Dark matter experiment's central component takes a deep dive—nearly a mile underground

Q: How do you get a 5,000-pound, 9-foot-tall particle detector, designed to hunt for dark matter, nearly a mile underground?

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Novel NRL instrument enhances ability to measure nuclear materials

Researchers with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) designed and built an instrument called NAUTILUS to provide new measurement capabilities unlike those available at other laboratories to measure nuclear, cosmo/geo-chemical, and electronic materials.

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Scientists reveal the physics of Jackson Pollock's painting technique

The celebrated painter Jackson Pollock created his most iconic works not with a brush, but by pouring paint onto the canvas from above, weaving sinuous filaments of color into abstract masterpieces. A team of researchers analyzing the physics of Pollock's technique has shown that the artist had a keen understanding of a classic phenomenon in fluid dynamics—whether he was aware of it or not.

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Researchers build a biomimetic 'soft cannon' to understand how fungal spores are dispersed

A team of researchers from the Technical University of Denmark, the University of Copenhagen and Wageningen University and Research has built a tiny biomimetic 'soft cannon' to better understand how fungal spores are dispersed. In their paper published in Journal of the Royal Society Interface, the group describes building their tiny cannon and what they learned from firing it.

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LS2 Report: Linac4 knocking at the door of the PS Booster

Busy activity has returned to the CERN Control Centre (CCC), where the Operation group coordinates the current Linac4 test run, supported by the Accelerators and Beam Physics (ABP) group and all the involved equipment groups. As we write, the nominal 160 MeV beam has already reached the Linac4 dump.

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Scientists learn how to make oxygen 'perform' for them

When it comes to the fundamentals of making better materials—stronger-but-thinner glass for televisions or phone screens, for example—it almost always comes down to the building blocks of science. Understand the structure around an atom, the most basic piece of any material, and you might be able to change that material for the better.

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A new type of acoustic insulation enables sound to be concentrated in corners

A group of researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), in collaboration with Chinese scientists from the University of Nanjing (NJU), have designed a new type of acoustic insulation that enables sound waves to be concentrated in corners. This line of research could have applications in industrial ultrasound technologies or in the improvement of certain medical diagnostic tests such as ultrasound.

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First magnet installed for the ALPS II experiment at DESY

The international ALPS II ("Any light particle search") collaboration installed the first of 24 superconducting magnets today, marking the start of the installation of a unique particle physics experiment to look for dark matter. Located at the German research centre DESY in Hamburg, it is set to start taking data in 2021 by looking for dark matter particles that literally make light shine through a wall, thus providing clues to one of the biggest questions in physics today: what is the nature of dark matter?

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Liquid crystal droplets as versatile microswimmers

Nature's most common swimmers are single-celled organisms such as microalgae that swim toward light sources, and sperm cells that swim toward an ovum. For a physicist, cells are simply biochemical machines, which must obey well-described laws of chemistry and physics. Can scientists therefore create life-like, swimming micro-machines without invoking biology?

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Researchers uncover an anomaly in the electromagnetic duality of Maxwell Theory

Researchers at the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI) and Tohoku University in Japan have recently identified an anomaly in the electromagnetic duality of Maxwell Theory. This anomaly, outlined in a paper published in Physical Review Letters, could play an important role in the consistency of string theory.

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Using an accurate measurement of the parameters of planetary bodies to constrain the mass of the graviton

A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in France has revisited the idea of improving on estimates of the upper limit of the mass of a graviton. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes their accurate measurement of the parameters of planetary bodies and what they found.

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Mathematics reveals new insights into Marangoni flows

The Marangoni effect is a popular physics experiment. It is produced when an interface between water and air is heated in just one spot. Since this heat will radiate outwards, a temperature gradient is produced on the surface, causing the fluid to move through the radiation process of convection. When un-dissolvable impurities are introduced to this surface, they are immediately swept to the side of the water's container. In turn, this creates a gradient in surface tension which causes the interface to become elastic.

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Placing another piece in the dark matter puzzle

Very little is known about the exact nature of dark matter. Currently, some of the most promising dark matter candidates are extremely light bosonic particles such as axions, axion-like particles or even dark photons. "These can also be regarded as a classical field oscillating at a certain frequency. But we can't yet put a figure on this frequency—and therefore the mass of the particles," explains Professor Dmitry Budker. "That is why in the CASPEr research program, we are systematically investigating different frequency ranges looking for hints of dark matter."

