not one of them. Magnetism can be induced in graphene by doping it with magnetic impurities, but this doping tends to disrupt graphene's electronic properties.

Now a team of physicists at the University of California, Riverside has found an ingenious way to induce magnetism in graphene while also preserving graphene's electronic properties. They have accomplished this by bringing a graphene sheet very close to a magnetic insulator - an electrical insulator with magnetic properties."

Electronic circuits with reconfigurable pathways closer to reality: "Multitasking circuits capable of reconfiguring themselves in real time and switching functions as the need arises—this is the promising application stemming from a discovery made at EPFL and published in Nature Nanotechnology. Other potential uses: miniaturizing our electronic devices and developing resilient circuits.

Will it be possible one day to reconfigure electronic microchips however we want, even when they are in use? A recent discovery by a team at EPFL suggests as much. The researchers have demonstrated that it is possible to create conductive pathways several atoms wide in a material, to move them around at will and even to make them disappear."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#230: Jan 27th 2015 at 3:01:14 PM

Popper's experiment realized again—but what does it mean?: "Like Einstein, the philosopher Karl Popper was a realist who was deeply bothered by some of the odd implications of quantum mechanics. Both Popper and Einstein disliked the idea in Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, for instance, that precisely measuring one property of a particle means that the particle's conjugate property is completely undetermined. This idea undermines the basic principle of common-sense realism: that every particle's properties must have precise pre-existing values, which do not depend on being measured.

Both Popper and Einstein proposed thought experiments critiquing the uncertainty principle. But while Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen's EPR experiment is quite famous, Popper's experiment is not as widely known.

Popper first published his proposed experiment in 1934, and in 1999, physicists Yoon-Ho Kim and Yanhua Shih realized Popper's experiment for the first time. In what came as a surprise to many, their results agreed with Popper's predictions, yet are not generally considered to be a true violation of the uncertainty principle, as Popper believed. The findings ignited a great deal of critique, both of Popper's original ideas and how they might be realized and interpreted.

Now in a new study published in EPL, Shih and coauthors at the University of Maryland in Baltimore and Oakland Community College in Waterford, Michigan, have again realized Popper's experiment using a different approach. Once again, their results agree with Popper's predictions, yet still do not violate the uncertainty principle. However, the researchers explain that the results do reveal a concern about nonlocal interference, as the observations suggest that a pair of particles is instantaneously interfering with itself, even across large distances."

'Bulletproof' battery: Kevlar membrane for safer, thinner lithium rechargeables: 'New battery technology from the University of Michigan should be able to prevent the kind of fires that grounded Boeing 787 Dreamliners in 2013.

The innovation is an advanced barrier between the electrodes in a lithium-ion battery. Made with nanofibers extracted from Kevlar, the tough material in bulletproof vests, the barrier stifles the growth of metal tendrils that can become unwanted pathways for electrical current."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#231: Jan 28th 2015 at 11:24:06 AM

How ionic: Scaffolding is in charge of calcium carbonate crystals: "Nature packs away carbon in chalk, shells and rocks made by marine organisms that crystallize calcium carbonate. Now, research suggests that the soft, organic scaffolds in which such crystals form guide crystallization by soaking up the calcium like an "ion sponge," according to new work in Nature Materials. Understanding the process better may help researchers develop advanced materials for energy and environmental uses, such as for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere."

WATCH: This is the first video of a laser zooming through thin air: "For the first time ever, scientists have managed to film a laser flight path, and it looks like something straight out of the movies.

In order for us to see light, it needs to make contact with our eyes. What makes lasers so tricky to perceive is that they’re made up of a single, sharply focussed beam, with each photon - or light particle - moving in the same direction. Only if enough photons happen to be deflected off-course and into our eyes by an obstruction, like smoke, will we ever even know that the laser’s there.

