Discovery could lead to room temperature quantum computing

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have potentially opened up a new avenue toward room temperature quantum information processing. By demonstrating the ability to image and control single isolated electron spins in diamond, they unexpectedly discovered a new channel for transferring information to other surrounding spins — an initial step towards spin-based information processing.

Quantum information processing us

The sheer number and variety of security protocols for Internet applications under development makes it difficult to be sure that any one protocol is 100 per cent secure from attack. Now an automated tool can systematically validate these security-sensitive protocols and applications.

“The AVISPA software tool enables a security protocol designer to input the protocol and the language he/she wishes to use, then feeds back information on this protocol including any known bugs or

Tension is mounting among students involved in the SSETI Programme as only two days now remain to the launch, by a Kosmos 3M rocket from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, of the student-built satellite – SSETI Express.

The last few weeks particularly have been an emotional roller coaster ride for the 15 teams of university students involved, particularly for the campaign team at Plesetsk in Russia, as they prepare SSETI Express for launch.

On 8 September the team arrived in Russia

Following the announcement of the Venus Express launch delay due to particulate contamination found in the launcher fairing where the spacecraft was installed, ESA staff and industry teams have started an inspection of the spacecraft. This recovery ‘investigation procedure’ has so far revealed a spacecraft in good status.

Having been removed from the Soyuz rocket, the upper composite, consisting of the Venus Express spacecraft attached to the Fregat upper stage and all housed

An international team of astronomers shows that even brown dwarfs start to form planets

Thus, the process of building planets is more universal and robust than had previously been assumed (Science Express, October 20, 2005).

Brown dwarfs, like more massive normal stars, are formed when interstellar gas and dust clouds collapse. When this happens, a central, dense area builds up, embedded in a rotating disc made of gas and dust. These circumstellar discs produce infrared

Nanorobot fabrication makes ultrasmall sensors possible

How do you build an infrared (IR) camera that is small enough to fit on a mini-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) without cryogenic cooling? Call in the nanobots.

Researchers working with the Office of Naval Research (ONR) have developed a way to build extremely small sensors using nanorobot fabrication. This new process, created by Harold Szu and James Buss of ONR and implemented by Xi Ning of Michigan State University, a

An innovative tent, developed with the use of space concepts, is now on display at the ’SAFE: Design On Risk’ exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Designed for desert use, it exploits the inhospitable environment to improve life in the desert.

Called Desert Seal, the tent is a prototype for a one-person inflatable tent for use in desert conditions. It is light, easy to transport and simple to set-up. Best of all, it takes advantage of the extreme desert tem

Take an LED that produces intense, blue light. Coat it with a thin layer of special microscopic beads called quantum dots. And you have what could become the successor to the venerable light bulb.

The resulting hybrid LED gives off a warm white light with a slightly yellow cast, similar to that of the incandescent lamp.

Until now quantum dots have been known primarily for their ability to produce a dozen different distinct colors of light simply by varying the size of th

Chains of 1 million magnetic nanoparticles have been assembled and disassembled in a solution of suspended particles in a controlled way, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report. Such particles and structures, once their properties are more fully understood and can be manipulated reliably, may be useful in applications such as medical imaging and information storage.

The NIST work, scheduled to be featured on the cover of an upcoming issue

Using laser pulses that last just 70 femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second), physicists have observed in greater detail than ever before what happens when atoms collide. The experiments at JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado at Boulder, confirm a decades-old theory of how atoms–like tennis balls–briefly lose form and energy when they hit something. The results will help scientists study other atomic-scale processes

The creation of an international Grid federation will help scientists from around the world access computers and information in over 50 countries and regions simply, securely and easily. The International Grid Trust Federation (IGTF) was established at the Global Grid Forum meeting which took place in Boston last week, and will bring together organizations representing Asia, the Americas and Europe- from Canada to China and from Portugal to Pakistan. Members of the federation provide systems a

Formula could lead to better tools to predict weather, pollution and water movement

To most people, turbulence is the jolt felt by jet passengers moving through a rough pocket of air. But to scientists, turbulence is the chaotic flow of a gas or liquid, in which parts of the current curl into irregular, ever smaller, tight eddies. It’s a very common phenomenon that can affect weather conditions, greatly alter the movement of pollutants, dampen a vehicle’s speed, or pl

On 26th October the European Space Agency’s Venus Express spacecraft is scheduled to launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan en route to Earth’s closest planetary neighbour – the ultimate “greenhouse” planet, Venus. This is the first European mission to Venus, the nearest planet to the Earth and the brightest object in our night sky, apart from the Moon.

Whilst Earth and Venus share certain characteristics such as age, mass and diameter they are worlds apart in other respe

New VLT Images Reveal the Surroundings of a Super-massive Black Hole

Near-infrared images of the active galaxy NGC 1097, obtained with the NACO adaptive optics instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, disclose with unprecedented detail a complex central network of filamentary structure spiralling down to the centre of the galaxy. These observations provide astronomers with new insights on how super-massive black holes lurking inside galaxies get fed.

“This is possibly

Scientists today revealed their plans to analyse the magnetic field around Venus in a bid to discover whether the planet’s lack of an internal magnetic field is the reason it is so inhospitable.

At a press conference in London hosted by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, Chris Carr of Imperial College London described how the magnetometer instrument onboard the Venus Express spacecraft will measure the magnetic field around the planet.

Scientists hope th

ESA’s Venus Express mission will be the first spacecraft in more than 10 years to visit our nearest planetary neighbour. To celebrate a new phase of exploration of Earth’s sister world, the Planetary Society has teamed with ESA to invite youths and adults worldwide to enter the Venus Express Art Contest for a chance to win a trip to mission control in Darmstadt, Germany when Venus Express arrives at its destination in April 2006.

Venus, shrouded under a dense haze, is a world stee