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| CRAZY CARBON NANOFOAM LOVES MAGNETS |
| Tiny particles of carbon that look like sooty foam and attract magnets have been made by Australian scientists. |
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| ALCHEMY WITH LIGHT |
| YOU don't often see claims of "unexpected and stunning new physical phenomena" in the abstract of a reputable scientific paper. But the latest report by photonics crystal pioneer John Joannopoulos and his group at MIT, soon to be published in Physical Review Letters, does not disappoint. The researchers document the ultimate control over light: a way to shift the frequency of light beams to any desired colour, with near 100 per cent efficiency. |
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| UC RIVERSIDE RESEARCHERS' DISCOVERY OF ELECTROSTATIC SPIN TOPPLES CENTURY-OLD THEORY. NEW PHYSICAL PHENOMENON WILL LIKELY IMPACT ATOMIC PHYSICS,.. |
| In a discovery that is likely to impact fields as diverse as atomic physics, chemistry and nanotechnology, researchers have identified a new physical phenomenon, electrostatic rotation, that, in the absence of friction, leads to spin. Because the electric force is one of the fundamental forces of nature, this leap forward in understanding may help reveal how the smallest building blocks in nature react to form solids, liquids and gases that constitute the material world around us. |
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| UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO STUDY CHARTS NEW REALM OF PHYSICS |
| By constructing artificial materials that break long-standing rules of nature, a University of Toronto researcher has developed a flat lens that could significantly enhance the resolution of imaged objects. This, in turn, could lead to smaller and more effective antennas and devices for cell phones, increased space for data storage on CD-ROMs and more complex electronic circuits. |
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| COOL RUNNING SEMICONDUCTORS |
| Solid-state semiconductors don't handle heat very well. If they're operated at high power they tend to burn out. Heat poses other problems as well--the hotter the device, the greater the electrical resistance (and the lower the efficiency). |
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| RECORD-HIGH MAGNETIC FIELDS IN LAB MAY ALLOW RE-CREATIONS OF EXTREME ASTROPHYSICAL PHENOMENA |
| Using a new technique, researchers from Imperial College, London, and the Rutherford Appleton lab in the UK have created super-strong magnetic fields that are hundreds of times more intense than any previous magnetic field created in an Earth laboratory and up to a billion times stronger than our planet's natural magnetic field. Such intense magnetic fields may soon enable researchers to recreate extreme astrophysical conditions, such as the atmospheres of neutron stars and white dwarfs, in their very own laboratories. |
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| LEARNING ABOUT ASTROPHYSICAL JETS IN THE LAB |
| Many astronomical objects, from galactic nuclei to black holes surrounded by accretion disks, emit very long plumes of plasma, called astrophysical jets. |
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| SUPERCONDUCTING LITHIUM |
| Discovery of superconductivity in lithium / Critical temperature much lower than theoretically expected.
Superconductivity in lithium was discovered by scientists in a collaboration of the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC, USA with the High Pressure Group at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, as reported in Science (October 17th). Superconductivity at a critical temperature (Tc) of 9 K was found in lithium pressurized up to 230.000 atmospheres (23 GPa) with Tc increasing to 16 K at 80 GPa. This temperature is one of the highest for elements, but much lower than those theoretically predicted, indicating that more sophisticated theoretical treatments similar to those proposed for metallic hydrogen may be required. |
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| 150-TON MAGNET PULLS WORLD TOWARD NEW ENERGY SOURCE |
| A 150-ton magnet developed in part by MIT engineers is pulling the world closer to nuclear fusion as a potential source of energy. |
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| COPPER-OXIDE PLANE AT SURFACE OF SUPERCONDUCTOR HAS SURPRISING PROPERTIES |
| The peculiar behavior of high-temperature superconductors has baffled scientists for many years. Now, by imaging the copper-oxide plane in a cuprate superconductor for the first time, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have found several new pieces to this important puzzle. |
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| UNUSUAL CERAMICS COULD EXPAND POSSIBILITIES FOR SUPERCONDUCTORS |
| Ceramic materials with "split personalities" could lead to new high-temperature superconductors, according to physicists at Ohio State University and their colleagues. |
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| PHYSICISTS IDENTIFY POSSIBLE NEW SUPERCONDUCTOR |
| A potential new high-temperature superconductor has been identified by physicists at the University of California, Davis. Calculations by Helge Rosner, Alexander Kitaigorodsky and Warren Pickett predict that lithium borocarbide should have essentially no resistance to electrical current at temperatures up to minus 280 F. |
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| POSSIBLE SOUND-INDUCED NUCLEAR FUSION POSITED. ADDITIONAL EXPERIMENTS ARE NEEDED. |
| A team of researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has reported the observation of phenomena that could point to the possibility of nuclear fusion using a novel technique for plasma confinement. The approach, called "bubble fusion," is reported in the March 8 issue of Science magazine. |
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| RESEARCHERS DEVELOP WORLD'S FIRST LIGHT-TUNABLE 'PLASTIC' MAGNET |
| Low-cost, flexible electronics and better computer data storage might result from the world's first light-tunable plastic magnet, just developed at Ohio State University.
With colleagues at the University of Utah, researchers here developed a plastic material that becomes 1.5 times more magnetic when blue light shines on it. Green light partially reverses that effect. |
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| GETTING SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING |
| WE'D all like to get something for nothing. But harnessing the energy of empty space?
It sounds crazy, but the idea is not so far-fetched, thanks to a strange force that comes out of nothing. Researchers have persuaded this force, called the Casimir effect, to slide tiny gold plates past each other. |
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| PHYSICS RESEARCH SUGGESTS IT MIGHT BE POSSIBLE TO LENGTHEN BATTERY LIFE |
| Experiments with carbon nanotubes, a new form of carbon discovered about a decade ago, suggest for the first time that it should be possible to store more energy in batteries using the tiny tubes than with conventional graphite electrodes. |
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| ENGINEERS DEVELOP NEW CHEMICAL SENSOR BASED ON EXPERIMENTAL PHYSICS BREAKTHROUGH |
| For the first time, scientists have found evidence of a long-suspected phenomenon; tiny electrical currents produced when molecules interact with metal surfaces. The discovery may usher in a new generation of chemical detectors, and reveals details about catalytic processes used to produce more than half of the chemicals manufactured worldwide. |
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| COMPUTERS CLOSER TO THE SPEED OF LIGHT |
| Australian scientists have used their expertise in solar cells to develop a more efficient silicon light-emitting diode, providing a new platform for faster computing and data transfer.
The development, reported in 23 August 2001 Nature by Martin A. Green and colleagues at the University of New South Wales, will mean microelectronics can take better advantage of the speed of optical data transfer. |
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| NSF AWARDS INTERDISCIPLINARY PENN TEAM $1.45 MILLION TO STUDY, DEVELOP BUILDING BLOCKS OF NANOSTRUCTURES |
| The National Science Foundation has awarded $1.45 million to scientists at the University of Pennsylvania, establishing a new Nanotechnology Science and Engineering Center that will seek out the building blocks of next-generation nanostructures. |
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