The way termite guts process food could teach scientists how to produce pollution-free energy and help solve the world’s imminent energy crisis. Speaking at the Institute of Physics conference Physics 2005 in Warwick today, Nobel laureate Steven Chu urged scientists to turn their attention to finding an environmentally friendly form of fuel. In an impassioned plea to some of the world’s brightest minds, he explained how he’s leading by example, and encouraged others to join the e

Researchers at the University of Warwick have trashed the world’s biggest turbulence lab by turning a pleasant stream into a raging torrent – but they say their actions will lead to new understandings in one of the main unsolved problems in physics- turbulence.

Turbulence is one of the main unsolved problems in physics. Turbulent systems fluctuate wildly and understanding this will also help us understand (and put a number on the likelihood of) extreme events in other systems th

The experiment on the International Space Station that will chase earthquakes

Lazio-Sirad is ready to gather data. The experiment is installed on the International Space Station and its aim is to trace the slight variations of the so-called Van Allen belts that seem to occur before earthquakes.

At the same time the experiment will gather data that will make possible the development of techniques of protection from radiation for astronauts. The astronaut Roberto Vittori wil

Full-scale disaster is breaking out in France – in the form of a simulated accident around which a major European civil protection exercise is planned. Just as in a real emergency, the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters is being activated so rescue teams will receive satellite images of the disaster zone .

It begins with a train derailment, and then the situation gets worse. Train wagons of fuel begin to burn, the fire spreading to pressurised tanks of liquefied

A new optical method that can image subsurface structures under skin has been demonstrated by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

The method relies on differences in the way surface and subsurface features of various materials scatter light. It was demonstrated with small pieces of pigskin and inorganic materials but might eventually prove useful for imaging living tissues to help

Goal is to assuage public’s concerns about a potential doomsday collision

Astronomers led by an MIT professor have revised the scale used to assess the threat of asteroids and comets colliding with Earth to better communicate those risks with the public. The overall goal is to provide easy-to-understand information to assuage concerns about a potential doomsday collision with our planet.

The Torino scale, a risk-assessment system similar to the Richter scale used for ea

A research group at Cambridge think that the universe might once have been packed full of tiny black holes. Dr Martin Haehnelt, a researcher in the group led by Astronomer Royal Martin Rees, will present new evidence to support this controversial idea at the Institute of Physics conference Physics 2005 in Warwick.

Most cosmologists believe that supermassive black holes grew up in big galaxies, accumulating mass as time went on. But Haehnelt says there is increasing evidence for a

Since the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona’s scientific communication website ( www.uab.es/uabdivulga/eng ) went online in May 2003, its aim has been to disclose research from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona to the public at large through the words of the researchers themselves. Over 200 researchers have now explained their work in a language accessible to all. From differential calculus to the latest breakthroughs in medicine, from

Though mobile communications have improved emergency services’ efficiency, noisy environments still pose communication problems for users. ANITA has addressed the issue with a noise-reduction system that could save lives.

Developed under the European Commission’s IST programme, the ANITA system uses innovative software to reduce background noise in real time to allow emergency service workers to communicate more clearly with each other and with their headquarters even in the most

Scientists reveal new technology that will help us compute more safely on the move and that ’body talk’ could control mobiles

New research by University of Glasgow scientists that enables people to interact safely with mobile computers while walking, running or driving, could help to prevent users from putting themselves in danger.

Changing tracks on digital music players of the future while on the move could be done with the nod of the head.

Walking and te

Scientists have developed the first reliable way to extract stem cells from blood without adding contaminating markers

A major breakthrough in stem cell research – a new tool that could allow scientists to harvest stem cells ethically – will be announced at the Institute of Physics’ conference Physics 2005 in Warwick later today (Tuesday 12th April).

Professor Josef Käs and Dr Jochen Guck from the University of Leipzig have developed a procedure that can extract and i

A new way of testing cells for cancer can both diagnose and determine the stage of cancer with just 50 tumour cells

Speaking at the Institute of Physics conference Physics 2005 in Warwick today (Tuesday 12th April), scientists will reveal a new test for cancer, more sensitive than any existing technique and capable of predicting for the first time whether a tumour has spread.

Unlike existing techniques which rely on expert visual assessment or unreliable biochemical meas

Scientists learn to process information with ’frozen light’

Scientists at Harvard University have shown how ultra-cold atoms can be used to freeze and control light to form the “core” – or central processing unit – of an optical computer. Optical computers would transport information ten times faster than traditional electronic devices, smashing the intrinsic speed limit of silicon technology.

This new research could be a major breakthrough in the quest to cr

Researchers at UCSD have made carbon nanotubes bent in sharp predetermined angles, a technical advance that could lead to use of the long, thin cylinders of carbon as tiny springs, tips for atomic force microscopes, smaller electrical connectors in integrated circuits, and in many other nanotechnology applications. In a paper published in the April 7, 2005, issue of the Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Sungho Jin, a professor of materials science at UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering, report

They look like an elegant row of columns, tiny enough for atomic-scale hide-and-seek, but these colonnades represent a new way to bring nanotechnology into mass production.

Nanotechnology, the ability to create and work with structures and materials on an atomic scale, holds the promise of extreme miniaturization for electronics, chemical sensors and medical devices. But while researchers have created tiny silicon wires and connected them together one at a time, these methods canno

Scientists discover one of the constants of the universe might not be constant

Physical constants are one of the cornerstones of physics – sacred numbers which we know to be fixed – but what if some of these constants are changing? Speaking at the Institute of Physics conference Physics 2005, Dr Michael Murphy of Cambridge University will discuss the “fine structure constant” – one of the critical numbers in the universe which seems to be precisely tuned for life to exist – and s