Bringing space inside the lab: Researchers replicate the climates of exoplanets to help find extraterrestrial life

Scientists do not need to travel light-years away to chart the atmospheres of exoplanets, thanks to research happening in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering with scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3Et7K4F

Using game theory to thwart multistage privacy intrusions when sharing data

Biomedical data is widely collected in the field of medicine, although sharing such data can raise privacy concerns about the re-identification of seemingly anonymous records. Risk assessment frameworks for formal re-identification can inform decisions on the process of sharing data, and current methods focus on scenarios where data recipients use only one resource to identify purposes. However, this can affect privacy where adversaries can access multiple resources to enhance the chance of their success. In a new report now in Science Advances, Zhiyu Wan and a team of scientists in electrical engineering and computer engineering and biomedical informatics in the U.S. represented a re-identification game using a two-player Stackelberg game of perfect information to assess risk. They suggest an optimal data-sharing strategy based on a privacy-utility trade-off. The team used experiments with large-scale genomic datasets and game theoretic models to induce adversarial capabilities to effectively share data with low re-identification risk.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3yUQp3z

2021: A year physicists asked, 'What lies beyond the Standard Model?'

If you ask a physicist like me to explain how the world works, my lazy answer might be: "It follows the Standard Model."

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3mvzobo

Novel semiconductor gives new perspective on anomalous Hall effect

A large, unconventional anomalous Hall resistance in a new magnetic semiconductor in the absence of large-scale magnetic ordering has been demonstrated by Tokyo Tech materials scientists, validating a recent theoretical prediction. Their findings provide new insights into the anomalous Hall effect, a quantum phenomenon that has previously been associated with long-range magnetic order.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3H9l7J0

Trapping vortices in thin superfluid films

Physicists at the University of Queensland have shed light upon how tiny whirlpools (vortices) get stuck to obstacles in superfluids.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3J7AO5s

Turbocharged data analysis could prevent gravitational wave computing crunch

A new method of analyzing the complex data from massive astronomical events could help gravitational wave astronomers avoid a looming computational crunch.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3JaNRmM

Computer simulation models potential asteroid collisions

An asteroid impact can be enough to ruin anyone's day, but several small factors can make the difference between an out-of-this-world story and total annihilation. In AIP Advances, a researcher from the National Institute of Natural Hazards in China developed a computer simulation of asteroid collisions to better understand these factors.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3ebn3Vh

Researchers develop new measurements for designing cooler electronics

When cell phones, electric vehicle chargers, or other electronic devices get too hot, performance degrades, and eventually overheating can cause them to shut down or fail. In order to prevent that from happening researchers are working to solve the problem of dissipating heat produced during performance. Heat that is generated in the device during operation has to flow out, ideally with little hinderance to reduce the temperature rise. Often this thermal energy must cross several dissimilar materials during the process and the interface between these materials can cause challenges by impeding heat flow.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/30PZ7Ug

Nuclear 'shadow corrosion' reproduced in the lab, paving way to longer fuel life

Solutions to a 55-year-old problem in boiling water reactors—which represent a third of nuclear power reactors in the United States—are on the way now that the problem has been emulated with ion beams.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3mm1HZI

Reentrant tensegrity: An auxetic, three-periodic, chiral tensegrity structure

In a new report now published in Science Advances, Mathias Oster, and a team of scientists at the Institute for Mathematics at the Berlin Institute of Technology and the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburg in the U.K., presented a three-periodic, chiral tensegrity structure and demonstrated that it is auxetic, i.e., such materials become thicker perpendicular to the applied force when stretched. An auxetic structure has a negative Poisson's ratio and can form materials with unexpected behavior. The tensegrity structure is a form of tensile architecture held together by the balance of tensile and compression forces acting on them. The scientists constructed the tensegrity structure using chiral symmetry cylinder packing to transform cylinders to elastic elements and cylinder contacts to incompressible rods. The outcome showed local re-entrant geometry at its vertices, which they confirmed using finite element modeling. The architecture represented a simple three-dimensional (3D) analog to the two-dimensional (2D) re-entrant honeycomb model to form an interesting design target for multifunctional materials.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3Ff08El

Measuring a quantum computer's power just got faster and more accurate

What does a quantum computer have in common with a top draft pick in sports? Both have attracted lots of attention from talent scouts. Quantum computers, experimental machines that can perform some tasks faster than supercomputers, are constantly evaluated, much like young athletes, for their potential to someday become game-changing technology.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3E7V9E4

Exploring factors impacting the sensitivity of amorphous oxide semiconductors to externally induced impurities

In recent years, electronics engineers have been trying to broaden the pool of available semiconducting materials, to enable the development of a wider range of devices. One emerging class of semiconductors are amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs), which are semiconductors based on oxides of post-transition metals.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3FgK4BN

Light-scattering dynamics could inform interpretation of Big Bang remnants

By confirming certain light-scattering dynamics first proposed a half-century ago, University of Nebraska–Lincoln physicists are casting fresh eyes on the universe-birthing fireworks ignited by the Big Bang nearly 14 billion years ago.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3J5ImFF

Maybe 'boson clouds' could explain dark matter

The nature of dark matter continues to perplex astronomers. As the search for dark matter particles continues to turn up nothing, it's tempting to throw out the dark matter model altogether, but indirect evidence for the stuff continues to be strong. So what is it? One team has an idea, and they've published the results of their first search.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3E6nxGz

Study re-examines the decay of 185Bi using state-of-the-art technologies

Researchers at University of Surrey, University of York, University of Edinburgh, and Argonne National Laboratory have recently revisited and solved some of the long-standing puzzles associated with the decay of 185Bi, the heaviest known proton-emitting nucleus. Their paper, published in Physical Review Letters, outlines crucial new results obtained using two advanced setups at Argonne National Laboratory's ATLAS facility, namely the Fragment Mass Analyzer (FMA) and the Argonne Gas-Filled Analyzer (AGFA).

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3E6Wo6z

Gravitational wave scientists set their sights on dark matter

The technologies behind one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs of the century—the detection of gravitational waves—are now being used in the long-standing search for dark matter.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3IU6uem

Exotic quantum particles—less magnetic field required

Exotic quantum particles and phenomena are like the world's most daring elite athletes. Like the free solo climbers who scale impossibly steep cliff faces without a rope or harness, only the most extreme conditions will entice them to show up. For exotic phenomena like superconductivity or particles that carry a fraction of the charge of an electron, that means extremely low temperatures or extremely high magnetic fields.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3GRGkHD

Understanding phase change materials for thermal energy storage

As the world searches for practical ways to decarbonize our activities and mitigate associated climate change, approaches to alternative energy are hampered by the intermittent nature of energy sources, such as solar and wind. One possible solution to help boost reliability and adoption of such renewable energy sources is improved energy storage capabilities.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/324XYbu

Generating topology from loss in hybrid light-matter particles

Losing particles can lead to positive, robust effects.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3dQny6T

Surfing the spin wave: New method to measure spin waves brings us one step closer to spin superfluidity

Spin waves, a change in electron spin that propagates through a material, could fundamentally change how devices store and carry information. These waves, also known as magnons, don't scatter or couple with other particles. Under the right conditions, they can even act like a superfluid, moving through a material with zero energy loss.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3GIX17M

Einstein's theory passes rigorous 16-year tests

An international team has used telescopes around the world, including CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope—Murriyang, to complete the most challenging tests yet of Einstein's general theory of relativity.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/30lWEAA

Air flow key to ensuring black soldier fly larvae thrive as a sustainable food source

Black soldier fly larvae devour food waste and other organic matter and are made of 60% protein, making them an attractive sustainable food source in agriculture. But increasingly, black soldier larvae are dying before they reach livestock facilities as animal feed.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3dLKTX8

New spin amplifier accelerates search for dark matter

Despite astrophysical evidence for the existence of dark matter, direct detection of its interaction with particles and fields of the standard model has not been achieved. Illuminating dark matter is the best hope of making progress in understanding the universe and would provide insights into astrophysics, cosmology and physics beyond the standard model.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3DQDYqq

Challenging Einstein's greatest theory with extreme stars

Researchers at the University of East Anglia and the University of Manchester have helped conduct a 16-year long experiment to challenge Einstein's theory of general relativity.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3dLhXP0

New version of organic electronics for rational management of energy

Due to the current energy problems, which encompass high electricity bills, regional tensions among oil and gas producers or the impact of climate change, among others, a rational management of energy consumption is becoming increasingly necessary.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3GzffbM

