Using synchrotron x-ray microbeams, a research team from the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart and the ESRF has been able to observe for the first time that the microscopic structure of a crystalline material fluctuates in time. The results are published today in Science Express with the title: Scaling in the Time Domain: Universal Dynamics of Order Fluctuations in Fe3Al.

The research team investigated a metal alloy, composed of iron and aluminium. When the structure o

Portable radiation detectors generally perform well enough to meet new consensus standards but provide inaccurate readings for certain types of radiation, according to recent tests by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

The results, reported in the May issue of the journal Health Physics,* are based on NIST tests of 31 commercial detectors, including hand-held survey meters; electronic personal alarming detectors (similar to pagers); and radionuclide i

The ESA/NASA SOHO spacecraft determines the origin of the fast solar wind in the magnetized atmosphere of the Sun

A Chinese-German team of scientists have identified the magnetic structures in the solar corona where the fast solar wind originates. Using images and Doppler maps from the Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation (SUMER) spectrometer and magnetograms delivered by the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) on the space-based Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)

Thanks to data from ESA’s XMM-Newton spacecraft, European astronomers have observed for the first time rotating ‘hot spots’ on the surfaces of three nearby neutron stars.

This result provides a breakthrough in understanding the ‘thermal geography’ of neutron stars, and provides the first measurement of very small-sized features on objects hundreds to thousands light-years away. The spots vary in size from that of a football field to that of a golf course.

Neutron st

In the 15 years that the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has orbited Earth, it has taken three-quarters of a million photographs of the cosmos. Two new views have been released of Hubble’s most well-known images: the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51, and the Eagle Nebula, M16.

The new images released for Hubble’s 15th anniversary are among the largest and sharpest views Hubble has ever taken, and were made with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).

The new Whirlpool Galaxy i

JLab, College of W&M researchers study radiation blockers while conducting nuclear imaging of Iodine uptake in mouse tissues

Scientists have found that a dose five times higher than the FDA-recommended dosage of potassium iodide in the event of a nuclear accident is needed to protect small animals effectively from radioactive iodide in medical imaging procedures. The long-term animal nuclear imaging project is being conducted by a collaboration of biology and physics researchers

A group of scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, is giving new relevance to the term “sharper image” by creating a superlens that can overcome a limitation in physics that has historically constrained the resolution of optical images.

Using a thin film of silver as the lens and ultraviolet (UV) light, the researchers recorded the images of an array of nanowires and the word “NANO” onto an organic polymer at a resolution of about 60 nanometers. In comparison, curren

Chip-scale refrigerators capable of reaching temperatures as low as 100 milliKelvin have been used to cool bulk objects for the first time, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report. The solid-state refrigerators have applications such as cooling cryogenic sensors in highly sensitive instruments for semiconductor defect analysis and astronomical research.

The work is featured in the April 25, 2005, issue of Applied Physics Letters.* The NI

An X-ray technique developed by physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is helping to improve the design and energy efficiency of the bright white lights often used to illuminate stadiums, roads and many other settings.

High-intensity gas discharge (HID) lamps produce 26 percent of the nation’s light output, but, as a result of their high energy efficiency, consume only 17 percent of the electricity used for lighting. Continuing improvements

Striking Image of Nebula N214C taken with ESO’s NTT at La Silla

The nebula N214, a large region of gas and dust located in a remote part of our neighbouring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, is a quite remarkable site were massive stars are forming. In particular, its main component, N214C (also named NGC 2103 or DEM 293), is of special interest since it hosts a very rare massive star, known as Sk-71 51 and belonging to a peculiar class with only a dozen known members in t

New data from the Department of Energy’s Jefferson Lab shows the pentaquark doesn’t appear in one place it was expected. The result contradicts earlier findings in this same region and adds to the controversy over whether research groups from around the world have caught a glimpse of the so-called pentaquark, a particle built of five quarks.

Researchers in Jefferson Lab’s CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) collaboration took data with a high energy photon beam on a liquid hydrogen

New results from research performed at the Department of Energy’s Jefferson Lab hint that strange quarks may contribute to the proton’s magnetic moment. If confirmed by data to be taken later this year, these surprising results would indicate that strange quarks in the proton’s quark-gluon sea contribute to at least one of the proton’s intrinsic properties. The HAPPEx results strengthen the trend found by the SAMPLE experiment at MIT-Bates and the A4 experiment at the Mainz

Lifetime of solar nebual

The oxygen and magnesium content of some of the oldest objects in the universe are giving clues to the lifetime of the solar nebula, the mass of dust and gas that eventually led to the formation of our solar system.

By looking at the content of chondrules and Calcium Aluminum- rich inclusions (CAIs), both components of the primitive meteorite Allende, Lab physicist Ian Hutcheon, with colleagues from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the Tokyo I

Cracking open the vast store of geographical data locked inside Europe’s mapping agencies, is a research project that allows real time access to a wide range of mobile users.

This is a big deal. The project, called GiMoDig and funded by the European Commission’s IST programme, could ultimately put terabytes of geographical data within reach of ordinary users, business and emergency services. The potential list of users is endless.

The potential list of applications

PPARC Kite Club Event
The Future of Medical Imaging and Radiotherapy
28th April 2005
10.30 am – 5.00 pm (registration from 9.45 am)
Institute of Physics, Portland Place, London

It is widely recognised that cancer affects a large percentage of the population with more than 1 in 3 people being diagnosed with the disease during their lifetime. A lesser known fact is that most of the current diagnostic techniques used for identifying cancer come from technologies

Nanocomposite materials seem to flout conventions of physics. In the latest example of surprising behavior, reported* by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Brookhaven National Laboratory, a class of nanostructured materials that are key components of computer memories and other important technologies undergo a previously unrecognized shift in the rate at which magnetization changes at low temperatures.

The team suggests that the apparent