Physics and Astronomy
This area deals with the fundamental laws and building blocks of nature and how they interact, the properties and the behavior of matter, and research into space and time and their structures.
innovations-report provides in-depth reports and articles on subjects such as astrophysics, laser technologies, nuclear, quantum, particle and solid-state physics, nanotechnologies, planetary research and findings (Mars, Venus) and developments related to the Hubble Telescope.
Large Binocular Telescope To Be Dedicated in October 2004
Dedication Ceremony in Tucson, Ariz., Will Unveil the World’s Most Powerful Ground-Based Telescope to an International Audience
The LBT Corporation announced today that the dedication ceremonies for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) will be held Oct. 15. This scientific achievement will be marked by a formal dedication dinner for partners and their guests. The media is invited to attend tours of the LBT and Arizona astronomy facilities in advance of the dedication.
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A simpler design for x-ray detectors
A simplified design for ultra-sensitive X-ray detectors offering more precise materials analysis has been demonstrated at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The advance is a step toward making such devices cheaper and easier to produce. Users may eventually include the semiconductor industry, which needs better X-ray detectors to identify and distinguish between nanoscale contaminant particles on silicon wafers.
The new design, described in the Sept. 13 issue of App
Scientists tame ’hip hop’ atoms
Precision placement may help in building nanoscale devices
In an effort to put more science into the largely trial and error building of nanostructures, physicists at the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated new methods for placing what are typically unruly individual atoms at precise locations on a crystal surface. Reported in the Sept. 9, 2004, online version of the journal Science, the advance enables scientists to observe
Optical fibers and a theory of things that go bump in the light
University of California scientists working at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a theory describing light pulse dynamics in optical fibers that explains how an interplay of noise, line imperfections and pulse collisions lead to the deterioration of information in optical fiber lines. The theory will help to enhance the performance necessary for high-speed optical communication systems like video on demand and ultra-broadband Internet, and the research has helped establish a new field of
Earth’s best view of the stars – Antarctica’s Dome C
A small unmanned observatory high on the Antarctic plateau provides the best star-viewing site on Earth, according to research published today in Nature.
Australian researchers have shown than a ground-based telescope in Antarctica can take images almost as good as those from the Hubble Space Telescope, at a fraction of the cost. “It represents arguably the most dramatic breakthrough in the potential for ground-based optical astronomy since the invention of the telescope,” says Unive
Radical Antarctic telescope "would outdo Hubble"
A novel Antarctic telescope with 16-m diameter mirrors would far outperform the Hubble Space Telescope, and could be built at a tiny fraction of its cost, says a scientist from the Anglo-Australian Observatory in Sydney, Australia.
Tests by a team from the University of New South Wales, reported in the journal ‘Nature’ this week [16 September], show that the ‘Dome C’ site in the Australian Antarctic Territory is by far the best place ever tested on Earth for doing infrared and optic