Throwing down the scientific gauntlet to assess methods for anomalous diffusion

Almost 80 years after Scottish botanist Robert Brown described the continuous random motion of microscopic particles in a fluid, Albert Einstein provided a theoretical foundation for this observation. Since then, scientists have discovered systems that deviate substantially from the laws of Brownian motion. Such deviations are referred to as anomalous diffusion and occur in a wide range of systems, ranging from the transport of molecules in the nucleus to animal foraging strategies and stock market fluctuations.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3oHED9d

Uncertainty is inescapable, even in a science as precise as nuclear physics

Uncertainty is part of life. There's just no escaping it, even in a science as precise as nuclear physics.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3IFKF2j

Simulating matter on the nanoscale with AI

In a paper published today in the scientific journal Science, DeepMind demonstrates how neural networks can be used to describe electron interactions in chemical systems more accurately than existing methods.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/33hca1S

DNA transcription speeds, a function of collective modes driven by DNA supercoiling

A team of physicists working at the intersection of theory and experiment are shedding new light on the "teamwork" of molecular motors—called RNA polymerases (RNAPs)—that mediate DNA transcription. During transcription, the first step in gene expression, RNAPs "read" DNA sequences and assemble messenger RNA (mRNA), which in turn serves as the template for the proteins necessary for life.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3ICVIZS

New state of matter: Crystalline and flowing at the same time

Through their research efforts, the team was able to finally disprove an intuitive assumption that in order for two particles of matter to merge and form larger units (i.e. aggregates or clusters), they must be attracted to each other. As early as the turn of the century, a team of soft matter physicists headed by Christos Likos of the University of Vienna predicted on the basis of theoretical considerations that this does not necessarily have to be the case. They suggested that purely repulsive particles could also form clusters, provided they are fully overlapping and that their repulsion fulfills certain mathematical criteria. 

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3y8FVNM

Physicists discover special transverse sound wave

Can you imagine sound traveling in the same way as light does? A research team at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has discovered a new type of sound wave: The airborne sound wave vibrates transversely and carries both spin and orbital angular momentum like light does. The findings shattered scientists' previous beliefs about the sound wave, opening an avenue to the development of novel applications in acoustic communications, acoustic sensing and imaging.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3Ey8OFf

Microfountain pen draws minute patterns for live cells, circuits

Advances in intuitive microwriting devices that can print microstructures could pattern electric circuits and more. The setup, featuring a robot arm to hold the micropen, deposits ink onto the surface, much like writing by hand with a fountain pen.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3psUWWI

Study explores phase transitions in a confining dark sector using QCD simulations

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Ohio state University recently carried out a study examining the possible effects of a first-order phase transition in a confining dark sector with heavy dark quarks. Using computer simulations, they showed that in several scenarios, such a transition could lead to a sizable reduction in the abundance of dark matter. The results of their analyses were published in Physical Review Letters.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3DqazTH

Studying cosmic expansion using methods from many-body physics

It is almost always assumed in cosmological calculations that there is a even distribution of matter in the universe. This is because the calculations would be much too complicated if the position of every single star were to be included. In reality, the universe is not uniform: in some places there are stars and planets, in others there is just a void. Physicists Michael te Vrugt and Prof. Raphael Wittkowski from the Institute of Theoretical Physics and the Center for Soft Nanoscience (SoN) at the University of Münster have, together with physicist Dr. Sabine Hossenfelder from the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS), developed a new model for this problem. Their starting point was the Mori-Zwanzig formalism, a method for describing systems consisting of a large number of particles with a small number of measurands. The results of the study have now been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3rBFxWR

Ultra-high precision search for exotic interactions

The standard model is currently recognized as the most successful theory for studying particles and their interactions. However, it still fails to account for some important astronomy observations, such as the existence of dark matter and dark energy. Physicists generally believe that there are new particles beyond the standard model, which transmit new interactions between standard model particles. Due to the weak effect of exotic interaction, searching for exotic interactions is extremely challenging, and it is urgent to explore new methods to improve experimental sensitivity.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3pxNXeZ

Understanding mouthfeel of food using physics

Food texture can make the difference between passing on a plate and love at first bite. To date, most studies on food texture center on relating a food's overall composition to its mechanical properties. Our understanding of how microscopic structure and changes in the shape of food affect food texture, however, remains underdeveloped.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3IfJ4zT

BESIII experiment: Search for new physics in charm energy region, progress and prospect

In a recent review article published online in National Science Review, Prof. Shenjian Chen (Nanjing University) and Prof. Stephen Olsen (University of Chinese Academy of Sciences) review the major progress of the BESIII experiment in searching for new physics in Charm physics energy region, and prospect the potential of new physics search in the future.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3dm8LAo

Lego down! Focused vibrations knock over minifigures

A tabletop covered in miniature Lego minifigures. There is a whooshing sound, a pause, and then a single minifigure in the center of the table topples over, leaving the remaining minifigures standing.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3dfnJbA

Color-changing magnifying glass gives clear view of infrared light

Detecting light beyond the visible red range of our eyes is hard to do, because infrared light carries so little energy compared to ambient heat at room temperature. This obscures infrared light unless specialized detectors are chilled to very low temperatures, which is both expensive and energy-intensive.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3xLRaeV

Filtering unwanted sounds from baby monitors

New parents often keep a constant ear on their children, listening for any signs of distress as their baby sleeps. Baby monitors make that possible, but they can also inundate parents with annoying background audio.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3dauBXP

Sounding off on Seattle Space Needle renovation

The Seattle Space Needle, a city landmark for nearly 60 years, recently underwent a renovation to enhance the visitor experience. Acoustic designers were tasked with ensuring that the new design is a quiet one.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3rrDvIN

Novel quantum device design promises a regular flow of entangled electrons on demand

Quantum computer and many other quantum technologies rely on the generation of quantum-entangled pairs of electrons. However, the systems developed so far typically produce a noisy and random flow of entangled electrons, which hinders synchronized operations on the entangled particles. Now, researchers from Aalto University in Finland propose a way to produce a regular flow of spin-entangled electrons.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3ltMZze

Tracing European conflicts using lead isotopes in paints used by Dutch masters

A team of researchers from Vrije University, Conservation & Science, Rijksmuseum and the University of Amsterdam has found that it is possible to trace conflicts in Europe by analyzing lead isotopes in paint used by Dutch master painters. They have published their results in the journal Science Advances.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3IbQEeX

Safely delivering radiation to cancer patients in a 'FLASH'

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have shown for the first time the potential for linear induction accelerators (LIAs) to deliver effective, targeted doses of "FLASH" radiation to cancer patients. The new technique selectively kills cancer cells with minimal damage to healthy cells. The approach is outlined in a Scientific Reports paper.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/31c3Pfm

Magnons vs electrons: A new spin on computer processing

In 1965, Gordon Moore of Intel predicted that microprocessors would double in speed and capacity every couple of years. This prediction, now known as "Moore's Law," has with some modification in 1975 been reliably prophetic until now. We're fast approaching the limits of Moore's Law at the same time as demands on microprocessor performances are continuing to grow at an ever more rapid pace. The solution may be in a burgeoning technology whose name reads like a character in the Marvel Universe —magnonics.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3D673xG

Researchers generate, for the first time, a vortex beam of atoms and molecules

Vortices may conjure a mental image of whirlpools and tornadoes—spinning bodies of water and air—but they can also exist on much smaller scales. In a new study published in Science, researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science, together with collaborators from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Tel Aviv University, have created, for the first time, vortices made of a single atom. These vortices could help answer fundamental questions about the inner workings of the subatomic world and be used to enhance a variety of technologies—for example, by providing new capabilities for atomic microscopes.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3I5Dccl

High-speed holography of cells spots physical beacons of disease

Biomedical engineers at Duke University have engineered a holographic system capable of imaging and analyzing tens of thousands of cells per minute to both discover and recognize signs of disease.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3phOx0i

Three-body interactions bring egoists into the collective comfort zone—even penguins

A research team from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) has worked together with TU Darmstadt and an MPI based in Garching to examine the group dynamics of communicating active particles. These particles are consistently focused on self-optimisation. By always endeavoring to maintain their own personal comfort, they also help the other group members. As the researchers describe in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, such self-optimisation is a common multi-body phenomenon which can occur for penguins and bacteria.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3D5ke1J

Modeling suggests friendships may lead to lopsided elections

Have you ever thought about not voting because your preferred candidate's victory seems assured? New Cornell research uses mathematical modeling to show that type of thinking can have the opposite effect, resulting in the election of politicians who do not represent the preferences of the electorate as a whole.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3rjKWS3