But now a team of physicists led by Genevieve Gariepy from Heriot-Watt University in the UK have figured out how to see a bright green laser beam bouncing around their lab without ever interacting with it. They used a specially built super-high-speed camera, capable of detecting single photons at a time, and recorded 2 million laser pulses over a 10-minute period."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#232: Jan 29th 2015 at 4:33:12 PM

Nanoscale mirrored cavities amplify, connect quantum memories: "The idea of computing systems based on controlling atomic spins just got a boost from new research performed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory. By constructing tiny "mirrors" to trap light around impurity atoms in diamond crystals, the team dramatically increased the efficiency with which photons transmit information about those atoms' electronic spin states, which can be used to store quantum information. Such spin-photon interfaces are thought to be essential for connecting distant quantum memories, which could open the door to quantum computers and long-distance cryptographic systems."

'NanoSuit': Researchers use nano-coating to allow for electron microscopy of living insects: "A team of researchers with members from several institutions in Japan has found a way to allow for using scanning electron microscopes (ESM) on living insects—encase them in a nanosuit. In their paper published in Proceedings of The Royal Society B, the team describes the coating they used and how effective it was when used on a variety of insects.

Up till now, researchers have had to kill insects and dry them before putting them under an ESM—that is because such microscopes require the specimens to be viewed in a vacuum (to keep the electron beam from scattering). In this new effort, the research team reports that they have figured out a way to apply a very thin clear coat to a specimen that prevents dehydration and thus allows specimens to be imaged as they exist naturally—representing a major step forward for research involving studying biological samples or living creatures at very close range."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#233: Jan 29th 2015 at 11:29:49 PM

Quantum computer as detector shows space is not squeezed: "Ever since Einstein proposed his special theory of relativity in 1905, physics and cosmology have been based on the assumption that space looks the same in all directions - that it's not squeezed in one direction relative to another.

A new experiment by University of California, Berkeley, physicists used partially entangled atoms - identical to the qubits in a quantum computer - to demonstrate more precisely than ever before that this is true, to one part in a billion billion.

The classic experiment that inspired Albert Einstein was performed in Cleveland by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley in 1887 and disproved the existence of an 'ether' permeating space through which light was thought to move like a wave through water. What it also proved, said Hartmut Häffner, a UC Berkeley assistant professor of physics, is that space is isotropic and that light travels at the same speed up, down and sideways."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#234: Jan 30th 2015 at 10:43:56 PM

Evidence mounts for quantum criticality theory: "A new study by a team of physicists at Rice University, Zhejiang University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Florida State University and the Max Planck Institute adds to the growing body of evidence supporting a theory that strange electronic behaviors—including high-temperature superconductivity and heavy fermion physics—arise from quantum fluctuations of strongly correlated electrons.

The study, which appeared in the Jan. 20 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describes results from a series of experiments on a layered composite of cerium, rhodium and indium. The experiments tested, for the first time, a prediction from a theory about the origins of quantum criticality that was published by Rice physicist Qimiao Si and colleagues in 2001."

Planck: Gravitational waves remain elusive: "Despite earlier reports of a possible detection, a joint analysis of data from ESA's Planck satellite and the ground-based BICEP2 and Keck Array experiments has found no conclusive evidence of primordial gravitational waves."

Generating Mobius strips of light: Researchers experimentally produce these structures from light polarization: "A collaboration of researchers from Canada, Europe and the USA have experimentally produced Möbius strips from the polarization of light, confirming a theoretical prediction that it is possible for light's electromagnetic field to assume this peculiar shape.

Möbius strips are easy to create. Take a strip of paper, twist it once and join up the ends. That's it, you have created a Möbius strip: a three dimensional structure that has only one side. Millions of school children do exactly this in classrooms every year. But finding Möbius strips occurring naturally is another issue.

'This is one of the very few known examples of a Möbius structure appearing in nature,' states Robert W. Boyd, professor of optics and physics at the University of Rochester and the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Quantum Nonlinear Optics at the University of Ottawa. Boyd is one of the senior authors of the paper describing this research, which is published online by Science this week.

New method allows for greater variation in band gap tunability: "If you can't find the ideal material, then design a new one.

