University of California scientists working at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a novel method for controlling and measuring electron spins in semiconductor crystals of GaAs (gallium arsenide). The work suggests an alternative–and perhaps even superior–method of spin manipulation for future generations of “semiconductor spintronic” devices.
In research published in today’s issue of the scientific journal Physical Review Letters, Scott Crooker and Darryl Smith
The re-entry module of the Foton-M2 spacecraft, which has been in low-Earth orbit for the last 16 days made a successful landing today in an uninhabited area 140 km south-east of the town of Kostanay in Kazakhstan, close to the Russian border at 09:37 Central European Time, 13:37 local time.
The unmanned Foton-M spacecraft, which was launched on 31 May from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carried a European payload of 385 kg covering 39 experiments in fluid physics, biolo
Straight edges, good. Wavy edges, bad. This simple description holds true whether you are painting the living room or manufacturing nanoscale circuit features.
In a technical paper* published in June, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and SEMATECH describe an improved method for determining nanoscale “linewidth roughness,” an important quality control factor in semiconductor fabrication. Their research shows that current industry measurement
Measurements of the intensity of light at different wavelengths can be made more accurately now, thanks to a new, simple method for correcting common instrument errors. The new method, developed by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will benefit fields such as color measurement, lighting development, remote sensing, biotechnology and astronomy.
The NIST method improves the measurement accuracy of spectrometers, devices that measure optical
The second 20-metre antenna boom of the MARSIS instrument on board Mars Express was successfully – and smoothly – deployed, confirmed today by the ground team at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre.
The command to deploy the second MARSIS boom was given to the spacecraft at 13:30 CEST on 14 June 2005. Shortly before the deployment started, Mars Express was set into a slow rotation to last 30 minutes during and after the boom extension. This rotation allowed all the boom’s hing
This release from the University of Oxford has been forwarded for your information by Peter Bond, RAS communications officer. Forwarding does not imply endorsement by the RAS.
University of Oxford Press Release
Astrophysicists from the Universities of Oxford and Rome have for the first time found evidence of ripples in the Universe’s primordial sea of neutrinos, confirming the predictions of both Big Bang theory and the Standard Model of particle physics.
Neutrinos are el
Quantum dots, tiny crystals consisting of a few hundred to a few thousand atoms, sparkle with promise for uses ranging from tagging proteins in living cells to foiling counterfeiters to enabling quantum computers. The optics and electronics of these semiconductor nanocrystals are dramatically different from the same materials in bulk. But it turns out that one of the most important electronic properties of quantum dots has been misunderstood for over a decade.
Theorists
New calculations support an alternative to “superfluidity” of a solid as the explanation for the behavior of an isotope of helium, 4He, at temperatures approaching Absolute Zero, according to a report in Physical Review Letters.
Among the most provocative recent reports in condensed materials science were studies interpreting the behavior of solid 4He in an oscillating chamber as a “supersolid.” In this current paper, John S. Wettlaufer, professor of geophysics andphysics at Y
APL-Built Pluto Mission Spacecraft Shipped to NASA Goddard for Pre-launch Tests
The first spacecraft designed to study Pluto, the solar system’s farthest planet, took the first steps on a long journey today when it was shipped from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md. — where it was designed and built — to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., for its next round of pre-launch tests.
Proposed for launch in Januar
By depositing nanoparticles onto a charged surface, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have crafted nanotubes from silicon that are flexible and nearly as soft as rubber.
“Resembling miniature scrolls, the nanotubes could prove useful as catalysts, guided laser cavities and nanorobots,” said Sahraoui Chaieb, a professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at Illinois and a researcher at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.
’Martian bread and green tomato jam’, ’Spirulina gnocchis’ and ’Potato and tomato mille-feuilles’ are three delicious recipes that two French companies have created for ESA and future space explorers to Mars and other planets.
The challenge for the chefs was to offer astronauts well-flavoured food, made with only a few ingredients that could be grown on Mars. The result was 11 tasty recipes that could be used on future ESA long-duration space missions. ADF – Alain Ducasse Forma
This is a ’media only’ event.
ESO Headquarters
Garching bei München, Germany
4-5 July 2005
Be where the action is! Share with all European cometary specialists the excitement at the time of the impact and see how they prepare and obtain the follow-up images and spectra
On July 4, 2005, the NASA Deep Impact spacecraft will visit Comet 9P/Tempel 1. It will launch a 360 kg impactor that is expected to produce a crater on the surface of the comet
The world’s preeminent planet hunters have discovered the most Earth-like extrasolar planet yet: a possibly rocky world about 7.5 times as massive as the Earth.
This hot “super-Earth,” just 15 light years away, travels in a nearly circular orbit only 2 million miles from its parent star, Gliese 876, and has a radius about twice that of Earth. All the nearly 150 extrasolar planets discovered to date that are orbiting normal stars have been larger than Uranus, an ice giant a
Experts in the field of optical technology meet biennially at the “Laser – World of Photonics” in Munich. The Bonn research center caesar is exhibiting again at this year’s fair which will take place from 13 to 16 June. The research group “Holography and Laser Technology” headed by Prof. Peter Hering is presenting its state-of-the-art developments in Hall B2, Stand 252: an ultrafast holographic system featuring a mobile camera used for three-dimensional facial topometry for surgical planning and
New imaging technique—a trillion times faster than conventional techniques—advances field of plasmonics, could lead to better semiconductors
Both the ancient art of stained glass and the cutting-edge field of plasmonics rely on the oscillation of electrons in nanosized metal particles. When light shines on such particles, it excites the electromagnetic fields on the metal’s surface, known as “surface plasmons,” and causes its electrons to oscillate in waves–producing the
An international team of researchers, led by astronomers at the University of Pennsylvania, has launched the most highly sensitive telescope of its kind to be carried by balloon. The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Sub-millimeter Telescope or BLAST will take a five to nine-day journey along the upper reaches of Earth’s atmosphere. BLAST will collect images of objects in our solar system as well as the distant light that details the formation of stars and the evolution of whole galaxies.
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