Filtering microplastics trash from water with acoustic waves

Microplastics are released into the environment by cosmetics, clothing, and industrial processes or from larger plastic products as they break down naturally.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3FXxTtJ

Intense correlationship proved between irradiation damage and performances of tritium breeding materials

Severe irradiation environment would bring damage to the microstructure of the materials and affect the stable operation and tritium recovery of fusion reactor. Therefore, the efficient tritium production from tritium breeding materials is the guarantee for the realization of tritium self-sufficiency in fusion reactor.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3D9qDJf

Breaking the symmetry of sound waves allows the sound to be directed to a certain place

Research undertaken by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) has concluded that sound can be directed to a certain place if the sound waves' symmetry is broken. In order to carry out this work, recently published in the journal Nature, researchers used the whispering gallery phenomenon, a circular, vaulted room in which you can hear what is being said in a specific part of the room from anywhere, even if it is being whispered.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3o4lVbv

Möbius strip microlasers for non-Euclidean photonics applications

Photonics is a branch of technology development that specializes in the creation of devices that can generate, detect or manipulate light. Recently, researchers at Université Paris-Saclay coined a new term for a new photonics sub-field called non-Euclidean photonics.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3pdlYkC

Bolometers operate at higher temperatures using new superconducting material

Receivers combining a superconducting hot electron bolometer (HEB) with a reference oscillator are the work horses of supra-terahertz astronomy, observing for example star formation and galaxy evolution. Until now, mainly niobium nitride HEBs—that have to be operated at low temperatures of 4 Kelvin—have been selected for space and balloon borne telescopes. A team of scientists at SRON, TU Delft, Chalmers University and RUG have now demonstrated a HEB based on magnesium diboride, a new superconducting material, which not only can simultaneously detect more spectral lines, but can also be operated around 20 Kelvin. The latter can significantly reduce the cost, weight, volume, and required electrical power of space instruments. The study is published in Applied Physics Letters.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3laJu0H

Physicists detect signs of neutrinos at Large Hadron Collider

The international Forward Search Experiment team, led by physicists at the University of California, Irvine, has achieved the first-ever detection of neutrino candidates produced by the Large Hadron Collider at the CERN facility near Geneva, Switzerland.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3I6BQ1h

A doubly magic discovery

A team of researchers, including scientists from the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) and the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University (MSU), have solved the case of zirconium-80's missing mass.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3r9VPWD

Electrons set the stage for neutrino experiments

Neutrinos may be the key to finally solving a mystery of the origins of our matter-dominated universe, and preparations for two major, billion-dollar experiments are underway to reveal the particles' secrets. Now, a team of nuclear physicists have turned to the humble electron to provide insight for how these experiments can better prepare to capture critical information. Their research, which was carried out at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and recently published in Nature, reveals that major updates to neutrino models are needed for the experiments to achieve high-precision results.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3nPOzNK

Rare Einstein papers set record at Paris auction

Albert Einstein's handwritten notes for the theory of relativity fetched a record 11.6 million euros ($13 million) at an auction in Paris on Tuesday.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3FGAecu

Origami, kirigami inspire mechanical metamaterials designs

The ancient arts of origami, the art of paper-folding, and kirigami, the art of paper-cutting, have gained popularity in recent years among researchers building mechanical metamaterials. Folding and cutting 2D thin-film materials transforms them into complex 3D structures and shapes with unique and programmable mechanical properties.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3xjYHBs

Rare Einstein manuscript set to fetch millions

Albert Einstein's handwritten notes for the theory of relativity are being auctioned in Paris on Tuesday, expected to fetch millions of euros.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3xfTien

Heat flow controls the movement of skyrmions in an insulating magnet

Tiny amounts of heat can be used to control the movement of magnetic whirlpools called skyrmions, RIKEN physicists have shown. This ability could help to develop energy-efficient forms of computing that harness waste heat.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/30J4fcR

Skyrmions: Fundamental particles modeled in beam of light

Scientists at the University of Birmingham have succeeded in creating an experimental model of an elusive kind of fundamental particle called a skyrmion in a beam of light.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3oMExw4

Rare Einstein manuscript set to fetch millions

A rare manuscript by theoretical physicist Albert Einstein goes under the hammer in Paris on Tuesday, with auctioneers aiming for a stratospheric price tag.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3HGGsuu

Why do frozen turkeys explode when deep-fried?

Deep-frying a turkey is a great way to get a delicious, moist meal for Thanksgiving. But this method of cooking can be a very dangerous undertaking.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3CsEJp3

How ultracold, superdense atoms become invisible

An atom's electrons are arranged in energy shells. Like concertgoers in an arena, each electron occupies a single chair and cannot drop to a lower tier if all its chairs are occupied. This fundamental property of atomic physics is known as the Pauli exclusion principle, and it explains the shell structure of atoms, the diversity of the periodic table of elements, and the stability of the material universe.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3Hx7gNV

Energizer atoms: Physicists find new way to keep atoms excited

JILA researchers have tricked nature by tuning a dense quantum gas of atoms to make a congested "Fermi sea," thus keeping atoms in a high-energy state, or excited, for about 10% longer than usual by delaying their normal return to the lowest-energy state. The technique might be used to improve quantum communication networks and atomic clocks.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3HvXJXk

Estimating the quality of sound spaces from observed speech

In the future, smartphones, which almost everyone has, and smart speakers, 3.7 million installed in Japanese households, might save your life. Apart from daily-use features, these devices can read emergency messages aloud to inform us of the current situation of an earthquake and how to evacuate. However, we might lose such crucial information due to difficulty listening in some circumstances. The intelligibility of speech is dramatically degraded by noise such as conversations and vacuum cleaners and reverberation as in poor auditoriums or subways.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3Duy0fj

Revolution in imaging with neutrons

An international research team at the Research Neutron Source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II) of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a new imaging technology. In the future this technology could not only improve the resolution of neutron measurements by many times but could also reduce radiation exposure during X-ray imaging.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3DzxdKg

Iodine successfully tested in satellite ion thrusters

A team of researchers from ThrustMe, working with colleagues from Sorbonne Université, has successfully tested the use of iodine as an ionizing agent in an ion-thrusting spacecraft engine. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes their two-year test of the chemical element. The team has also posted a press release describing their work on their site.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3x1azI5

Muonic X-ray emission spectroscopy study of Roman coins reveals thriving empires

A study of gold coins from different moments of the Roman Empire has revealed the thriving economy at the time of minting.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3Cuxixi

New study helps to understand cosmological lithium problem

An international research team has recently updated the 7Li(d,n)24He reaction rate based on latest experimental data, which removes the significant ambiguity in the cosmological lithium (Li) problem from the perspective of nuclear physics.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3qPIySL

A glimpse of deformation in helium-8

New TRIUMF research from the Saint Mary's University-led IRIS group has unveiled an unexpected shape deformation in the nucleus of helium-8 (He8), providing further insight into the unique dynamics of how neutron-rich nuclei take shape and maintain stability.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3cn9cKu

Study explores the origin of clonal dominance in excitable cell networks

Clonal dominance is a phenomenon that occurs when descendants (i.e., clones) of one or more founder cells in an organism contribute disproportionally to the system's final structure as the tissue grows. This phenomenon is associated with numerous biological processes, including bacterial growth and the genesis of tumors. While numerous studies have investigated clonal dominance, its origin is still is poorly understood.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3kNDIlh

Combining muography with existing technology to improve volcanic eruption predictions

An international team of researchers is proposing that vulcanologists consider using muography with existing technology to improve volcanic eruption predictions. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A, the group describes ways they believe muography could be combined with existing technology to provide volcanologists with more information about the status of a given volcano.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3wYKjym

Glass as stable as crystal: Homogeneity leads to stability

Scientists from The University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science used computer simulations to study the aging mechanism that can cause an amorphous glassy material to turn into a crystal. They find that removing tiny irregularities in local densities help prevent the atomic "avalanches" that trigger ordered structure formation. This work may lead to more stable glassy materials, including for pharmaceutical applications.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3kNctHH

New holographic camera sees the unseen with high precision

Northwestern University researchers have invented a new high-resolution camera that can see the unseen—including around corners and through scattering media, such as skin, fog or potentially even the human skull.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3FfOLeW

Experiments visualize temperature-driven spatial change of magnetic patterns at atomic scale

Experiments led by a group of Boston College researchers enabled atomic scale visualization of a temperature-driven spatial change of magnetic patterns in a Mott insulator, the team has reported in Science Advances.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3nlSotC