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Study shows ability to detect light from UV to the IR optical regimes using spin currents

A University of Wyoming researcher and his team have shown that the spin Seebeck effect (SSE) can be used to detect light across a broad optical range—ultraviolet through visible to near-infrared. This work has future implications on novel spin current-based technologies.

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Alert system for failing nuclear plant pipes uses thin films and sound vibrations

A failing pipe can be tough to spot. It may cause a puddle, produce another sign of damage, or simply burst before detection. A flooded kitchen or laundry room is messy and inconvenient, but the stakes are much, much higher in nuclear power plants—which on average contain many miles of pipeline.

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Small magnets reveal big secrets

An international research team led by a physicist at the University of California, Riverside, has identified a microscopic process of electron spin dynamics in nanoparticles that could impact the design of applications in medicine, quantum computation, and spintronics.

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Physicists simulate critical 'reheating' period that kickstarted the Big Bang

As the Big Bang theory goes, somewhere around 13.8 billion years ago the universe exploded into being, as an infinitely small, compact fireball of matter that cooled as it expanded, triggering reactions that cooked up the first stars and galaxies, and all the forms of matter that we see (and are) today.

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Science reveals improvements in Roman building techniques

The Romans were some of the most sophisticated builders of the ancient world. Over the centuries, they adopted an increasingly advanced set of materials and technologies to create their famous structures. To distinguish the time periods over which these improvements took place, historians and archaeologists typically measure the colours, shapes and consistencies of the bricks and mortar used by the Romans, along with historical sources.

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Deflating beach balls and drug delivery

Many natural microscopic objects—red blood cells and pollen grains, for example—take the form of distorted spheres. The distortions can be compared to those observed when a sphere is 'deflated' so that it steadily loses internal volume. Until now, most of the work done to understand the physics involved has been theoretical. Now, however, Gwennou Coupier and his colleagues at Grenoble Alps University, France have shown that macroscopic-level models of the properties of these tiny spheres agree very well with this theory. The new study, which has implications for targeted drug delivery, was recently published in The European Physical Journal E.

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Insulating antiferromagnetic materials for future computers

Future computer technology based on insulating antiferromagnets is progressing. Electrically insulating antiferromagnets such as iron oxide and nickel oxide consist of microscopic magnets with opposite orientations. Researchers see them as promising materials replacing current silicon components in computers. Physicists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in collaboration with Tohoku University in Sendai in Japan, the synchrotron sources BESSY-II at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), and Diamond Light Source, the UK's national synchrotron, have demonstrated how information can be written and read electrically in insulating antiferromagnetic materials.

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Scientists confirm a new 'magic number' for neutrons

An international collaboration led by scientists from the University of Hong Kong, RIKEN (Japan), and CEA (France) have used the RI Beam Factory (RIBF) at the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-base Science to show that 34 is a "magic number" for neutrons, meaning that atomic nuclei with 34 neutrons are more stable than would normally be expected. Earlier experiments had suggested, but not clearly demonstrated, that this would be the case.

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Cooking up a new theory for better accelerators

While particle accelerators may be on the cutting edge of science, the building and preparation of some particle accelerator components has long been more of an art form, dependent on recipes born of trial and error. Now, Ari Deibert Palczewski hopes to change that. A staff scientist at the Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Palczewski has been awarded a DOE Early Career Research Program grant to put the science back into particle accelerator preparation.

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The way is clear: CORNING taps neutrons for developing new glass compositions

Scientists above all else are problem solvers.

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How to spot a wormhole (if they exist)

A new study outlines a method for detecting a speculative phenomenon that has long captured the imagination of sci-fi fans: wormholes, which form a passage between two separate regions of spacetime.

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Researchers work to create infrared detectors for viper-like night vision

Much like some snakes use infrared to "see" at night, University of Central Florida researchers are working to create similar viper vision to improve the sensitivity of night-vision cameras.