Northwestern University's James Rondinelli uses quantum mechanical calculations to predict and design the properties of new materials by working at the atom-level. His group's latest achievement is the discovery of a novel way to control the electronic band gap in complex oxide materials without changing the material's overall composition. The finding could potentially lead to better electro-optical devices, such as lasers, and new energy-generation and conversion materials, including more absorbent solar cells and the improved conversion of sunlight into chemical fuels through photoelectrocatalysis."

edited 31st Jan '15 9:48:50 PM by rmctagg09

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#235: Jan 31st 2015 at 9:50:05 PM

Nobel laureate Charles Townes, laser co-creator, dies at 99: "Charles H. Townes, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who helped create the laser that would revolutionize everything from medicine to manufacturing, has died. He was 99.

Townes had been in poor health before his death on the way to an Oakland hospital Tuesday, officials at the University of California, Berkeley, said.

'Charlie Townes had an enormous impact on physics and society in general,' Steven Boggs, the chairman of the physics department at Berkeley, said Wednesday.

The invention he's known for paved the way for other scientific discoveries, but also has a huge array of applications today: DVD players, gun sights, printers, computer networks, metal cutters, tattoo removal and vision correction are just some of the tools and technologies that rely on lasers."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#236: Feb 2nd 2015 at 8:52:29 PM

Dance of the nanovortices captured and recorded with help of X-ray holography: "It is a familiar phenomenon: If a spinning top is set in rotation on an inclined surface, it scribes a series of small arches. Researchers have now succeeded in capturing this pattern of movement in a magnetic thin film system — in the form of small magnetic nanovortices. The researchers made a new discovery: The nanovortices possess mass."

Computer chips: Engineers use disorder to control light on the nanoscale: "A breakthrough could lead to the more precise transfer of information in computer chips, as well as new types of optical materials for light emission and lasers."

Wrinkle predictions: New mathematical theory may explain patterns in fingerprints, raisins, and microlenses: "As a grape slowly dries and shrivels, its surface creases, ultimately taking on the wrinkled form of a raisin. Similar patterns can be found on the surfaces of other dried materials, as well as in human fingerprints. While these patterns have long been observed in nature, and more recently in experiments, scientists have not been able to come up with a way to predict how such patterns arise in curved systems, such as microlenses.

Now a team of MIT mathematicians and engineers has developed a mathematical theory, confirmed through experiments, that predicts how wrinkles on curved surfaces take shape. From their calculations, they determined that one main parameter—curvature—rules the type of pattern that forms: The more curved a surface is, the more its surface patterns resemble a crystal-like lattice.

The researchers say the theory, reported this week in the journal Nature Materials, may help to generally explain how fingerprints and wrinkles form."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#237: Feb 3rd 2015 at 1:58:50 PM

New technique doubles the distance of optical fiber communications: "A new way to process fibre optic signals could double the distance at which data travels error-free through transatlantic sub-marine cables. The new method has the potential to reduce the costs of long-distance optical fibre communications as signals wouldn't need to be electronically boosted on their journey, which is important when the cables are buried underground or at the bottom of the ocean."

Researchers describe the wavefunction of Schroedinger's cat: "Schrödinger's cat highlights a long-standing dilemma in quantum mechanics: is the cat really alive and dead, or is the weirdness just in our head?

Researchers at The University of Queensland have now made major progress in answering this question.

Using four-dimensional states of photons, and subjecting them to very precise measurements, they ruled out the popular view that describing the cat as dead and alive is just due to a lack of knowledge about its real state."

Scientists build world’s first silicene transistor: "Move over, graphene. For the first time, a new, one-atom-thick form of silicon has been used to build a transistor, in what could be the first step towards computer chips that run thousands of times faster than anything we have now."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#238: Feb 4th 2015 at 12:59:44 PM

Penta-graphene, a new structural variant of carbon, discovered: "Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University and universities in China and Japan have discovered a new structural variant of carbon called 'penta-graphene' - a very thin sheet of pure carbon that has a unique structure inspired by a pentagonal pattern of tiles found paving the streets of Cairo.

