The EUREKA E! 3418 LIG-HT project is set to bring the sun into the heart of the Austrian Tyrol town of Rattenberg in the depths of winter. A combination of heliotstats – mirrors that track the sun – and optical concentrators would make it possible to light up locations within the town that lies totally in the shadow of a 900-m high mountain for over three months of the year. The benefits would be psychological, economic and environmental.

Rattenberg was built just north of the

Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, has together with five European partners started a three year project, Nanostar, for mastering of nanostructured multifunctional ferroelectric films for low cost mass production of microwave devices.

The project costs are 4.1 million Euros of which 2.8 million is supported by the European Commision in the 6th framework programme while the rest is paid for by the partners. Coordinator of the project is Professor Sparta

A team led by Dr. Patrizia Caraveo of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) in Milan discovered this cometary trail with data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory Archive. The discovery follows the team’s discovery in 2003 using ESA’s XMM-Newton of Geminga’s twin X-ray tails stretching for billions of chilometers.

Together, these observations provide unique insight into the contents and density of the interstellar “ocean” Geminga is plowing thro

German-Austrian-French research team uses a hundred-nanometre wide x-ray beam to observe how nanolayers buckle in bent high-tech carbon fibres

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, working together with colleagues from the University of Vienna and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France have made the first-ever observations of nanocrystallite buckling in carbon fibres. The results indicate that missing cross-links between

The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory is ending its year with another achievement of international importance as engineers and technicians this week completed testing of a world-record magnet.

With the completion of a new, 35-tesla magnet, the highest-field “resistive” magnet in the world is located at the Tallahassee facility. The state-of-the-art magnet, which incorporates “Florida-Bitter” technology invented at the lab, was designed and built on-site and is immediately

Drivers know whether or not their cars are running properly by observing the dashboard. Physicians can check vital parameters such as the pulse even when their patients are at home. The data can be recorded with the wireless monitoring device VitaSENS.

The modern automobile relies on sensors to monitor the vehicle’s operating condition. Whether it’s the speed, RPM, open doors, oil pressure, coolant temperature or fuel level, the driver constantly receives information about th

An EU project hopes to realise the ultimate potential of Grid computing by creating a network that is intelligently aware of its components and of the domain it addresses, enabling quick and easy virtual collaboration.

With funding from the European Commission’s IST programme, the project aims to deploy this type of ’smart Grid’ for a complex industry like aerospace, shipbuilding or construction, where large numbers of partners need to come together for a single, one-off pr

Cosmic gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the universe, have the extreme brilliance of a billion billion Suns and occur several times a day. But they are not all created equal. For several decades astronomers have known that two types exist–long ones that last for tens or hundreds of seconds, and short bursts, which last a few milliseconds to a second. Intense research over the last decade has shown that long bursts are the death throes of massive stars in distant, young, and vig

When a viscous fluid, such as a jar of honey, is stirred and then unstirred, the contents return to their starting points. However, according to research by a team of physicists headed by New York University’s David Pine, the particles of such fluids do not always return to their original locations. The findings are reported in the latest issue of the journal Nature.

It is a well-established consequence of the laws governing fluid motion that when a viscous fluid is stirred and then un

Astronomers at the University of Hertfordshire have helped to solve one of the longest standing puzzles in astrophysics— the nature of the enormous explosions known as short-duration gamma ray bursts (GRBs).

In a paper to be published in Nature tomorrow (15th December), they will reveal that around 15% of short-duration bursts originate from galaxies within 300 million light years of the Milky Way – more than 10 times closer than previously thought.

Dr Nial Tanvir who i

A group of professors from the departments of Chemistry, Soil Science, Physics and Applied Mathematics of the University of Navarra is working together in the preparation and characterization of a type of material termed “photonic crystals”, which has optical properties with many uses. Thanks to these crystals, in the future more powerful and effective lasers will be able to be constructed. Indeed, the Nobel prize winner of 2005 has made specific mention of recent progress in laser technology, wh

Short Gamma-Ray Burst Confirms Formation Scenario

An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a third short gamma-ray burst, associated with a nearby elliptical galaxy. The low level of star formation in such galaxies and the detection of a second long-lasting flare indicate that this gamma-ray burst is most likely the final scream of a neutron star as it is being devoured by a black hole.

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the most powerful type of explosio

Smaller is better

Georgia Tech scientists and engineers are pursuing the dictum that “smaller is better” to develop a new breed of highly-integrated silicon-based microchips capable of operating in ultra-sophisticated radar systems – and in new generations of NASA spacecraft.

Their research is focused on silicon-germanium (SiGe) integrated circuit technology, which can provide cost savings, compact size and improved efficiency in the same way that advances in silicon

Physicists at nearly a dozen research institutions, including New York University, have discovered evidence for very high energy gamma rays emitting from the Milky Way, marking the highest energies ever detected from the galactic equator. Their findings, published in the Dec. 16 issue of the Physical Review of Letters, were obtained using the Milagro Gamma Ray Observatory, a new detector located near Los Alamos, N.M., that allows monitoring of the northern sky on a 24-hour, 7-day-per-week basis.

Experimenting with the idea of municipal provision of sophisticated Internet services, European researchers have come up with some very promising results that were positively received by all municipalities involved in the trials.

When it concludes at the end of the year, the IST-funded VisionAIR project will have successfully completed over six months of trials of Internet services provided by European municipalities. Although the idea of public Internet services might sound

Scientists have come up with a “recipe” to help build the world’s first quantum computer – a new generation of super-fast machines set to revolutionise scientific discovery.

Quantum technology could be used to crack codes – valuable for national security – and is already used in some bank transactions. Future developments could involve understanding chemical reactions creating medicines, ultra-fast communications systems and seemingly impossible simulations, such as the creation of