Predicting the magnetic behavior of metallic compounds is a surprisingly difficult problem for theoretical physicists. While the properties of a common refrigerator magnet are not a great mystery, certain materials exhibit magnetic properties that do not fit within existing theories of magnetism. One such material inspired a recent theoretical breakthrough by physicists at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
In a paper scheduled for publication in the August 26 issue of the
The Da Vinci Code, the best selling novel and soon-to-be-blockbuster film, may also be linked some day to the solving of a scientific mystery as old as Leonardo Da Vinci himself — friction. A collaboration of scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Ames Laboratory at Iowa State University have used Da Vinci’s principles of friction and the geometric oddities known as quasicrystals to open a new pathway towards a better understanding of friction at the atomic
University of Arizona physicists have discovered what it takes to make metal ’nanowires’ that last a long time. This is particularly important to the electronics industry, which hopes to use tiny wires — that have diameters counted in tens of atoms — in Lilputian electronic devices in the next 10 to 15 years.
Researchers predict that such nanotechnology will be the next Big Thing to revolutionize the computing, medical, power and other industries in coming decades.
A University of Leicester project which will have implications for the quality of magnetic recording has won a prestigious Innovation Fellowship, allowing researchers to develop its commercial potential.
Chris Binns, Professor of Nanoscience at the University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, heads the project, which is a collaboration with Dr Robert Lamberton of Seagate and Dr Roer Bayston of the Queen’s Medical Centre at Nottingham. The project aims to develop a new facili
In a groundbreaking experiment, researchers from The City College of New York (CCNY) and Lehman College have measured the speed of magnetic avalanches and discovered that the process is analogous to the flame front of a flammable substance. The discovery of a “magnetic flame” could make it easier for engineers to study the dynamics of fire.
Magnetic avalanches occur when the polarity of a molecular nanomagnet is changed suddenly and sufficient energy is released to cause a chain reactio
MAKS 2005 – the biennial Russian International Aviation and Space Salon – is being held in Zhukovsky, close to Moscow, from 16 to 21 August. Space exploration has a prominent role at MAKS 2005 as for the first time the Russian Federal Space Agency, as well as ESA, are exhibitors.
All together 42 countries, 130 foreign aerospace companies and 500 Russian companies. are taking part in the air show. ESA’s presence is a sign of the growing cooperation between ESA and Russia marked
A team of researchers from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) has successfully demonstrated, for the first time, that it is possible to control the speed of light – both slowing it down and speeding it up – in an optical fiber, using off-the-shelf instrumentation in normal environmental conditions. Their results, to be published in the August 22 issue of Applied Physics Letters, could have implications that range from optical computing to the fiber-optic telecommunications industry
The Spallation Neutron Source at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has met a crucial milestone on its way to completion in June 2006 — operation of the superconducting section of its linear accelerator.
The SNS linac has two sections: a room-temperature, or warm, section, which completed its commissioning last January, and a superconducting, or cold, section, which operates at temperatures hundreds of degrees below zero. The cold linac provides the bulk of
Numerous electronic, optical and structural uses demonstrated; Advance reported in Aug. 19 issue of prestigious journal Science
University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) nanotechnologists and an Australian colleague have produced transparent carbon nanotube sheets that are stronger than the same-weight steel sheets and have demonstrated applicability for organic light-emitting displays, low-noise electronic sensors, artificial muscles, conducting appliqués and broad-band polarized light
Scientists will announce next month a new technique called microdisplacement printing, which makes possible the highly precise placement of molecules during the fabrication of nanoscale components for electronic and sensing devices. The new technique, which also extends the library of molecules that can be used for patterning, will be described in the 14 September issue of the journal Nano Letters by a team led by Paul S. Weiss, professor of chemistry and physics at Penn State.
On 5 August 2005, the ESA/NASA SOHO spacecraft achieved an incredible milestone – the discovery of its 1000th comet!
The 1000th comet was a Kreutz-group comet spotted in images from the C3 coronagraph on SOHO’s LASCO instrument by Toni Scarmato, from Calabria, Italy. Just five minutes prior to discovering SOHO’s 1000th comet, Toni had also spotted SOHO’s 999th comet! These comets take Toni’s personal number of SOHO discoveries to 15.
Many SOHO comet
Engineers at Purdue University have created a nanotech simulation tool that shows how current flows between silicon atoms and individual molecules to help researchers design “molecular electronic” devices for future computers and advanced sensors.
Molecular electronics could make it possible to manufacture hardware by “growing” circuits and devices in layers that may “self-assemble,” similar to the growth of structures in living organisms. Devices for a variety of applicati
Data from the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini spacecraft indicate that Saturn’s majestic ring system has its own atmosphere – separate from that of the planet itself.
During its close fly-bys of the ring system, instruments on Cassini have been able to determine that the environment around the rings is like an atmosphere, composed principally of molecular oxygen. This atmosphere is very similar to that of Jupiter’s moons Europa and Ganymede.
The finding was made by two
Recent Chandra observations have revealed new details about the fiery ring surrounding the stellar explosion that produced Supernova 1987A. The data give insight into the behavior of the doomed star in the years before it exploded, and indicate that the predicted spectacular brightening of the circumstellar ring has begun.
The supernova occurred in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy only 160,000 light years from Earth. The outburst was visible to the naked eye, and is the bright
Working at the Armagh Observatory with Dr Simon Jeffery and Dr Tolis Christou, Nuffield Science Bursary scholar Elizabeth Connolly was using an internet connection to control the Faulkes Telescope in Hawaii. During her half-hour observing session, she briefly turned the telescope to where the new planet had been discovered. After taking a photograph with the 2-metre telescope, she compared the new image with an old image of the same patch of sky. The new planet was clearly visible as a faint s
With the help of NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have conducted the most comprehensive structural analysis of our galaxy and have found tantalizing new evidence that the Milky Way is much different from your ordinary spiral galaxy.
The survey using the orbiting infrared telescope provides the fine details of a long central bar feature that distinguishes the Milky Way from more pedestrian spiral galaxies.
“This is the best evidence ever for this long
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