The newly discovered material, called penta-graphene, is a single layer of carbon pentagons that resembles the Cairo tiling, and that appears to be dynamically, thermally and mechanically stable."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#239: Feb 4th 2015 at 1:56:33 PM

Cheap and abundant chemical outperforms precious metals as a catalyst: "A team of Caltech chemists has discovered a method for producing a group of silicon-containing organic chemicals without relying on expensive precious metal catalysts. Instead, the new technique uses as a catalyst a cheap, abundant chemical that is commonly found in chemistry labs around the world—potassium tert-butoxide—to help create a host of products ranging from new medicines to advanced materials. And it turns out that the potassium salt is more effective than state-of-the-art precious metal complexes at running very challenging chemical reactions."

Rediscovering spontaneous light emission: "Berkeley Lab researchers have developed a nano-sized optical antenna that can greatly enhance the spontaneous emission of light from atoms, molecules and semiconductor quantum dots. This advance opens the door to light-emitting diodes (LE Ds) that can replace lasers for short-range optical communications, including optical interconnects for microchips, plus a host of other potential applications."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#240: Feb 4th 2015 at 9:53:17 PM

New catalyst uses light to convert nitrogen to ammonia: "Northwestern University scientists are the first to develop a catalyst that can perform a remarkable feat found only in nature: take nitrogen from the air and turn it into ammonia under natural conditions. No high temperatures or pressure required.

Driven by light, the new method offers promise for a more environmentally friendly fertilizer. (Ammonia is the critical component in fertilizer.)"

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#241: Feb 5th 2015 at 2:20:42 PM

New process allows for stronger, lighter, flexible steel: "A trio of researchers with South Korea's Graduate Institute of Ferrous Technology has found a way to create a new low-density steel that is stronger, lighter and more flexible than the conventional steel that is used in so many manufacturing applications. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the team describes the process they used and their hopes that it might replace conventional steel in some applications sometime in the near future.

One of the biggest applications for steel is, of course in making cars, though its dominance has been slipping in recent years as engineers seek to find lighter substitutes. At issue is weight, steel is heavy because it is made mostly out of iron. Adding other lighter metals tends to make it less flexible or weaker. In this new effort, the researchers report that they have found a mix that allows for creating a low-density steel that is stronger and more flexible than much more expensive titanium alloys.

The secret, the team explains, lies in causing new structure shapes to be formed during the heating process and by using the right mix of ingredients. They used the traditional mix of iron, carbon, aluminum and manganese and then added some nickel. The nickel, they found reacted with the aluminum, creating nanometer sized B2 crystals that formed within and between the steel grains during the annealing process. To make sure the crystals were spread evenly among the metal, the team studied samples under an electron microscope. Chemists know that B2 crystals are resistant to shearing, thus steel with such crystals should be extremely strong, and that is what the researchers found when they tested their new alloy."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#242: Feb 5th 2015 at 9:38:57 PM

Direct measurement of key molecule will increase accuracy of combustion models: "Sandia National Laboratories researchers are the first to directly measure hydroperoxyalkyl radicals—a class of reactive molecules denoted as 'QOOH'—that are key in the chain of reactions that controls the early stages of combustion. This breakthrough has generated data on QOOH reaction rates and outcomes that will improve the fidelity of models used by engine manufacturers to create cleaner and more efficient cars and trucks.

A paper describing the work, performed by David Osborn, Ewa Papajak, John Savee, Craig Taatjes and Judit Zádor at Sandia's Combustion Research Facility, is featured in the Feb. 6 edition of Science."

