Duke University materials scientists have developed a computer model of how a “quasicrystal” metallic alloy interacts with a gas at various temperatures and pressures. Their advance could contribute to wider applications of quasicrystals for extremely low-friction machine parts, such as ball bearings and sliding parts.
Quasicrystals, like normal crystals, consist of atoms that combine to form structures — triangles, rectangles, pentagons, etc. — that repeat in a pattern. However, unlike
Chemists who have trouble predicting how some large, complex biological molecules will react with others may soon have a solution from the world of computational quantum physics, say Purdue University researchers.
Using powerful supercomputers to analyze the interplay of the dozens of electrons that whirl in clouds about these molecules, a team of physicists led by Purdue’s Jorge H. Rodriguez has found that the quantum property of electrons called “spin” needs to be consider
Researchers at the University of Leicester have unravelled a 2,700 year old mystery concerning The Oracle of Delphi – by consulting an ancient farmer’s manual.
The researchers from the School of Archaeology and Ancient History sought to explain how people from across Greece came to consult with the Oracle – a hotline to the god Apollo- on a particular day of the year even though there was no common calendar.
Now their findings, published in this month’s edition of the
The detection of a super massive black hole without a massive host galaxy is the surprising result from a large Hubble and VLT study of quasars. This is the first convincing discovery of such an object. One intriguing explanation is that the host galaxy may be made almost exclusively of dark matter.
A team of European astronomers has used two of the most powerful astronomical facilities available, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Cerro
Like the flashing of fireflies and ticking of pendulum clocks, the signals emitted by multiple nanoscale oscillators can naturally synchronize under certain conditions, greatly amplifying their output power and stabilizing their signal pattern, according to scientists at the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
In the Sept. 15 issue of Nature,* NIST scientists describe “locking” the dynamic magnetic properties of two nanoscale oscill
In a world where “supersize” has entered the lexicon, there are some things getting smaller, like cell phones and laptops. Dartmouth researchers have contributed to the miniaturizing trend by creating the world’s smallest untethered, controllable robot. Their extremely tiny machine is about as wide as a strand of human hair, and half the length of the period at the end of this sentence. About 200 of these could march in a line across the top of a plain M&M. View images of the microrobot:
Findings may lead to advances in on-chip data transmission
New research from Rice University has demonstrated an important analogy between electronics and optics that will enable light waves to be coupled efficiently to nanoscale structures and devices.
The research is available online from the journal Nano Letters and will appear in an upcoming print edition.
“We’ve discovered a universal relationship between the behavior of light and electrons,” said st
After the anthrax attacks in the United States in 2001 the threat of a larger and more deadly bioterrorism attack — perhaps from smallpox, plague or tularemia — became very real. But the ability to detect such biological agents and rapidly contain an attack is still being developed.
In a significant finding, researchers at Northwestern University’s Center for Quantum Devices have demonstrated solar-blind avalanche photodiodes (APDs) that hold promise for universal bio
Measurements improve prospects for international redefinition of the kilogram
A leading experimental method for defining the kilogram in terms of properties of nature is now more accurate than ever, scientists at the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) reported today. The advance may move the scientific community closer to redefining the kilogram, the only one of the seven basic units of the international measurement system still defin
Scientists using the NASA Swift satellite and several ground-based telescopes have detected the most distant explosion yet: a gamma-ray burst from the edge of the visible Universe.
This powerful burst, probably marking the death of a massive star as it collapsed into a black hole, was detected on 4th September 2005. The burst comes from an era soon after stars and galaxies first formed, less than a billion years after the Big Bang.
“How a single star could generate so m
Data reveal insights into formation of stars in early universe
NASA’s Swift satellite and ground-based telescopes have discovered the most distant exploding star on record, confirming a 1999 prediction made by University of Chicago astrophysicist Don Lamb and Daniel Reichart, who was then a graduate student at Chicago.
Now a faculty member at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Reichart led the team that discovered the afterglow of the explosion, called a gam
Diamonds have always been alluring, but now a team of scientists has made them truly magnetic — on the nanoscale.
In a paper published in the Aug. 26 issue of Physical Review Letters, the researchers report a technique to make magnetic diamond particles only 4-5 nanometers across. The tiny diamond magnets could find use in fields ranging from medicine to information technology.
Ferromagnetism has been historically reserved for metals, but scientists are becoming incre
As the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans for the next launch of the space shuttle, a critical aspect of the program’s safety is being assured by 5 million pieces of data collected recently by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
To help prevent a repeat of the 2003 accident when launch debris damaged the shuttle Columbia, causing it to break up on re-entry, NASA has begun illuminating shuttles with tracking radars during laun
It turns out that a stroke of lightning produces thermonuclear reaction, which generates quite a noticeable stream of neutrons.
To produce thermonuclear reaction it is necessary, firstly, to have nuclei with a large quantity of neutrons available, for example, deuterium nuclei, and secondly, these nuclei should possess sufficiently high velocity and merge together upon collision, having overcome the Coulomb barrier. It turns out that all these conditions are observed in the cour
Astronomers Find Farthest Known Gamma-Ray Burst with ESO VLT
An Italian team of astronomers has observed the afterglow of a Gamma-Ray Burst that is the farthest known ever. With a measured redshift of 6.3, the light from this very remote astronomical source has taken 12,700 million years to reach us. It is thus seen when the Universe was less than 900 million years old, or less than 7 percent its present age.
“This also means that it is among the intrinsically brightest G
Researchers in the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley have simulated the process by which a quantum computer could calculate to high precision an important basic property of two small molecules. Simulated quantum calculations of the ground-state energies of water (H 2O) and lithium hydride (LiH) are the first of this kind ever done for specific molecules.
Alán Aspuru-Guzik, Anthony Dutoi, Peter Love, and Marti
Feedback