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Prisoner's dilemma game reveals cooperation leads to leadership

Game theory is a field which applies mathematics to understand the science behind logical decision-making behavior and social structures. Game theory has historically studied cooperation and hierarchy, and has sought to explain why individuals cooperate, even though they might be better off not to do so.

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Magnetics with a twist: Scientists find new way to image spins

Cornell researchers have put a new spin on measuring and controlling spins in nickel oxide, with an eye toward improving electronic devices' speed and memory capacity.

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3-D printing, bioinks create implantable blood vessels

A biomimetic blood vessel was fabricated using a modified 3-D cell printing technique and bioinks, which were formulated from smooth muscle cells from a human aorta and endothelial cells from an umbilical vein. The result is a fully functional blood vessel with a dual-layer architecture that outperforms existing engineered tissue and brings 3-D-printed blood vessels several fundamental steps closer to clinical use.

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Deuteron-like heavy dibaryons—a step towards finding exotic nuclei

Have you ever wondered how the Sun creates the energy that we get from it every day and how the other elements beside hydrogen have formed in our universe? Perhaps you know that this is due to fusion reactions where four nuclei of hydrogen join together to produce a helium nucleus. Such nucleosynthesis processes are possible solely due to the existence, in the first place, of stable deuterons, which are made up of a proton and a neutron. Probing deeper, one finds that a deuteron consists of six light quarks. Interestingly, the strong interaction between quarks, which brings stability to deuterons, also allows for various other six-quark combinations, leading to the possible formation of many other deuteron-like nuclei. However, no such nuclei, though theoretically speculated about and searched for experimentally many times, have yet been observed.

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Halfway toward LHC consolidation

The Large Hadron Collider is such a huge and sophisticated machine that the slightest alteration requires an enormous amount of work. During the second long shutdown (LS2), teams are hard at work reinforcing the electrical insulation of the accelerator's superconducting dipole diodes. The LHC contains not one, not two, but 1232 superconducting dipole magnets, each with a diode system to upgrade. That's why no fewer than 150 people are needed to carry out the 70 000 tasks involved in this work.

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Cell stiffness may indicate whether tumors will invade

Engineers at MIT and elsewhere have tracked the evolution of individual cells within an initially benign tumor, showing how the physical properties of those cells drive the tumor to become invasive, or metastatic.

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The DUNE experiment could lead to new discoveries about solar neutrinos

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is an international research collaboration aimed at exploring topics related to neutrinos and proton decay, which should start collecting data around 2025. In a recent study featured in Physical Review Letters, a team of researchers at Ohio State University have showed that DUNE has the potential to deliver groundbreaking results and insight about solar neutrinos.

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Volcanic ash modifies the height, width and lifetime of a standing shock wave that can occur during volcanic eruptions

Imagine you're getting ready to fly to your favorite vacation destination when suddenly a volcano erupts, sending massive amounts of volcanic ash into the atmosphere, and forcing the cancellation of your flight. That's exactly what happened in April 2010 when Eyjafjallajokull, a volcano in Iceland, erupted and disrupted air travel in Europe for six days. Scientists are now using plasma physics to predict the characteristics of these hazardous ash plumes.

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Gravity crystals: A new method for exploring the physics of white dwarf stars

Grab a mixing bowl from your kitchen, throw in a handful of aluminum balls, apply some high voltage, and watch an elegant dance unfold where particles re-arrange themselves into a distinct "crystal" pattern. This curious behavior belongs to the phenomenon known as Wigner crystallization, where particles with the same electrical charge repel one another to form an ordered structure.

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Reducing open-circuit voltage loss in organic solar cells

Researchers at Institute for Molecular Science in Japan report that organic solar cells (OSCs) with high mobility and highly crystalline donor (D) and acceptor (A) materials were able to reduce an open-circuit voltage (VOC) loss. The origin of the high VOC was that the highly crystalline D/A interface reduced the energy loss related to charge recombination. The results demonstrate that careful design of the D/A interface enables high power conversion efficiencies in OSCs.

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Ultrafast particle interactions could make quantum information devices feasible

Energy is information. Lengthening the time during which a system is capable of retaining energy before losing it to the local environment is a key goal for the development of quantum information. This interval is called the "coherence time." Several studies have been performed with the aim of retarding decoherence.