Mathematicians derive the formulas for boundary layer turbulence 100 years after the phenomenon was first formulated

Turbulence makes many people uneasy or downright queasy. And it's given researchers a headache, too. Mathematicians have been trying for a century or more to understand the turbulence that arises when a flow interacts with a boundary, but a formulation has proven elusive.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3kJcTyx

A computer algorithm that speeds up experiments on plasma

A team of researchers from Tri Alpha Energy Inc. and Google has developed an algorithm that can be used to speed up experiments conducted with plasma. In their paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, the group describes how they plan to use the algorithm in nuclear fusion research.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/30uA5t3

Study shows what happens to apparent horizons when binary black holes merge

Binary black hole mergers are fascinating cosmological events, which have been theorized to be the among the strongest sources of gravitational waves in the universe. While astrophysicists have carried out extensive research focusing on these events, many questions remain unanswered.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3kYOllB

Portable device capable of monitoring gamma radiation and neutrons in radioactive and nuclear processes

A group of researchers from the Institute of Corpuscular Physics (IFIC), a joint center of the University of Valencia and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), has patented a compact and portable device capable of simultaneously monitoring gamma radiation and neutrons produced in radioactive processes and nuclear reactions. This detector also makes it possible to measure these radiations with a wide range of energy and visualize them spatially, which can give rise to multiple applications: from the detection of radioactive materials in nuclear safety programs to mitigating the side effects of hadron therapy, a novel way to treat cancer.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3nhtDPl

First direct measurement of the overall impact of ocean eddy killing

Ocean currents, propelled by kinetic energy from the wind, are the great moderators of our climate. By transferring heat from the equator to polar regions, they help make our planet habitable.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3qJFc43

First observation of an inhomogeneous electron charge distribution on an atom

Until now, observing subatomic structures was beyond the resolution capabilities of direct imaging methods, and this seemed unlikely to change. Czech scientists, however, have presented a method with which they became the first in the world to observe an inhomogeneous electron charge distribution around a halogen atom, thus confirming the existence of a phenomenon that had been theoretically predicted but never directly observed. Comparable to the first observation of a black hole, the breakthrough will facilitate understanding of interactions between individual atoms or molecules as well as of chemical reactions, and it opens a path to refinement of the material and structural properties of various physical, biological, and chemical systems. The breakthrough will be published on Friday in Science.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3c3hXJr

Researchers recreate deep-Earth conditions to see how iron copes with extreme stress

Far below you lies a sphere of solid iron and nickel about as wide as the broadest part of Texas: the Earth's inner core. The metal at the inner core is under pressure about 360 million times higher than we experience in our everyday lives and temperatures approximately as hot as the Sun's surface.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3C5cxbt

New atomic data portal

Even if you're one of the most precise physicists on the planet—as University of Delaware Professor Marianna Safronova is—you still will need collaborators whose skills complement your own and make new opportunities possible.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3n3LsRE

COSINE-100 team find no evidence of dark matter, casting more doubt on DAMA/LIBRA results

An international team of researchers working on the COSINE-100 experiment in South Korea has been unable to reproduce the signals reported by the researchers working on the DAMA/LIBRA experiment in Italy despite using similar technology. Their paper was published in the journal Science Advances.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3Hn2PVU

Catching the fog as it rolls in for more fresh water

In the Namib desert—one of the driest places in the world—a tiny species of beetle climbs the dunes, leans its body toward the wind, and catches the only source of water it can: passing droplets of fog.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3knKON2

Deep-frying sounds reveal oil temperature and the path to a perfect snack

Tempura, schnitzel, samosas, french fries, a deep-fried stick of butter at the county fair—who doesn't love food crisped up in sizzling oil?

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3kqHhO1

Uncovering the optimization secrets of fish schools

Nature documentaries have long exploited the elegant swerves of massive schools of fish. Fish team up to more easily cut through the water and protect themselves from predators.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3F5OBXg

Nuclear radiation used to transmit digital data wirelessly

Engineers have successfully transferred digitally encoded information wirelessly using nuclear radiation instead of conventional technology.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3qFqyuD

How to COVID-proof the grocery line, classroom, and orchestra

Despite effective vaccines, it has become clear that SARS-CoV-2 will not fully disappear anytime soon. At the 74th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, physicists and engineers will present innovative ways to avoid clouds of coronavirus whether waiting in line, going to class, listening to the opera, or encountering people elsewhere.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3qqoJRT

Simultaneous TES readout at level of Athena-like telescopes

Scientists at SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research have simultaneously read out the signal of 37 TES pixels at a resolution of 2.2 eV for X-rays (6 keV). It is the first time that a simultaneous readout fulfills the requirements for future space telescopes at the level of Athena in terms of both number of pixels and energy resolution. In 2020, SRON already set a world record of 1.3 eV energy resolution for X-rays with TES, but only with a single pixel readout.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3wGQjM0

Attaining precise sample alignment under extreme conditions

The exact angular alignment of sample materials for the determination of their physical properties under extreme conditions is often difficult. Engineer Stefan Findeisen and physicist Dr. Hannes Kühne from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) have developed the "Rotax," a filigree two-axis rotator that can do just that. Now, the device is ready to conquer the market.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3bXgKDB

Using machine learning to derive black hole motion from gravitational waves

The announcement that the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) had detected gravitational waves during the merger of two black holes sent ripples throughout the scientific community in 2016. The earthshaking news not only confirmed one of Albert Einstein's key predictions in his general theory of relativity, but also opened a door to a better understanding of the motion of black holes and other spacetime-warping phenomena.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3ojT0PN

Remote high-voltage sensor unveiled

Ever since the first human placed a bare hand on an uninsulated electric line, people have refrained from personally testing energetic materials. Even meters made of metal can melt at high voltages.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3qpZE9C

Detectors for a new era of ATLAS physics

The High-Luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) will dramatically increase the rate of collisions in the ATLAS experiment. While offering an opportunity for physicists to explore some of the rarest processes in the universe, the large collision rate brings new challenges—in particular, higher radiation levels and significantly more data. The ATLAS collaboration is adapting to deal with these challenges by upgrading all parts of its detectors with new, state-of-the-art instruments.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3BZQ6Ex

How a novel radio frequency control system enhances quantum computers

A team of physicists and engineers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) successfully demonstrated the feasibility of low-cost and high-performance radio frequency modules for qubit controls at room temperature. They built a series of compact radio frequency (RF) modules that mix signals to improve the reliability of control systems for superconducting quantum processors. Their tests proved that using modular design methods reduces the cost and size of traditional RF control systems while still delivering superior or comparable performance levels to those commercially available.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3C3LwFg

New theory suggests dark matter can create new dark matter from regular matter

An international team of physicists is proposing an addition to dark matter theory. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the group is suggesting that dark matter came from regular matter and that dark matter is able to create more dark matter from regular matter.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3qh75A6

Identifying a fundamental link between the size of atomic nuclei and blackhole thermodynamic principles

Using an entirely new approach based on a ground-breaking geometrical understanding of entropy, a collaborative team involving the University of Surrey have found a new way to calculate the sizes of the nuclei in the helium isotopes 4He, 6He, 8He, assuming only the radius of the proton. 

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3qqgAgj

Ultra-pure semiconductor opens new frontier in the study of electrons

Princeton researchers have created the world's purest sample of gallium arsenide, a semiconductor used in devices that power such technologies as cell phones and satellites.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3bRPiqL

Why teapots always drip

The "teapot effect" has been threatening spotless white tablecloths for ages: if a liquid is poured out of a teapot too slowly, then the flow of liquid sometimes does not detach itself from the teapot, finding its way into the cup, but dribbles down at the outside of the teapot.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3qcZySS

Micro-scale current sheets unleash macro-scale space weather

While movies show Earth as existing in a calm, pristine corner of the universe, in reality the near-Earth space environment is dangerous and dynamic. On any given day, hot charged particles and blobs of plasma, called the solar wind, travel from the sun and are deflected by the Earth's magnetic field, causing beautiful aurora around north and south poles. During solar storms, however, the solar wind can compress the Earth's magnetic field, causing the magnetic field lines to rearrange and reconnect (also known as magnetic reconnection), shooting hot, dense plasma back toward the Earth. Processes like these are commonly referred to as space weather. Because of the effect that these space-based disruptions can have on key elements of our modern society, such as telecommunication systems and power grids, obtaining a good understanding of these processes is just as essential as understanding ground-based weather.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3bQOKBr

Making entropy production work

While Rolf Landauer was working at IBM in the early 1960s, he had a startling insight about how heat, entropy, and information were connected. Landauer realized that manipulating information releases heat and increases entropy, or the disorder of the environment. He used this to calculate a theoretical lower limit for heat released from a computation, such as erasing a bit. At room temperature, the limit is about 10-21, or one billionth of a trillionth of a joule. (A joule is about the energy required to lift an apple by a meter.)

