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| Super atoms turn the periodic table upside down |
| Researchers at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in The Netherlands have developed a technique for generating atom clusters made from silver and other metals. Surprisingly enough, these so-called super atoms (clusters of 13 silver atoms, for example) behave in the same way as individual atoms and have opened up a whole new branch of chemistry. A full account can be read in the new edition of TU Delft magazine Delft Outlook. |
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| FASTEST STOPWATCH IN THE WORLD |
| A new ultrafast stopwatch can now measure the speed of atomic processes down to the smallest fraction of a second yet. |
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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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| 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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| JEFFERSON LAB'S HALL A EXPERIMENT EXAMINES HOW ENERGY BECOMES MATTER |
| Just as matter can be converted into energy, so too can energy become matter. That's what five-dozen Jefferson Lab researchers were counting on for an experiment in Hall A. |
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| RESEARCHERS GET FIRST LOOK INTO ANTIMATTER ATOMS |
| It seems like the stuff of science fiction, but NSF-sponsored researchers working at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, have probed the properties of whole atoms of antimatter, the "mirror image" of matter, for the first time. Their results provide the first look into the inside of an antimatter atom and are a big step on the way to testing standard theories of how the universe operates. |
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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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| 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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| 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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| ULTRACOLD PLASMAS ARE A CHILLING PUZZLE |
| Plasmas, which include the bright glowy stuff in a fluorescent lamp, are clouds in which ions and free electrons move around independently as charged particles. Plasma is thought to be the most common form of matter in the universe, but it’s usually pretty hot. The plasma in a solar corona can have a temperature in the millions of degrees. |
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| IN A SHOW OF ENTROPY'S BENEFITS, SCIENTISTS FIND 'FUZZY' MOLECULES CAN ASSEMBLE PRECISELY INTO DISTINCT LATTICES |
| Physicists at the University of Pennsylvania have determined that adding a "fuzz" of chemical chains to colloidal molecules can lead them to form a predictable array of lattices. The entropy-driven phenomenon represents a way in which the power of entropy might be harnessed by scientists for constructive purposes. |
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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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| ‘THE DISH’ TESTS EINSTEIN'S WARPED SPACE |
| In the most precise astrophysics experiment ever made, Australian and U.S. astronomers have used CSIROs Parkes radio telescope to measure the distortion of space-time near a star 450 light-years (more than 4 000 million million kilometres) from Earth. |
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| MUONS CHALLENGE THE BASIC PHYSICAL THEORY OF THE SUBATOMIC WORLD'S ORGANIZATION |
| Studying a magnetic trace of subatomic particles, muons, scientists came to the conclusion which contradicts the dominant physical models of the subatomic world’s organization. Over 30 years, the standard model of the world’s physical organization had been withstanding all critical opinions pertaining to the properties prediction and elementary particles interaction. Despite the obvious success of the theory, physicists suspected they dealt with uncompleted picture of the subatomic world. During the experiment an international team of researchers carried out at Bruckheiven’s National Laboratory of New-York, a negligible deviation from the standard model’s prediction for a magnetic field of muons. The results were announced on February 8th at the laboratory colloquium.
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| PHYSICISTS ARE GETTING FIRST PICTURES OF MOLECULAR BEHAVIOR AT THE NANOLEVEL |
| Physicists from the State University of Carolina have discovered a new method of measuring molecular properties of materials which can assist in developing nanostructural technologies.
Methodology called the Gradient-Field-Raman spectroscopy (GFR) allows to determine behavior of molecules in the scale of 1 part per bln meter. |
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