Grammy-winning jazz legend and sax virtuoso WAYNE SHORTER took a few hours off recently from a busy weekend of sold-out shows at the SFJazz Center in San Francisco to indulge in his second love – the cosmos. In fact, all four members of the Wayne Shorter Quartet left a rainy Saturday afternoon behind to take an impromptu tour of the universe, courtesy of jazz fans TOM ABEL and RISA WECHSLER, who are Stanford professors of physics and astrophysicists at Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) at Stanford’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
By Lori Ann White
3 Apr 2014
NASA has selected seven scientists as recipients of the 2014 Carl Sagan Exoplanet Postdoctoral Fellowships. The fellowship, named for the late astronomer, was created to inspire the next generation of explorers seeking to learn more about planets, and possibly life, around other stars.
This new image from the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile shows two contrasting galaxies: NGC 1316, and its smaller neighbour NGC 1317. These two are quite close to each other in space, but they have very different histories. The small spiral NGC 1317 has led an uneventful life, but NGC 1316 has engulfed several other galaxies in its violent history and shows the battle scars.
A team of researchers led by University of Notre Dame physicist Boldizsar Janko has announced analytical prediction and numerical verification of novel quantum rotor states in nanostructured superconductors.
NASA has announced the selection of the 2014 Einstein Fellows who will conduct research related to NASA's Physics of the Cosmos (PCOS) program, which aims to expand our knowledge of the origin, evolution, and fate of the Universe. The PCOS Program consists of a suite of operating science missions and possible future missions that focus on specific aspects of these questions.
Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Quantum Dots Trends" report to their offering.
Professor Stephan Irle of the Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (WPI-ITbM) at Nagoya University and co-workers at Kyoto University, Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL), and Chinese research institutions have revealed through theoretical simulations that the molecular mechanism of carbon nanotube (CNT) growth and hydrocarbon combustion actually share many similarities.
New York University physicist Maryam Modjaz will study the explosions of stars using a method she calls "stellar forensics" under a National Science Foundation CAREER Award.
Quantum standards for the electrical units the volt and the ohm have been available for more than two decades. However, for the electrical base unit of the international system of units (SI) the ampere, such a "new" quantum standard is still lacking. Within the planned "new" SI the base unit of current will then be traced to the corresponding fundamental constant – the electric charge of a single electron.
Physicists at New Zealand's University of Otago have pushed the frontiers of quantum technology by developing a steerable 'optical tweezers' unit that uses intense laser beams to precisely split minute clouds of ultracold atoms and to smash them together.
Exploding stars, random impacts involving comets and meteorites, and even near misses between two bodies can create regions of great heat and high pressure.
Michio Kaku, an internationally-renowned theoretical physicist whose new book, The Future of the Mind, is #2 on this week's New York Times list of bestsellers (hardcover nonfiction), will provide a glimpse into the future when he visits DePauw University on Monday, May 5. Dr. Kaku, called "a superhero of the incomprehensible" by Cosmos magazine, "has the rare ability to take complicated scientific theories and turn them into readable tales about what our lives will be like in the future," notes USA Today. He will present a Timothy and Sharon Ubben Lecture at 7:30 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium, located within the Green Center for the Performing Arts.
Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Quantum Dots Market by Product, Application, Material & Geography - Forecast & Analysis (2013 - 2020)" report to their offering.
Happenstance led to the discovery of the first ring system around an asteroid, and Appalachian State University Professor Joseph Pollock was part of the team of astronomers that made the discovery.
At a ceremony today at Geneva airport, CERN and ESA signed a framework agreement for future cooperation on research and technology in areas of mutual interest. Future areas may include the development and characterization of innovative materials for applications in extreme conditions and for cutting-edge scientific performances, the development of new micro-technologies to be applied in miniaturized distributed sensor systems and the development and testing of high-performance detectors for high-energy physics experiments and space payloads.