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3ka0weB

Strengthening the second law of thermodynamics

According to the second law of thermodynamics, the total entropy of a closed process can increase or stay the same, but never decrease. The second law guarantees, for example, that an egg can wobble off a table and leave a mess on the floor but that such a mess will never spontaneously form an egg and leap back on the table. Or that air will escape a balloon but never, on its own accord, inflate it. Since at least the 19th century, physicists have been investigating the role of entropy in information theory—studying the energy transactions of adding or erasing bits from computers, for example.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3BICXzL

Scientists experimentally reconstruct Bloch wavefunction for the first time

Lightspeed is the fastest velocity in the universe. Except when it isn't. Anyone who's seen a prism split white light into a rainbow has witnessed how material properties can influence the behavior of quantum objects: in this case, the speed at which light propagates.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3ofL1Dt

New tool to investigate more effective cancer treatment

Researchers at Queen's University Belfast have discovered a new tool that will help to investigate more effective forms of cancer treatment. Using high-powered lasers, the experts have been able to generate a 'pure beam' of carbon ions with unique properties.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3wdvOpX

Quantum-enabled gas imaging camera to dramatically cut methane leaks

Methane gas concentrations in the atmosphere have increased by about 150% since 1750, and if released into the atmosphere, methane is approximately 80 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide (CO2) over a 20-year time frame (IPCC, AR6). The mitigation of methane emissions will play a vital role in enabling climate change strategies.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3nWNz9b

Using 'mirror nuclei' to probe fundamental physics of atoms and neutron stars

About 20 years ago, Michigan State University's B. Alex Brown had an idea to reveal insights about a fundamental but enigmatic force at work in some of the most extreme environments in the universe.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3ELDtP8

Securing data transfers with relativity

The volume of data transferred is constantly increasing, but the absolute security of these exchanges cannot be guaranteed, as shown by cases of hacking frequently reported in the news. To counter hacking, a team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, has developed a new system based on the concept of zero-knowledge proofs, the security of which is based on the physical principle of relativity: information cannot travel faster than the speed of light. Thus, one of the fundamental principles of modern physics allows for secure data transfer. This system allows users to identify themselves in complete confidentiality without disclosing any personal information, promising applications in the field of cryptocurrencies and blockchain. These results can be read in the journal Nature.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2ZIgc1r

Thin-film, high-frequency antenna array offers new flexibility for wireless communications

Princeton researchers have taken a step toward developing a type of antenna array that could coat an airplane's wings, function as a skin patch transmitting signals to medical implants, or cover a room as wallpaper that communicates with internet of things (IoT) devices.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/31rTnQx

3D simulations improve understanding of energetic-particle radiation and help protect space assets

A team of researchers used 3D particle simulations to model the acceleration of ions and electrons in a physical process called magnetic reconnection. The results could contribute to the understanding and forecasting of energetic particles released during magnetic reconnection, which could help protect space assets and advance space exploration.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2ZV7OMp

A strategy to control the spin polarization of electrons using helium

Spintronics, also known as spin electronics, is a research field that explores how the intrinsic spin of electrons and its magnetic moment can be exploited by devices. Spintronic devices are promising for a wide range of applications, particularly for efficiently storing and transferring data.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3mBUUvp

New technique provides detailed information on nuclear material

Whether soil contaminated with nuclear material or archaeological finds: Analyzing isotopes can help determining the age and origin of a sample very accurately. Researchers from Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have now developed a new technique suitable for obtaining information on the origin of microparticles by analyzing isotope distributions. The project was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Siebold Sasse Foundation by more than two million euros. Their findings have now been published in Science Advances.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2Y9Cl8z

New method to prepare diagnostic medical radioisotope

Researchers at the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have conducted a study on preparation of low specific activity (LSA) 99Mo/99mTc generator, which has potential application prospect for the accelerator/reactor-based production of the medical isotope 99Mo.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3CDcAw5

Physicists discover how particles self-assemble

A team of physicists has discovered how DNA molecules self-organize into adhesive patches between particles in response to assembly instructions. Its findings offer a "proof of concept" for an innovative way to produce materials with a well-defined connectivity between the particles.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3wdPgmw

CMS collaboration has observed three J/ψ particles emerging from a single collision between two protons

It's a triple treat. By sifting through data from particle collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the CMS collaboration has seen not one, not two but three J/ψ particles emerging from a single collision between two protons. In addition to being a first for particle physics, the observation opens a new window into how quarks and gluons are distributed inside the proton.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3w0a2pE

'Feeling' the living cell's life cycle using optical tweezers

Living cells are the basic building blocks of all organisms. We, as humans, are essentially a collection of trillions of living cells: and all these cells emerge from a single fertilized egg. This means that "mitosis" (or cell division) is one of the most fundamental and important processes of life.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3vUv9tr

Investigating a long-standing neutrino mystery

Neutrinos are one of the most mysterious members of the Standard Model, a framework for describing fundamental forces and particles in nature. While they are among the most abundant known particles in the universe, they interact very rarely with matter, making their detection a challenging experimental feat. One of the long-standing puzzles in neutrino physics comes from the Mini Booster Neutrino Experiment (MiniBooNE), which ran from 2002 to 2017 at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, or Fermilab, in Illinois. MiniBooNE observed significantly more neutrino interactions that produce electrons than one would expect given our best knowledge of the Standard Model—and physicists are trying to understand why.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2XVM422

Researchers set 'ultrabroadband' record with entangled photons

Quantum entanglement—or what Albert Einstein once referred to as "spooky action at a distance"— occurs when two quantum particles are connected to each other, even when millions of miles apart. Any observation of one particle affects the other as if they were communicating with each other. When this entanglement involves photons, interesting possibilities emerge, including entangling the photons' frequencies, the bandwidth of which can be controlled.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3mmBjPB

New results from MicroBooNE provide clues to particle physics mystery

New results from a more-than-decade long physics experiment offer insight into unexplained electron-like events found in previous experiments. Results of the MicroBooNE experiment, while not confirming the existence of a proposed new particle, the sterile neutrino, provide a path forward to explore physics beyond the Standard Model, the theory of the fundamental forces of nature and elementary particles.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2ZwEQm9

Trapping molecules to find new physics

The Standard Model of particle physics has been extremely successful in describing how the universe works. However, there are some things that it cannot explain. Physicists have, therefore, been looking for new physics in particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. At the University of Groningen, a different approach has been used: in contrast to smashing up matter at high energies, physicists wanted to study molecules that are brought to rest. These physicists set a new record by stopping molecules of strontium fluoride, using an electronic trap. Their results were published on 21 October in Physical Review Letters.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3biWUlE

New research looks at process of magnetic flux generation in ICF implosions

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers now have a better understanding on how strong the magnetic fields are in an inertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosion at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world's most energetic laser.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3pFZbzZ

Scientists find no hint of sterile neutrino

New results from the MicroBooNE experiment at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory deal a blow to a theoretical particle known as the sterile neutrino. There is no such thing.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2XQharX

New tool untangles complex dynamics on hypergraphs

Networks are a powerful model for describing connected systems in biological, physical, social, and other environments. As useful as they are, though, conventional networks are static and are limited to describing links between pairs of objects; they can't capture more complicated connections, like those that connect many points at once or those that change over time.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3mjp5r1

A new model could help stall shifting sand dunes, protecting infrastructure and ecosystems

Cambridge scientists have used downscaled laboratory models to show how sand dunes move through a landscape, revealing the conditions that determine whether they will pass through hurdles in their path—like pipelines or walls—or get stopped in their tracks.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3nyXrpm

To better understand speech, focus on who is talking

Seeing a person's face as we are talking to them greatly improves our ability to understand their speech. While previous studies indicate that the timing of words-to-mouth movements across the senses is critical to this audio-visual speech benefit, whether it also depends on spatial alignment between faces and voices has been largely unstudied.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2ZjWd98

Modeling improvements promise increased accuracy for epidemic forecasting

Accurate forecasting of epidemic scenarios is critical to implementing effective public health intervention policies. While much progress has been made in predicting the general magnitude and timing of epidemics, there's still room for improvement in forecasting peak times, as unfortunately evidenced with H1N1 and COVID-19, when peak times occurred later than predicted.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3vJZTNw

