Physicists' Findings About Helium Could Lead to More Accurate Temperature, Pressure Measurements
In the May 7 edition of Physical Review Letters, a journal of the American Physical Society, an international team led by University of Delaware researchers reports new findings about helium that may lead to more accurate standards for how temperature and pressure are measured.
Spiders at the Nanoscale: Molecules That Behave Like Robots
A team of scientists from Columbia University, Arizona State University, the University of Michigan, and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have programmed an autonomous molecular "robot" made out of DNA to start, move, turn, and stop while following a DNA track.
X-Ray Discovery Points to Location of Missing Matter
Using observations with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton, astronomers have announced a robust detection of a vast reservoir of intergalactic gas about 400 million light years from Earth. This discovery is the strongest evidence yet that the "missing matter" in the nearby Universe is located in an enormous web of hot, diffuse gas.
Quantum Mechanics Reveals New Details of Deep Earth
Scientists have used quantum mechanics to reveal that the most common mineral on Earth is relatively uncommon deep within the planet.
iPhone Goes Nuclear: Fission? There's an App for That
A fission reaction in a nuclear reactor? There's an "app" for that! An iPhone "application" or software developed at the University of Utah can display simulations of a nuclear reactor's core on an iPod, iPhone or iPad.
Seeing Moire in Graphene
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Georgia Tech have demonstrated that atomic scale moire patterns, an interference pattern that appears when two or more grids are overlaid slightly askew, can be used to measure how sheets of graphene are stacked and reveal areas of strain.
NIST 'Dimmer Switch' Set for Superconducting Quantum Computing
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed the first "dimmer switch" for a superconducting circuit linking a quantum bit (qubit) and a quantum bus. The NIST switch is a new type of control device that can "tune" interactions between these components and potentially could speed up development of a practical quantum computer.