Ion strings make brilliant beams
Physicists have long struggled to combat heating in the ion beams used in high-energy experiments. Laser cooling can be used to reduce collisions between the ions, which create heat and reduce the energy of the beam. Now researchers have created the first 'crystalline' ion beam, which is virtually free from collisions.
posted at 5:33 PM

Pros and contrails
Taking a plane just after dawn or just before sunset could be better for the environment, according to a study of contrails - the lustrous lines of ice crystals that streak the sky in the wake of jets.
posted at 5:31 PM

Rescued rumbleometer reveals all
Deep-sea sensor rides lava river and lives to spill secrets.
posted at 5:30 PM

Dancing around the Black Hole
New light cast on the debate about how a supermassive black holes "feed" on surrounding gases.
posted at 5:29 PM

New NASA satellite sensor and field experiment shows aerosols cool the surface but warm the atmosphere
New research based upon NASA satellite data and a multi-national field experiment shows that black carbon aerosol pollution produced by humans can impact global climate as well as seasonal cycles of rainfall.
posted at 5:26 PM

Jupiter-size planet found orbiting star in big dipper
A team of astronomers has found a Jupiter-size planet in a circular orbit around a faint nearby star, raising intriguing prospects of finding a solar system with characteristics similar to our own.
posted at 5:25 PM

Moon younger than thought
A new computer simulation of how the Moon was formed indicates it is younger than previously thought.
posted at 5:24 PM

Tuesday, August 14, 2001

Rochester's Infrared Detector Began Life In Russia
An extremely sensitive and accurate infrared detector that can ferret out a misfiring transistor from the billions on today's Pentium and PowerPC chips has been developed and patented by researchers at the University of Rochester.
posted at 2:05 AM

Wending Through Time, a Cosmic Web Gives the Universe Structure
Increasing computing power and advances in the development of algorithms, have deepened scientists' understanding of the structure of the universe.
posted at 2:04 AM

Hälg prize rewards neutron scattering in Europe
Jane Brown of the Institut Laue Langevin in Grenoble, France, has been awarded the 2001 Walter Hälg prize by the European Neutron Scattering Association. The biannual award -which is worth 10 000 Swiss francs - will be presented at the International Conference on Neutron Scattering in Munich in September.
posted at 2:02 AM

NCAR delves into icy hearts of hurricanes
Despite its tropical origin, the upper two-thirds of a typical hurricane is largely ice. Scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) are bringing unique cloud-profiling instruments into this mysterious realm in a NASA-sponsored project to help improve hurricane forecasting and modeling.
posted at 1:58 AM

Physicists challenge reports of accelerated decay of nuclear excited state
Physicists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in collaboration with scientists at Los Alamos and Argonne national laboratories, have new results that strongly contradict recent reports claiming an accelerated emission of gamma rays from the nuclear isomer 31-yr. hafnium-178, and the opportunity for a controlled release of energy.
posted at 1:57 AM

Solar craft sets altitude record
A giant solar-powered flying wing launched by the US space agency Nasa has set a new altitude record for non-rocket-powered aircraft.
posted at 1:53 AM

Monday, August 13, 2001

Did interplanetary dust seed life on earth?
Low-energy protons in the solar wind could have transformed space-borne carbon compounds into the seeds of life on Earth. A simulation of the young solar system suggests that the interaction of protons with interplanetary dust containing anthracene produced biological molecules called quinones, which exist in most living organisms. According researchers, this suggests that the precursors of life are more likely to have reached Earth in the form of dust than during a comet impact.
posted at 4:36 AM

Jupiter helps to explain planets around multiple stars
Conventional theories of planet formation - which are based on our solar system - were thrown into question recently when astronomers realised that about one third of extrasolar planets were in orbit around more than one star. But much of the theory has been salvaged by Stephen Kortenkamp of the University of Maryland and colleagues, who believe that the early creation of Jupiter could have accelerated the growth of the terrestrial planets in our solar system.
posted at 4:35 AM

Thursday, August 09, 2001

First snapshot of superconductor twisters
Many high-temperature superconductors are plagued by magnetic vortices that produce resistance as they move through the material. Now researchers have confirmed for the first time that certain crystal defects can trap - or 'pin' - these vortices to keep them still. These imperfections could now deliberately be added to superconductors to improve their performance.
posted at 7:55 PM

"Self-assembling" solar cells developed
Solar cells that "self assemble" from a liquid have been developed by scientists at the University of Cambridge. The breakthrough could make it cheap and easy to cover large areas, like roofs, with efficient, ultra-thin solar cell coatings.
posted at 7:54 PM