Using neutron stars to detect dark matter

The quest to uncover the nature of dark matter is one of the greatest challenges in science today, but the key to finally understanding this mysterious substance may well lie in the stars.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3CkxXT4

New synthesis process paves way for more efficient lasers, LEDs

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new process that makes use of existing industry standard techniques for making III-nitride semiconductor materials, but results in layered materials that will make LEDs and lasers more efficient.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3vK8jEH

'Smart bandage' may help solve a major problem when treating chronic wounds

How can doctors make sure a dressed wound is healing without taking off the bandage? This is a conundrum, because removing a bandage can disrupt the healing process. Technology presented in a new study in open-access journal Frontiers in Physics could help.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3CdYSQb

Controlling light with a material three atoms thick

Most of us control light all the time without even thinking about it, usually in mundane ways: we don a pair of sunglasses and put on sunscreen, and close—or open—our window blinds.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3puqIV4

Bringing new life to ATLAS data

The ATLAS collaboration is breathing new life into its LHC Run 2 dataset, recorded from 2015 to 2018. Physicists will be reprocessing the entire dataset—nearly 18 PB of collision data—using an updated version of the ATLAS offline analysis software (Athena). Not only will this improve ATLAS physics measurements and searches, it will also position the collaboration well for the upcoming challenges of Run 3 and beyond.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3nhnJMJ

Sodium-cooled fast reactors and the future of nuclear energy

A new paper by Technical Director of the Generation IV International Forum, Gilles Rodriguez, published in the open-access journal EPJ Nuclear Sciences & Technologies, provides a comprehensive review of joint research into sodium-cooled fast reactors undertaken by French and Japanese researchers.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/30QjqAC

Climate tipping might be predicted using algebraic topology

The Earth's climate system seems to have shifted abruptly between colder and warmer modes in the past. Do we risk the same today from anthropogenic climate change? Frankly, climate models cannot answer that question yet. But a result in the journal Chaos by Gisela D. Charó, Mickaël D. Chekroun, Denisse Sciamarella and Michael Ghil suggests a way to resolve the matter. Analyzing a model that combines the two leading theories for climate change with algebraic topology tools, the authors show that the climate system indeed progresses through abrupt transitions, also known as tipping points. These tools are applicable to reduced climate models and they well might help assess whether the Earth's climate system on a whole is about to tip due to global warming. The work is part of the TiPES project, a European science collaboration on tipping points in the Earth system.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3nb1Q1E

On the hunt for hypernuclei

With the WASA detector, a very special instrument is currently being set up at GSI/FAIR. Together with the fragment separator FRS, it will be used to produce and study so-called hypernuclei during the upcoming experiment period of FAIR Phase 0 in 2022. For this purpose, the assembly, which weighs several tons, is being transferred to the facility in a complex installation procedure. The scientific relevance of the planned experiments with hypernuclei is also shown by a recent review article in the scientific journal Nature Reviews Physics, in which GSI/FAIR researchers play a leading role.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3B5ewMi

Need for massive space telescope inspires lightweight flexible holographic lens

Inspired by a concept for discovering exoplanets with a massive space telescope, a team of researchers is developing holographic lenses that render visible and infrared starlight into either a focused image or a spectrum. The experimental method, detailed in an article appearing today in Nature Scientific Reports, could be used to create a lightweight flexible lens, many meters in diameter, that could be rolled for launch and unfurled in space.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3n8UD1W

New MOND theory able to account for cosmic microwave background

A pair of researchers at the Czech Academy of Sciences has been shaking up the astrophysics community with a new modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) theory that tosses out the concept of dark matter and instead backs up theories that suggest there is a type of as-yet undiscovered gravity responsible for attributes seen in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Constantinos Skordis and Tom Zlosnik have published a paper describing their ideas in Physical Review Letters.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3C7zBHp

How Bali could teach the world to manage its limited resources

Water is a limited resource. As such, efficient ways to jointly manage and optimize water reserves are essential for our present and future. But how can a well-balanced system be established? In order to single out the relevant parameters, an international team of scientists, including Stefan Thurner from the Complexity Science Hub Vienna (CSH), applied a method from physics to a system in equilibrium: the century-old rice irrigation practices in Bali.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3G5pbuk

Using an atomic clock to demonstrate general relativity

A team of researchers at the JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology at the University of Colorado has found a way to use an atomic clock to demonstrate a principle of general relativity. The team has published a paper describing their work on the arXiv preprint server.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3lX2Gzy

Physicists announce results that boost evidence for new fundamental physics

Results announced by the LHCb experiment at CERN have revealed further hints for phenomena that cannot be explained by our current theory of fundamental physics.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3AXNGWD

Simulation illustrates how COVID-19 social distancing creates pedestrian 'traffic jams'

Along with the use of face masks, social distancing in public remains one of the most practiced front-line defenses against the spread of COVID-19. However, flows of pedestrians, including those practicing the 6-foot rule for distancing, are dynamic and characterized by nuances not always carefully considered in the context of everyday, public spaces.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3DUFcBw

COVID-19 vaccination strategies: When is one dose better than two?

In many parts of the world, the supply of COVID-19 vaccines continues to lag behind the demand. While most vaccines are designed as a two-dose regimen, some countries, like Canada, have prioritized vaccinating as many people as possible with a single dose before giving out an additional dose.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2Z1oJwe

Targeted interventions to contain pandemics, minimize societal disruption

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to more than 218 million infections and over 4.5 million deaths as of Sept. 3, 2021. Nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), such as case isolation, quarantining contacts, and the complete lockdown of entire countries, were implemented in an effort to contain the pandemic. But these NPIs often come at the expense of economic disruption, harm to social and mental well-being, and costly administration costs to ensure compliance.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3AYuBn7

Amount of information in visible universe quantified

Researchers have long suspected a connection between information and the physical universe, with various paradoxes and thought experiments used to explore how or why information could be encoded in physical matter. The digital age propelled this field of study, suggesting that solving these research questions could have tangible applications across multiple branches of physics and computing.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3pdauiR

Breakthrough proof clears path for quantum AI

Convolutional neural networks running on quantum computers have generated significant buzz for their potential to analyze quantum data better than classical computers can. While a fundamental solvability problem known as "barren plateaus" has limited the application of these neural networks for large data sets, new research overcomes that Achilles heel with a rigorous proof that guarantees scalability.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3DUdFQq

Successful beam pipe installation at LHCb

The LHC experiments are nearing the completion of maintenance and upgrade works carried out in the framework of the second long shutdown of CERN's accelerator complex. Of all the experiments, LHCb is undergoing the most significant metamorphosis during these two years, namely the installation of a faster Vertex Locator (VELO), a new scintillating-fiber particle-tracking detector (SciFi), and upgraded ring-imaging Cherenkov detectors, RICH1 and RICH2. While the installation of LHCb's subdetectors and infrastructure in preparation for commissioning is still under way, its beampipe was successfully reinstalled over the summer, marking a milestone in the detector's preparation for Run 3 of the LHC.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3ASpvc2

Analysis puts most general constraints on nonstandard neutrino interactions

For decades, physicists have theorized that the current best theory describing particle physics—the "Standard Model"—was not sufficient to explain the way the universe works. In the search for physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM), elusive particles called neutrinos might point the way.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3vogZjU

Ultrafast control of quantum materials

An international team with participation of the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI shows how light can fundamentally change the properties of solids and how these effects can be used for future applications. The researchers summarize their progress in this field, which is based among other things on experiments that can also be carried out at the Swiss X-ray free-electron laser SwissFEL, in the scientific journal Reviews of Modern Physics.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3p9Hzfz

Ultrafast magnetism: Heating magnets, freezing time

Magnetic solids can be demagnetized quickly with a short laser pulse, and there are already so-called HAMR (Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording) memories on the market that function according to this principle. However, the microscopic mechanisms of ultrafast demagnetization remain unclear. Now, a team at HZB has developed a new method at BESSY II to quantify one of these mechanisms and they have applied it to the rare-earth element Gadolinium, whose magnetic properties are caused by electrons on both the 4f and the 5d shells. This study completes a series of experiments done by the team on nickel and iron-nickel alloys. Understanding these mechanisms is useful for developing ultrafast data storage devices.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3jdKW1g

New research can help planners leverage the wave-damping benefits of marsh plants

Marsh plants, which are ubiquitous along the world's shorelines, can play a major role in mitigating the damage to coastlines as sea levels rise and storm surges increase. Now, a new MIT study provides greater detail about how these protective benefits work under real-world conditions shaped by waves and currents.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3vmoBDn