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Bio-circuitry mimics synapses and neurons in a step toward sensory computing

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the University of Tennessee and Texas A&M University demonstrated bio-inspired devices that accelerate routes to neuromorphic, or brain-like, computing.

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Researchers probe features of star clusters surrounding supermassive black holes

At the center of the galaxy, millions of stars whirl in orbits around a supermassive black hole. This circuit can take anywhere from a few hours for stars close to the event horizon of the black hole to thousands of years for their distant neighbors. The nature of the dance—how the stars interact collectively through their gravitational forces—can vary from galaxy to galaxy.

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Small high-voltage transmission electron microscope built in Japan

A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in Japan has built a high-voltage transmission electron microscope small enough to reside in a university lab. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group describes building the first-of-its-kind microscope and how well it works.

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Experiment measures velocity in 3-D

Many of today's scientific processes are simulated using computer-driven mathematical models. But for a model to accurately predict how air flow behaves at high speeds, for example, scientists need supplemental real life data. Providing validation data, using up-to-date methods, was a key motivating factor for a recent experimental study conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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New understanding of the evolution of cosmic electromagnetic fields

Next year is the 200 year anniversary of the discovery of electromagnetism by the Danish physicist H.C. Ørsted. Even 200 years after its discovery, the existence of electromagnetism still brings up new puzzles pertaining to their origin.

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Dynamic pattern of skyrmions observed

Cu2OSeO3 is a material with unusual magnetic properties. Magnetic spin vortices known as skyrmions are formed within a certain temperature range when in the presence of a small external magnetic field. Currently, moderately low temperatures of around 60 Kelvin (-213 degrees Celsius) are required to stabilise their phase, but it appears possible to shift this temperature range to room temperature. The exciting thing about skyrmions is that they can be set in motion and controlled very easily, thus offering new opportunities to reduce the energy required for data processing.

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Science follows from furry mysteries

Greg Gbur's new book from Yale University Press, "Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics," takes on a strange topic for a physicist—the mysteries of the cat.

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Chains of atoms move at lightning speed inside metals

A phenomenon that has previously been seen when researchers simulate the properties of planet cores at extreme pressures has now also been observed in pure titanium at atmospheric pressure. Chains of atoms dash around at lightning speeds inside the solid material.

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Giving ATLAS a boost

The outer realms of the periodic table, where stable, long-lived isotopes give way to radioactive ions, offer nuclear scientists a unique glimpse into the structure of nuclei and a better understanding of how the different elements in our universe came to be as a result of stellar fusion or supernova explosions.

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Modeling airborne disease diffusion

With outbreaks of airborne diseases such as measles occurring with growing frequency, modeling how the diffusion process works in dynamic contact networks is an increasingly important research area for epidemiology. A team including Macquarie University researchers Mohammad Shahzamal, Raja Jurdak, and Bernard Mans has developed a computational diffusion model that overcomes previous limitations in capturing an accurate view of the possible spread of infection. The research has been published in Royal Society Open Science.

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Alphabet of 140 puzzle pieces programs origami

How can a single origami crease pattern be folded into two precisely defined target shapes? Researchers at AMOLF and Leiden University have created an "alphabet" of 140 origami "puzzle pieces" that allows them to do just that, as described today in Nature Physics. This discovery could help in the construction of origami robots and toward designing smart programmable materials.

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Six degrees of nuclear separation

Argonne scientists look to 3-D printing to ease separation anxiety, which paves the way to recycle more nuclear material.

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Meet the new prototype in electromagnetic oil spill remediation technology

Many Fermilab followers are aware that Fermilab's Office of Partnerships & Technology Transfer licensed the laboratory's electromagnetic oil spill remediation technology to Natural Science LLC in 2015. This agreement enabled Natural Science, led by physicist and inventor Arden Warner, to design and develop a novel electromagnetic technology for cleaning oil spills. A key milestone of the agreement was to produce the first prototype and then move toward commercialization.

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Physicists look to navigational 'rhumb lines' to study polymer's unique spindle structure

From the intricate patterns of pollen grains to the logarithmic spirals of nautilus shells, biology is full of complex patterns, shapes, and geometries. Many of these intricate structures play important roles in biological function, but can be difficult to create in a lab without state-of-the-art equipment or expensive and energy-consuming processes and materials.

