Physics in the News

Monday, August 25, 2014

Galileo satellites go into wrong, lower orbit(VIDEO)

via bbc

Nobel prize winner: Let’s find dark matter and dark energy

This picture shows ALMA antennas pointing towards the centre of the milky-way. (Photo: ESO, B. Tafreshi) — Dark matter and dark energy continue to be cosmological conundrum for physicists worldwide. Nobel prize winner Brian Schmidt offers his perspective in an interview. The image shown here is of the ALMA antennas and the constellations of Carina (The Keel) and Vela (The Sails). The dark, wispy dust clouds of the Milky Way streak from middle top left to middle bottom right. (Credit: ESO, B. Tafreshi)

via sciencenordic

Pluto and the other dwarf planets could have astrobiological potential

“Our model predicts different fracture patterns on the surface of Charon depending on the thickness of its surface ice, the structure of the moon’s interior and how easily it deforms, and how its orbit evolved,” said Alyssa Rhoden of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. (Credit: NASA)

via dailygalaxy

Soft infrastructure challenges to scientific knowledge discovery

Open network environments have become essential in the sciences, enabling accelerated discovery and communication of knowledge. Yet, the real revolution began when open community databases allowed researchers to build on existing contributions and compare their results to established knowledge. (Credit: King, Uhlir)

via acm

Physicists attempt quantum clean-up experiment to right old error

Indian physicists propose a tabletop experiment that will provide scientists their first opportunity to measure the probability that particles can move through slits in a twisted path, depicted by the purple ray. (Credit: Aninda Sinha and Urbasi Sinha)

via telegraphindia

Vision correcting displays could spell the end of wearing glasses

via crazyengineers

World’s largest laser compresses diamond to pressures of 50 million Earth atmospheres

Physicists in the US have compressed a synthetic diamond to pressures of 50 million Earth atmospheres to recreate conditions in the cores of giant planets. (Credit: National Ignition Facility)

via sciencealert

An interesting glimpse into how future state of the art electronics might work

. A novel class of electronic materials – the so-called transition-metal oxides – hold promise for exciting, new applications. Where layers of this novel class of electronic materials touch, often a unique, and unprecedented phenomenon occurs: for instance, the interface between two insulators can become superconducting, or a strong magnetic order can build up between two non-magnetic layers.

Physics in the News

Friday, August 22, 2014

Traces of one of the Universe’s first stars detected

The first stars were born a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, as this artist impression shows. (Credit: NASA)

via bbc

Scientists pulled hydrogen from water using an AAA battery

The nickel-based catalyst is just as effective as platinum. (Credit: Tunnicliffe, Stanford)

Cyborg moths can be controlled mid-flight by scientists(VIDEO)

via motherboard

Study finds that human subjects prefer when robots give the orders(VIDEO)

via mit

Asteroid had active volcanoes, reveal researchers

New meteorite evidence shows volcanic activity began much earlier in the history of the solar system than previously thought.(USGS) — New meteorite evidence shows volcanic activity began much earlier in the history of the solar system than previously thought. (Credit:USGS)

via abc

Telescope captures spectacular view of nebula, star cluster

This mosaic of images from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile shows two dramatic star formation regions in the southern Milky Way. (Credit: ESO/G. Beccari)

The next space race is for a rental car into orbit

Boeing in among three companies bidding for the next NASA contract to take astronauts into space. The company is offering its CST-100 space capsule in the competition. (Credit: Boeing)

via washingtonpost

Quantum gravity expert says “philosophical superficiality” has harmed physics

Carlo Rovelli: "Theoretical physics has not done great in the last decades. Why? Well, one of the reasons, I think, is that it got trapped in a wrong philosophy." (Credit: Horgan) — Carlo Rovelli: “Theoretical physics has not done great in the last decades. Why? Well, one of the reasons, I think, is that it got trapped in a wrong philosophy.” (Credit: Horgan)

via scientificamerican

Pairing old technologies with new for next-generation electronic devices

The scientists reported a 40-times-larger effect than previously achieved in semiconductor materials, with the largest value measured comparable to a record high value of the spin-Hall effect observed in heavy metals such as Platinum. (Credit: UCL London Centre for Nanotechnology)

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