New statistical study finds link between protein evolution and thermal variation

A recent statistical study has revealed some of the constraints and directions in the evolution of the structure and function of proteins. Better models of protein structural dynamics may allow researchers to understand more of this fundamental mystery in living organisms.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3mQy4zb

Quarks and antiquarks at high momentum shake the foundations of visible matter

Two independent studies have illuminated unexpected substructures in the fundamental components of all matter. Preliminary results using a novel tagging method could explain the origin of the longstanding nuclear paradox known as the EMC effect. Meanwhile, authors will share next steps after the recent observation of asymmetrical antimatter in the proton.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3v6kZ8C

Study demonstrates the potential of a quantum computer comprised of a small processor and a storage unit

Quantum computing systems, computer systems that are based on the key principles of quantum theory, could significantly outperform conventional computing systems, both in terms of speed and performance. Over the past decade or so, many physicists worldwide have thus been trying to develop these systems and assess their potential.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3lAaWFt

New record set for coldest temperature—38 picokelvins

A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in Germany and two in France has set a new record for the coldest temperature ever recorded in a lab setting—38 picokelvins. In their paper published in the journal Physics, the group describes their work with a time-domain matter-wave lens system. Vincenzo Tamma with the University of Portsmouth has published a Viewpoint article in the same journal issue discussing the work done by the team in Germany.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3lCKtY1

Professor uncovers surprising results from nuclear reactions inside stars

Where do our elements come from? And how are they made? Michael Famiano's new research is flipping the script on those age-old nuclear astrophysics questions. The truth is out there—several light years away among the stars, to be exact.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3FFXecl

Physicists announce the world's most precise measurement of neutron lifetime

An international team of physicists led by researchers at Indiana University Bloomington has announced the world's most precise measurement of the neutron's lifetime.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3DEEDM3

Novel experiment measures neutron skin in calcium

A new high-precision measurement of the neutron skin in doubly magic calcium-48 may help shed light on proton-neutron interactions inside nuclei. This is the first highly robust electroweak measurement of the neutron skin in a medium-weight nucleus. The results from this new measurement, made by the 48Ca Radius EXperiment (CREX) collaboration at DOE's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, will be presented at the 2021 Fall Meeting of the APS Division of Nuclear Physics.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2YEZTSv

Shape-shifting worm blob model could inspire future robot swarms

Blackworms (Lumbriculus variegatus) are distant relatives of rainworms, measuring up to 10 cm long. They live in shallow marshes, ponds, and swamps in Europe and North America, where they feed on microorganisms and debris. To protect themselves from drought, blackworms can aggregate as entangled, shape-shifting "blobs" composed of a few to hundreds of individuals. Just like swarms of bees, rafts of fire ants, or flocks of starlings, blackworm blobs can show "intelligent" collective movement.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3FAaDTj

Researchers unlock secret path to a quantum future

In 1998, researchers including Mark Kubinec of UC Berkeley performed one of the first simple quantum computations using individual molecules. They used pulses of radio waves to flip the spins of two nuclei in a molecule, with each spin's "up" or "down" orientation storing information in the way that a "0" or "1" state stores information in a classical data bit. In those early days of quantum computers, the combined orientation of the two nuclei—that is, the molecule's quantum state—could only be preserved for brief periods in specially tuned environments. In other words, the system quickly lost its coherence. Control over quantum coherence is the missing step to building scalable quantum computers.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3v5cA57

A 5-sigma standard model anomaly is possible

One of the best chances for proving beyond-the-standard-model physics relies on something called the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix. The standard model insists that the CKM matrix, which describes the mixing of quarks, should be unitary. But growing evidence suggests that during certain forms of radioactive decay, the unitarity of the CKM matrix might break.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3FF4W6l

Seeking the star stuff that made us

At the 2021 Fall Meeting of the APS Division of Nuclear Physics, two independent research groups will unveil new measurements aiming to explain the birth of half the universe's elements.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3DxuSPA

Finding sterile neutrinos

Experiments have spotted anomalies hinting at a new type of neutrino, one that would go beyond the standard model of particle physics and perhaps open a portal to the dark sector. But no one has ever directly observed this hypothetical particle.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3iTaZdQ

Examining the origins of proton spin

Where does the proton get its spin? This question has puzzled physicists ever since experiments in the 1980s revealed that a proton's constituent quarks—the most fundamental building blocks of atomic nuclei—account for only about one-third of a proton's spin. Collisions of spin-polarized protons at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science user facility for nuclear physics research at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory, are helping to solve this mystery.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3BHiBru

Challenging the big bang puzzle of heavy elements

It has long been theorized that hydrogen, helium, and lithium were the only chemical elements in existence during the Big Bang when the universe formed, and that supernova explosions, stars exploding at the end of their lifetime, are responsible for transmuting these elements into heavier ones and distributing them throughout our universe.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3FBNnEm

Scientists enhance distributed fiber acoustic sensing performance for marine seismic detection

A Chinese research team from the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (SIOM) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has developed a new method to enhance the practical performance of distributed fiber acoustic sensing (DAS) for marine seismic detection. Results were published in the Journal of Lightwave Technology.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3Azk9Cc

Enhancing piezoelectric properties under pressure

Stress enhances the properties of a promising material for future technologies.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3vhCaEp

Working to understand the changing flavors of quarks

Visible matter, or the stuff that composes the things we see, is made of particles that can be thought of much like building blocks made of more building blocks, ever decreasing in size, down to the sub-atomic level. Atoms are made of things like protons and neutrons, which are composed of even smaller building blocks such as quarks. Studying those smallest building blocks requires experimentation where atomic particles are accelerated and broken apart, then theoretical work to understand and describe what happened.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3uZQReZ

Researchers propose novel permanent magnet design methods for quasi-axisymmetric stellarator

A new permanent magnet design of quasi-axisymmetric stellarator was made by researchers led by Prof. Xu Guosheng from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2YtXXwD

Mathematical model offers new insights into spread of epidemics

Mathematical models have been widely used to guide government decisions on the COVID-19 pandemic, from forecasting outcomes to even testing potential interventions.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3oKo9Oe

Researchers observe laser-driven tin ejecta microjet interactions

The experimental observations of high-velocity particle-laden flow interactions has been sparse, given the difficulty of generating high-velocity flows of many particles. These observations play an important role in understanding a wide range of natural phenomena, ranging from planetary formation to cloud interactions.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3uUvdIX

New images lead to better prediction of shear thickening

For the first time, researchers have been able capture images providing unprecedented details of how particles behave in a liquid suspension when the phenomenon known as shear thickening takes place. The work allows us to directly understand the processes behind shear thickening, which had previously only been understood based on inference and computational modeling.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3oI8ChB

A new theory to test hypotheses and methods for exoplanet detection

Countless astrophysicists and astronomers are actively searching for unobserved celestial bodies in the universe, as detecting these bodies could improve our understanding of space and help to address unanswered astrophysical questions. Among these elusive objects are exoplanets, planets that orbit a star other than the sun, thus outside of the solar system.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3uNOL1P

Getting up to speed on the proton

Scientists have developed a groundbreaking theory for calculating what's happening inside a proton traveling at the speed of light.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3AlOUui

Just how big was the 2020 Beirut explosion?

On Aug. 4, 2020, one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history pulverized a Beirut port and damaged more than half the city. The explosion resulted from the detonation of tons of ammonium nitrate, a combustible chemical compound commonly used in agriculture as a high-nitrate fertilizer, but which can also be used to manufacture explosives.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3oDqzy7

My PhD supervisor just won the Nobel prize in physics – here's how his research on complex systems changed science

The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2021 has been jointly awarded to Italy's Giorgio Parisi, Japan's Syukuro Manabe and Germany's Klaus Hasselmann for their "groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex systems".

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3iCvStC

How the Large Hadron Collider trains its magnets

When training for a marathon, runners must gradually ramp up the distance of their runs. They know that their runs in the early days of training do not define what they will one day be capable of; they're building a strong foundation that will help them reach their full potential.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3lg6pYX

Structure formation in mini-organs

The development of alveoli in organoids derived from mammary-gland tissue follows the same physical principles as the formation of discrete droplets in a water jet.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3ab4WMU

Ultrashort pulses of light proven indistinguishable from continuous illumination

Ultrashort pulses of light are proven indistinguishable from continuous illumination, in terms of controlling the electronic states of atomically thin material tungsten disulfide (WS2).