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Modelling ion beam therapy

Hadron beam therapy, which is often used to treat solid tumours, involves irradiating a tumour with a beam of high-energy charged particles, most often protons; these transfer their energy to the tumour cells, destroying them. It is important to understand the precise physics of this energy transfer so the tumour can be targeted precisely. Pablo de Vera of MBN Research Center, Frankfurt, Germany and co-workers in the Universities of Murcia and Alicante, Spain, have produced a consistent theoretical interpretation of the most accurate experimental measurements of ion beams energy deposition in liquid water jets, which is the most relevant substance for simulating interactions with human tissue. Their work is published in The European Physical Journal D.

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A new run of the CLOUD experiment examines the direct effect of cosmic rays on clouds

CERN's colossal complex of accelerators is in the midst of a two-year shutdown for upgrade work. But that doesn't mean all experiments at the Laboratory have ceased to operate. The CLOUD experiment, for example, has just started a data run that will last until the end of November.

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Demonstrating slow light in rubidium vapor using single photons from a trapped ion

Quantum networks can be practically implemented to interface with different quantum systems. In order to photonically link hybrid systems with combined unique properties of each constituent system, scientists must integrate sources with the same photon emission wavelength. For instance, trapped ions and neutral atoms can both have compelling properties as nodes and memories within quantum networks but without photonic linking due to their vastly different operating wavelengths. In a recent report on Science Advances, J.D. Siverns and colleagues at the Joint Quantum Institute, Department of Physics and the Army Research Laboratory in the U.S. demonstrated the first interaction between neutral atoms and photons emitted from a single trapped ion.

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The secret to sneaky float serves

A research team led by the University of Tsukuba studied the aerodynamics of a volleyball using a wind tunnel and hitting robot. They found that no matter the orientation of a standard ball, the pattern of panels presents an asymmetric surface to the flow of air, leading to deviations in its flight patterns. This work may help shed light on unsolved questions in the field of fluid dynamics.

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Tests start at CERN for large-scale prototype of new technology to detect neutrinos

Scientists working at CERN have started tests of a new neutrino detector prototype, using a very promising technology called "dual phase." If successful, this new technology will be used at a much larger scale for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by the U.S Department of Energy's Fermilab.

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Physics researchers break new ground, explore unknown energy regions

Florida State University physicists are using photon-proton collisions to capture particles in an unexplored energy region, yielding new insights into the matter that binds parts of the nucleus together.

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Cosmic theorist and planet-hunters share physics prize as Nobels reward otherworldly discoveries

This year's Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to three researchers for their contributions to two unique fields.

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Physicists report a way to 'hear' dark matter

Physicists at Stockholm University and the Max Planck Institute for Physics have turned to plasmas in a proposal that could revolutionise the search for the elusive dark matter.

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Are we alone? Nobel Prize goes to three who tackled cosmic query

They are two of the most fundamental questions not just of science, but of humanity: How did we get here? And are we alone?

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'Big Bang Theory' gets shout out to Nobel Prize announcement

Life imitated art Tuesday when "The Big Bang Theory"—the popular U.S. television show, not the scientific explanation for how the universe began—made its way into the annals of Nobel history.

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From 'weirdo' PhD stargazer to Nobel Physics laureate

As a student astronomer scanning the skies with homemade instruments a quarter of a century ago, Didier Queloz spent months doubting the data that led him to an inescapable conclusion: he'd just discovered the first planet outside Earth's solar system.

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Physicists measure the variation of the top-quark mass for the first time

For the first time, CMS physicists have investigated an effect called the "running" of the top quark mass, a fundamental quantum effect predicted by the Standard Model.

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Swiss Nobel Physics laureates hail win as 'simply extraordinary'

Two Swiss scientists who on Tuesday won the Nobel Physics Prize along with a Canadian-American colleague hailed their win as "simply extraordinary".

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Nobel Prize for Physics awarded to 3 scientists for their contribution to understanding of the evolution of the universe

Canadian-American James Peebles and Swiss scientists Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz on Tuesday won the Nobel Physics Prize for their work in cosmology, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

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Nobel Prize in Physics to be awarded

The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics will be awarded Tuesday, a day after two Americans and one British scientist were given the award for Physiology or Medicine.