Fine-tuned supramolecular polymerization: "In nature, supramolecular complexes—chain-like structures that are composed of many small units linked mainly by weak non-covalent bonds—are assembled and disassembled in a precisely controlled way. Now, in work published in Science, researchers from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science, led by Takuzo Aida, have demonstrated a new method for artificially building and dismantling supramolecular polymers in a tightly controlled and selective way, following the methods of traditional polymer chemistry by taking advantage of the monomer elements' own tendency to self-organize. This opens the way to the creation, though precision supramolecular engineering, or polymers with a wide range of properties that could be exploited for new applications."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#243: Feb 6th 2015 at 11:28:07 AM

Researchers use transmission electron microscope as a thermometer at nanoscale: "A team of researchers with the University of California has found a way to use a transmission electron microscope (TEM) as a thermometer for measuring heat in micro-electric devices. In their paper published in the journal Science, the team describes how they discovered using a TEM on a tiny piece of metal could reveal its density change as electrons passed through. Christian Colliex with the L'Université de Paris, offers a Perspective piece on the work by the team in the same journal edition."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#244: Feb 6th 2015 at 4:01:51 PM

Kitchen sponge supercapacitor has many porous benefits: "By dipping small pieces of an ordinary kitchen sponge into solutions of nanoscale electrode materials, scientists have created a light-weight, low-cost supercapacitor that benefits from the sponge's porous structure. The pores provide a large surface area for the electrode materials to attach to, leading to an increase in ion movement between the electrodes and the electrolyte that fills in the pores. Overall, the new supercapacitor exhibits a performance that is superior to that of one made of the same electrode materials but without the sponge."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#245: Feb 9th 2015 at 1:44:24 PM

In the quantum world, the future affects the past: Hindsight and foresight together more accurately 'predict' a quantum system’s state: "In the quantum world, the future predicts the past. Playing a guessing game with a superconducting circuit called a qubit, a physicist has discovered a way to narrow the odds of correctly guessing the state of a two-state system. By combining information about the qubit's evolution after a target time with information about its evolution up to that time, the lab was able to narrow the odds from 50-50 to 90-10."

No Big Bang? Quantum equation predicts universe has no beginning: "The universe may have existed forever, according to a new model that applies quantum correction terms to complement Einstein's theory of general relativity. The model may also account for dark matter and dark energy, resolving multiple problems at once.

The widely accepted age of the universe, as estimated by general relativity, is 13.8 billion years. In the beginning, everything in existence is thought to have occupied a single infinitely dense point, or singularity. Only after this point began to expand in a 'Big Bang' did the universe officially begin.

Although the Big Bang singularity arises directly and unavoidably from the mathematics of general relativity, some scientists see it as problematic because the math can explain only what happened immediately after—not at or before—the singularity."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#246: Feb 10th 2015 at 2:01:27 PM

A centimeter of time: Cool clocks pave the way to new measurements of Earth: "Two cryogenically cooled optical lattice clocks that can be synchronized to a tremendous one part in 2.0 x 10-18—meaning that they would only go out of synch by a second in 16 billion years. This is nearly 1,000 times more precise than the current international timekeeping standard cesium atomic clock."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#247: Feb 11th 2015 at 12:26:31 AM

New study identifies key design features that boost violins' acoustic power: "Some of the most prized violins in the world were crafted in the Italian workshops of Amati, Stradivari, and Guarneri—master violinmaking families from the 17th and 18th centuries who produced increasingly powerful instruments in the renaissance and baroque musical eras. These violins, worth millions of dollars today, represent the Cremonese period—what is now considered the golden age of violinmaking.

Now acousticians and fluid dynamicists at MIT, along with violinmakers at the North Bennet Street School in Boston, have analyzed measurements from hundreds of Cremonese-era violins, identifying key design features that contribute to these particular violins' acoustic power, or fullness of sound.

The team acquired technical drawings of Cremonese-era violins from museums, collector databases, and books, as well as X-ray and CAT scans of the instruments. They compared the dimensions of various features from one instrument to another, as well as measurements of acoustic resonances across instruments."