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2YoiClm

Nobel physics prize goes to 3 for climate discoveries

The Nobel Prize for physics has been awarded to scientists from Japan, Germany and Italy.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2YjweP9

Nobel panel to reveal 2021 prize for physics

The 2021 Nobel Prize for physics is being announced Tuesday, an award that has in the past honored discoveries about fundamental forces of nature and cosmic phenomena.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3uFwjs1

Urban mining for metals flashes forward

In what should be a win-win-win for the environment, a process developed at Rice University to extract valuable metals from electronic waste would also use up to 500 times less energy than current lab methods and produce a byproduct clean enough for agricultural land. 

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3BcpPDg

Using theory and experiments, researchers show how apples get their shapes

Apples are among the oldest and most recognizable fruits in the world. But have you ever really considered an apple's shape? Apples are relatively spherical except for that characteristic dimple at the top where the stem grows.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3a64aRu

Artificial intelligence makes it faster, easier to analyze hockey video

Researchers have made a key advancement in the development of technology to automatically analyze video of hockey games using artificial intelligence.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3F80T2e

Two-dimensional hybrid metal halide device allows control of terahertz emissions

Researchers have utilized two-dimensional hybrid metal halides in a device that allows directional control of terahertz radiation generated by a spintronic scheme. The device has better signal efficiency than conventional terahertz generators, and is thinner, lighter and less expensive to produce.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3B2JF45

Particle accelerators may get a boost from oxygen

Whipping up world-class particle accelerator structures has long been a process akin to following a favorite recipe. Many of the best-performing samples are prepared using processes developed through trial and error over decades of experience. But recently, accelerator scientists have been boosting this empirical approach to science with more theoretical input. Now, their efforts are beginning to pay off.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3ush5qn

Extending our reach into the cosmos with new mirror coatings

Since the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO)'s groundbreaking detection, in 2015, of gravitational waves produced by a pair of colliding black holes, the observatory, together with its European partner facility Virgo, has detected dozens of similar cosmic rumblings that send ripples through space and time.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/39RBn2O

Scientists recreate cosmic reactions to unlock astronomical mysteries

How do the chemical elements, the building blocks of our universe, get built? This question has been at the core of nuclear physics for the better part of a century.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3oePcRg

Technological breakthrough in energy-efficient particle accelerators

At Technische Universität Darmstadt, the world's first operation of a multi-turn superconducting linear accelerator with significant energy recovery succeeded. The experiment at the university's electron linear accelerator (S-DALINAC) proved that a substantial saving of accelerator power is possible.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3otRaO7

Creating order by mechanical deformation in dense active matter

Living or biological systems cannot be easily understood using the standard laws of physics, such as thermodynamics, as scientists would for gases, liquids or solids. Living systems are active, demonstrating fascinating properties such as adapting to their environment or repairing themselves. Exploring the questions posed by living systems using computer simulations, researchers at the University of Göttingen have now discovered a novel type of ordering effect generated and sustained by a simple mechanical deformation, specifically steady shear. The results were published in PNAS.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/39LX5oQ

Study demonstrates the robust storage of qubits in ultracold polar molecules

Molecules have a very intricate and rich structure, which allows them to rotate and vibrate freely. As a result, they have an almost limitless space in which computer scientists could encode quantum information. In addition to their vast internal space, molecules are capable of long-range interactions and could thus be entangled to other separate molecules.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3m1QwUY

'Back to basics' approach helps unravel new phase of matter

A new phase of matter, thought to be understandable only using quantum physics, can be studied with far simpler classical methods.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3zOYpln

A strategy to control phase selectivity in templated zeolite synthesis

Zeolites, groups of minerals comprising of hydrated aluminosilicates, are known to be highly promising materials for a number of applications. For instance, they can be used as catalysts, cation exchangers and molecular sieves.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/2XEHRPP

Come on in, the water is superionic

The interiors of Uranus and Neptune each contain about 50 000 times the amount of water in Earth's oceans, and a form of water known as superionic water is believed to be stable at depths greater than about one-third of the radius of these ice giants.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3AD7DTh

Scientific formula calculates how to create more space for pedestrians in post-pandemic cities

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many cities are joining the trend towards providing more space for pedestrians. The current health crisis has put the spotlight on how we use public spaces and some towns and cities have extended pedestrian zones in order to facilitate social distancing and prevent contagion. Some roads have also been closed to traffic, but there was formerly no scientific method to help authorities make this kind of decision.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3Czqyie

Study unveils the minimum temperature for droplets levitating from smooth surfaces

The Leidenfrost effect is a well-known physical phenomenon first discovered in 1756. It occurs when a liquid is in the proximity of a surface that is significantly warmer than its boiling point. This produces an insulating vapor layer that prevents the liquid from quickly boiling. Due to this effect, a droplet would hover over the surface instead of physically touching it.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3zBd4Aw

An experimental loop for simulating nuclear reactors in space

Nuclear thermal propulsion, which uses heat from nuclear reactions as fuel, could be used one day in human spaceflight, possibly even for missions to Mars. Its development, however, poses a challenge. The materials used must be able to withstand high heat and bombardment of high-energy particles on a regular basis.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3AF12HR

Mimicking how water and wind create complex shapes in nature

Intricate natural formations like star-shaped sand dunes or arc-shaped rocks can appear so purposeful in form that it's easy to wonder whether someone has designed them. Scientists have long recognized that a particular combination of random and chaotic energy fields can, over a long period of time, give rise to these kinds of unique formations that dot our globe. Few, however, have succeeded in replicating these natural phenomena.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3lOXNr5

Using laser beam shaping to improve metal 3D printing

While laser-based 3D printing techniques have revolutionized the production of metal parts by greatly expanding design complexity, the laser beams traditionally used in metal printing have drawbacks that can lead to defects and poor mechanical performance.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3ktmha2

New optical 'transistor' speeds up computation up to 1,000 times, at lowest switching energy possible

An international research team led by Skoltech and IBM has created an extremely energy-efficient optical switch that could replace electronic transistors in a new generation of computers manipulating photons rather than electrons. In addition to direct power saving, the switch requires no cooling and is really fast: At 1 trillion operations per second, it is between 100 and 1,000 times faster than today's top-notch commercial transistors. The study comes out Wednesday in Nature.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3AAgCV0

New technique boosts cryo-electron microscopy clarity, safety

When scientists needed to visualize the structure of the spike protein, which coronaviruses use to infiltrate human cells, they turned to cryo-electron microscopy. One of the most powerful imaging tools in a researcher's arsenal, cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) can visualize proteins, pathogens and sundry cell components almost down to their individual atoms.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3EDSoeZ

Carbon fibers electrical measurements pave way for lightning strike protection technologies

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer composite structures are serving an increasingly important role in aerospace, infrastructure, energy generation, and transportation. Yet, the electrical behavior of a composite is challenging to measure or predict because of the electrical conductivity of constituent carbon fibers and the composite's complex hierarchical microstructure.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3CvPyaa

Rock shape should be given greater consideration in rockfall risk assessments

The shape of rocks is a key factor in assessing rockfall hazard. This is the conclusion of a new study from the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research and ETH Zurich.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3kpwlka

Scientists develop the next generation of reservoir computing

A relatively new type of computing that mimics the way the human brain works was already transforming how scientists could tackle some of the most difficult information processing problems.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3nU0V7B

Fiber tracking method delivers important new insights into turbulence

Whether it's heart murmurs and pipeline transport of oil, or bumpy airplanes and the dispersal of pollutants, turbulence plays an important role in many everyday events. But despite being commonplace, scientists still don't fully understand the seemingly unpredictable behavior of the swirls and eddies in turbulent flows.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3nJbnPe

Effect of electrons with negative mass in novel semiconductor nanostructures

A large international research collaboration led by Dr. Kai-Qiang Lin and Professor John Lupton from the Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics at the University of Regensburg has been able to measure the effect of electrons with negative mass in novel semiconductor nanostructures. The international team includes scientists from Berkeley and Yale (U.S.), Cambridge (England) and Tsukuba (Japan).

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3CoElZ8

New physics research reveals fresh complexities about electron behavior in materials

When electrons flow through a conductor—such as the copper wires in our phone chargers or the silicon chips in the circuit boards of our laptops—they collide with material impurities and with each other in a tiny atomic frenzy. Their interaction with impurities is well known.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3lpK61u

Scientists take a closer look inside the perfect fluid

Scientists have reported new clues to solving a cosmic conundrum: How the quark-gluon plasma—nature's perfect fluid—evolved into matter.

from General Physics News - Science News, Physics News, Physics, Material Sciences, Science https://ift.tt/3nG1PED