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Cesium vapor aids in the search for dark matter

The hunt for dark matter is one of the most exciting challenges facing fundamental physics in the 21st century. Researchers have long known that it must exist, as many astrophysical observations would otherwise be impossible to explain. For example, stars rotate much faster in galaxies than they would if only 'normal' matter existed.

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Using velocity-induced acoustic oscillations as a standard ruler at cosmic dawn

Our current understanding of physics suggests that there are two main types of matter in the universe known as dark and baryonic matter. Dark matter is made up of material that scientists cannot directly observe, as it does not emit light or energy. On the other hand, baryonic matter is made up of normal atomic matter, including protons, neutrons and electrons.

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Partnership plans to produce Mo-99 to fill global demand for medical applications

SHINE Medical Technologies and partner Phoenix LLC have developed a new way to produce molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) for use in medical applications. They claim that testing has shown their new technology breaks the world record for the strongest nuclear fusion reactor in a steady-state system.

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Oobleck's weird behavior is now predictable

It's a phenomenon many preschoolers know well: When you mix cornstarch and water, weird things happen. Swish it gently in a bowl, and the mixture sloshes around like a liquid. Squeeze it, and it starts to feel like paste. Roll it between your hands, and it solidifies into a rubbery ball. Try to hold that ball in the palm of your hand, and it will dribble away as a liquid.

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Computer model helps make sense of human memory

Brains are a mazy network of overlapping circuits—some pathways encourage activity while others suppress it. While earlier studies focused more on excitatory circuits, inhibitory circuits are now understood to play an equally important role in brain function. Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) and the RIKEN Center for Brain Science have created an artificial network to simulate the brain, demonstrating that tinkering with inhibitory circuits leads to extended memory.

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More energy means more effects—in proton collisions

The higher the collision energy of particles, the more interesting the physics. Scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow have found further confirmation of this assumption, this time, in the high energy collision of protons with protons or lead nuclei.

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Molecular hydrogen becomes semimetallic at pressures above 350 GPa

According to condensed matter physics predictions, at a high enough pressure, hydrogen should dissociate and transform into an atomic metal. However, the exact pressure range at which this occurs has not yet been ascertained, and the process through which hydrogen becomes a metal is still somewhat unclear.

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New 'fuzzy' dark matter research disrupts conventional thinking

New research conducted at the University of Sussex has simulated dark matter in a new way for the first time, disrupting conventional thinking about the make-up of the universe. The research, published in Physical Review Letters, was done alongside Princeton, Harvard, Cambridge and MIT universities and others.

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AI technique does double duty spanning cosmic and subatomic scales

While high-energy physics and cosmology seem worlds apart in terms of sheer scale, physicists and cosmologists at Argonne are using similar machine learning methods to address classification problems for both subatomic particles and galaxies.

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The physics of undulatory human swimming

A research team led by the University of Tsukuba created the most complete recording to date of a human swimming underwater like an eel or lamprey. Using motion-capture equipment and particle velocity monitors, the scientists were able to study this "undulatory" underwater propulsion and the nearby water flows it created. They found that jets produced by coalescing vortices help explain the efficiency of this swimming method, which might be applied to novel propulsion systems.

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Why multipartite viruses infect plants rather than animals

Neither living nor non-living, viruses are generally strange. Among viruses, multipartite viruses are among the most peculiar—their genome is not packed into many particles rather than one. Multipartite viruses primarily infect plants rather than animals. A recent paper by researchers from Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) uses mathematical and computational models to explain this observation.

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Squid-inspired robots might have environmental, propulsion applications

Inspired by the unique and efficient swimming strategy of cephalopods, scientists developed an aquatic robot that mimics their form of propulsion.

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Physicist suggests 'quantum foam' may explain away huge cosmic energy

Steven Carlip, a physicist at the University of California, has come up with a theory to explain why empty space seems to be filled with a huge amount of energy—it may be hidden by effects that are canceling it out at the Planck scale. He has published a paper describing his new theory in the journal Physical Review Letters.

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Rotation on an eight-shaped path

Chemical engineers at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich, Germany, have developed the first molecular motor that enables an eight-shaped movement.

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