Molybdenum disulfide may find new application for thin-film transistors in extremely high-temperature electronics: "Many industries are calling for electronics that can operate reliably in a harsh environment, including extreme temperatures above 200° Celsius. Examples of the high temperature applications include turbine engine control in aerospace and electronics or sensors used for drilling operation in oil and gas industry. Although traditional cooling systems can help electronics function at high temperatures, in some applications, cooling may not be possible—or it may be more appealing for the electronics to operate hot to improve system reliability or reduce cost. However, the availability of transistors and circuits for high temperature operation is very limited.

Now a team of researchers from the University of California, Riverside and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute discovered that molybdenum disulfide (Mo S 2), a semiconductor material, may be a promising candidate to make thin-film transistors for extreme temperature applications. In a paper published this week in the Journal of Applied Physics, the researchers report the fabrication of molybdenum disulfide thin-film transistors and their functional performance at high temperatures, demonstrating the material's potential for extreme-temperature electronics."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#248: Feb 12th 2015 at 1:57:26 AM

Novel high-power microwave generator: "High-power microwaves are frequently used in civil applications, such as radar and communication systems, heating and current drive of plasmas in fusion devices, and acceleration in high-energy linear colliders. They can also be used for military purpose in directed-energy weapons or missile guidance systems.

In a new study published in the European Physical Journal D, scientists from Bangladesh demonstrate that their proposed novel method, which is capable of producing such microwaves, offers a viable alternative to traditional approaches. The solution was developed by Md. Ghulam Saber and colleagues from the Islamic University of Technology in Gazipur, Bangladesh."

Bacterial armor holds clues for self-assembling nanostructures: "Imagine thousands of copies of a single protein organizing into a coat of chainmail armor that protects the wearer from harsh and ever-changing environmental conditions. That is the case for many microorganisms. In a new study, researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have uncovered key details in this natural process that can be used for the self-assembly of nanomaterials into complex two- and three-dimensional structures."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#249: Feb 12th 2015 at 5:40:22 PM

Team makes stride in explaining 30-year-old 'hidden order' physics mystery: "A new explanation for a type of order, or symmetry, in an exotic material made with uranium may lead to enhanced computer displays and data storage systems, and more powerful superconducting magnets for medical imaging and levitating high-speed trains, according to a Rutgers-led team of research physicists.

The team's findings are a major step toward explaining a puzzle that physicists worldwide have been struggling with for 30 years, when scientists first noticed a change in the material's electrical and magnetic properties but were unable to describe it fully. This subtle change occurs when the material is cooled to 17.5 degrees above absolute zero or lower (a bone-chilling minus 428 degrees Fahrenheit)."

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#250: Feb 12th 2015 at 11:20:40 PM

Exotic states materialize with supercomputers: "Scientists used supercomputers to find a new class of materials that possess an exotic state of matter known as the quantum spin Hall effect. The researchers published their results in the journal Science in December 2014, where they propose a new type of transistor made from these materials.

The science team included Ju Li, Liang Fu, Xiaofeng Qian, and Junwei Liu, experts in topological phases of matter and two-dimensional materials research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). They calculated the electronic structures of the materials using the Stampede and Lonestar supercomputers of the Texas Advanced Computing Center.

The computational allocation was made through XSEDE, the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment, a single virtual system funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that scientists use to interactively share computing resources, data and expertise. The study was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the NSF."

Scientists get first glimpse of a chemical bond being born: "Scientists have used an X-ray laser at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to get the first glimpse of the transition state where two atoms begin to form a weak bond on the way to becoming a molecule.

This fundamental advance, reported Feb. 12 in Science Express and long thought impossible, will have a profound impact on the understanding of how chemical reactions take place and on efforts to design reactions that generate energy, create new products and fertilize crops more efficiently.

"This is the very core of all chemistry. It's what we consider a Holy Grail, because it controls chemical reactivity," said Anders Nilsson, a professor at the SLAC/Stanford SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis and at Stockholm University who led the research. 'But because so few molecules inhabit this transition state at any given moment, no one thought we'd ever be able to see it.'"

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.

Total posts: 843
Top