A Constant that Isn't Constant
Quasar spectra recorded at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii imply that a fundamental physical constant may have been increasing slightly over the past six billion years.
posted at 7:53 PM

Astronomers go behind the Milky Way to solve X-ray mystery
Through layers of gas and dust that stretch for more than 30,000 light years, astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have taken a long, hard look at the plane of the Milky Way galaxy and found that its X-ray glow comes from hot and diffuse gas. The findings, published in the Aug. 10 issue of Science, help to settle a long-standing mystery about the source of the X-ray emission from the galactic plane.
posted at 7:52 PM

New view of primordial helium traces the structure of early universe
NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite has given astronomers their best glimpse yet at the ghostly cobweb of helium gas left over from the big bang, which underlies the universe's structure. The helium is not found in galaxies or stars but spread thinly through the vastness of space.
posted at 7:51 PM

Physicists find gyrations of tiny rod-like viruses induce measurable entropic forces in solution
In an experiment with exquisite sensitivity, physicists at the University of Pennsylvania have found that fluctuations as fleeting as the bending of rod-shaped viruses just 880 millionths of a millimeter in length can measurably increase the entropic forces between other particles in solution. The finding is reported in the journal Physical Review Letters.
posted at 7:50 PM

Children asked to jump for science
Schools across Britain are being asked to let children jump together in their playgrounds to help kick start Science Year.
posted at 7:48 PM

Wednesday, August 08, 2001

Biophysicist scoops 2001 Dirac medal
John Hopfield of Princeton University has been awarded the 2001 Dirac medal by the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy. Hopfield wins the prize - which recognises significant contributions to theoretical physics and mathematics - for his use of physics-based computational techniques in a wide range of neurological and biological systems.
posted at 9:39 PM

Counting photons in a flash
A single-photon counter based on a superconductor promises to be thousands of times more sensitive - and much faster - than conventional semiconductor detectors.
posted at 9:39 PM

Evidence for chaos in the neocortex
Evidence for chaos in the neocortex, the most complex brain structure specific to humans and other mammals, has been obtained in a model by researchers in Australia.
posted at 9:38 PM

An optical atomic clock
An optical atomic clock, one based on radiation coming from a single mercury ion in a trap, has been devised by physicists at NIST Boulder.
posted at 9:37 PM

Physicists play the nanopipe
Electrons caught making waves in carbon nanotubes.
posted at 9:35 PM

US spy satellites in "false" orbits
America's spy satellites are not in the orbits the Pentagon says they are, according to a respected space analyst.
posted at 9:30 PM

Clues to early history of Solar System's oldest diamonds
A most exciting event in the study of meteorites has been the discovery that many primitive meteorites contain stardust - grains of presolar origin, older than the Solar System itself.
posted at 9:29 PM

'Sun catcher' finally flies
It had to wait over a week but the Genesis space probe finally blasted off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, US, on Wednesday.
posted at 9:07 PM

Tuesday, August 07, 2001

No Escaping Charged Particles During Solar Maximum
Once every 11 years, the sun's magnetic field flips over. During the commotion that accompanies these field reversals, large solar flares send great geysers of hot gas and huge quantities of charged particles erupting from the surface and streaming into space during a period called "solar maximum."
posted at 9:49 PM

Astronomers See Evidence of First Light in Universe
A team of astronomers announced yesterday that it had found what it called the cosmic renaissance, the epoch in which starlight first began streaming freely through the universe.
posted at 9:48 PM

Time of Growing Pains for Information Age
A report on a meeting of some of the top information and complexity scientists to discuss the foundations of their fields. From the New York Times.
posted at 9:47 PM

Monday, August 06, 2001

Chemists Predict Silver-Fluorine Superconductivity
Two researchers at Cornell University are predicting that high-temperature superconductivity could exist in a class of exotic materials containing silver and fluorine. However, none of the materials has yet been made.
posted at 11:56 PM

Solar Powered Robot Demonstrates Concept That Could Lead To Long-Term Exploration Of Planets And Moons
A prototype, solar-powered robot, developed with support from NASA by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute, has demonstrated a concept that could pave the way for future long-term robotic exploration of distant planets and moons.
posted at 11:55 PM

Night in bright light plight
Light pollution threatens amour and astronomy.
posted at 11:49 PM

Brain inspires new memories
Quantum memories should mimic ours.
posted at 11:48 PM

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