Data from the ESA satellite measure contaminants in the BICEP2 observation
Scientists have shown how gravitational waves—invisible ripples in the fabric of space and time that propagate through the universe—might be "seen" by looking at the stars. The new model proposes that a star that oscillates at the same frequency as a gravitational wave will absorb energy from that wave and brighten, an overlooked prediction of Einstein's 1916 theory of general relativity.
Space surveillance is inherently challenging when compared to other tracking environments due to various reasons, not least of which is the long time gap between surveillance updates. "Unlike the air and missile defense environments where objects are frequently observed, the space surveillance environment data is starved, with many objects going several orbital periods between observations," according to researcher Joshua Horwood.
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z machine have produced a significant output of fusion neutrons, using a method fully functioning for only little more than a year.
A major limitation in the performance of solar cells happens within the photovoltaic material itself: When photons strike the molecules of a solar cell, they transfer their energy, producing quasi-particles called excitons — an energized state of molecules. That energized state can hop from one molecule to the next until it's transferred to electrons in a wire, which can light up a bulb or turn a motor.
By David L. Chandler
23 Sep 2014
Physicists at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have succeeded in teleporting the quantum state of a photon to a crystal over 25 kilometres of optical fibre. The experiment, carried out in the laboratory of Professor Nicolas Gisin, constitutes a first, and simply pulverises the previous record of 6 kilometres achieved ten years ago by the same UNIGE team.
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) collaboration has today presented its latest results. These are based on the analysis of 41 billion particles detected with the space-based AMS detector aboard the International Space Station.
Researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland have succeeded in observing the "forbidden" infrared spectrum of a charged molecule for the first time.
Massive galaxies in the Universe have stopped making their own stars and are instead snacking on nearby galaxies, according to research by Australian scientists. Astronomers looked at more than 22,000 galaxies and found that while smaller galaxies were very efficient at creating stars from gas, the most massive galaxies were much less efficient at star formation, producing hardly any new stars themselves, and instead grew by eating other galaxies.
Renowned theoretical physicist Marcelo Gleiser specializes in particle cosmology — studying the emergence of complex structures in nature to try to make sense of the world and our place in the grand scheme of things. He will discuss his latest book, The Island of Knowledge: The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning, at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25, at Vanderbilt University’s Benton Chapel.
In Innsbruck, Austria, a team of physicists led by Francesca Ferlaino experimentally observed how the anisotropic properties of particles deform the Fermi surface in a quantum gas. The work published in Science provides the basis for future studies on how the geometry of particle interactions may influence the properties of a quantum system.
University of Utah physicists read the subatomic “spins” in the centers or nuclei of hydrogen isotopes, and used the data to control current that powered light in a cheap, plastic LED – at room temperature and without strong magnetic fields.
New research published Thursday in the journal Physical Review Letters shows researchers are making important progress in the hunt for dark matter, using the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) -- a state-of-the-art cosmic ray particle physics detector located on the exterior of the International Space Station.
An experiment led by researchers Sonja Orrigo and Berta Rubio, from the Grupo de Espectroscopia Gamma de l'Institut de Física Corpuscular IFIC (centre that belongs to the University of Valencia and the CSIC) observed an exotic disbandment mode in the beta disbandment of the 56Zn. The results dicovered by an international team in the Ganil Lab (France) have been published in ‘Physical Review Letters’.
A fierce debate has raged for decades over whether quantum coherence can occur in the brain to support the conscious mind. In the mid 1990s British physicist Sir Roger Penrose and American anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff proposed that consciousness depends on quantum computations in microtubules inside brain neurons.