Inverted Dancers Have More Acute Visuomotor Perception
Previous studies have determined that astronauts can judge inverted movements better than people on Earth due to the astronauts' unique visuomotor experience with inverted movements in space.
Scientists utilize lunar soils to sustainably supply oxygen and fuels on moon in an unmanned manner
Building up the lunar settlement is the ultimate aim of lunar exploitation since human's first step on the moon. Yet, limited fuel and oxygen supplies restrict human survival on the moon.
How Do Neutrons Interact with Reactor Materials?
Nuclear fission and fusion reactors use carbon and silicon in shielding, structural materials, fuel, and neutron moderators. Neutrons are the drivers of the nuclear energy production processes. This makes understanding how neutrons scatter from all reactor materials critical for nuclear plant design and other applications. In this research, scientists investigated the interaction of neutrons with silicon and carbon.
Starshade Competition Challenges Students to Block Starlight for Observing Exoplanets
The Hybrid Observatory for Earth-like Exoplanets proposes pairing the newest and largest ground-based telescopes with a starshade orbiting Earth to obstruct the light from a host star to identify and characterize an exoplanet. AIP, with NASA and SPS, is organizing a competition for undergraduate students in the physical sciences to design such a starshade.
FAMU-FSU Professor Will Study Superfluid Helium with $1.25M Grant From Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
FAMU-FSU Associate Professor of mechanical engineering Wei Guo studies received a $1.25 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through its Experimental Physics Investigators Initiative for research into the properties of this superfluid helium.
Electron Liquids on the Cutting Edge
As you walk in a crowded shopping mall, it is easier to maintain social distancing when passing through a large atrium than when you are on an escalator.
Assessing the Environmental Impact of Future 'Higgs Factories'
New research looks at planned particle accelerators that will follow the retirement of the Large Hadron Collider-- the world's most powerful particle accelerator.
Breakthrough: The World's Smallest Photon in a Dielectric Material
Until recently, it was widely believed among physicists that it was impossible to compress light below the so-called diffraction limit (see fact box), except when using metal nanoparticles, which unfortunately also absorb light.
Researchers Create First Quasiparticle Bose-Einstein Condensate
Physicists have created the first Bose-Einstein condensate -- the mysterious "'fifth state" of matter -- made from quasiparticles, entities that do not count as elementary particles but that can still have elementary-particle properties like charge and spin.
How Do You Solve a Problem Like a Proton? You Smash It to Smithereens, Then Build It Back Together with Machine Learning
Berkeley Lab scientists have developed new machine learning algorithms to accelerate the analysis of data collected decades ago by HERA, the world's most powerful electron-proton collider that ran at the DESY national research center in Germany from 1992 to 2007.
$2 Million FAA Grant Supports Study of Sustainable Aviation Fuels at Missouri S&T
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently awarded a $2.05 million grant to a Missouri S&T researcher to study how different types of sustainable aviation fuels could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from airplanes.Dr. Philip Whitefield, Curators' Distinguished Professor emeritus of chemistry at Missouri S&T, received the funding through the FAA's Aviation Sustainability Center (ASCENT), which is part of the FAA's Air Transportation Center of Excellence for Alterative Jet Fuels and Environment.
Insects Affect Electric Fields in the Atmosphere, Researchers Find
The electric charge of insects can cause changes in the electricity of the atmosphere which are comparable with weather processes, researchers at the University of Bristol and University of Reading have found.
Balance Training Helped Overcome the Differences Between the Dominant and Non-dominant Sides of the Body
Together with colleagues from Innopolis University, scientists from Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University developed a mathematical model to describe the process of stabilizing an unstable position to a state of equilibrium. Based on the model, researchers determined that short balance training sessions help reduce the differences between the right and left limbs.
Robotic Insect Toys Build Undergraduate Research Skills in Physics
In the American Journal of Physics, researchers developed an online undergraduate physics lab course using small robotic bugs, called Hexbug Nanos (TM), to engage students in scientific research from their homes. The bugs look like bright-colored beetles with 12 flexible legs that move rapidly in a semi-random manner. This makes collections ideal models for exploring particle behavior that can be difficult to visualize, and students used them to complete experiments to investigate concepts in statistical mechanics and electrical conduction.
Star-Shaped Nanoparticles May Help to Fight Cancer
Together with colleagues, a group of scientists from Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University synthesized nanostructures of gold and iron oxides that have improved magnetic and optical properties because of their unique star shape. The particles obtained are safe for healthy human cells and can be used in tumor therapy.
Researchers Discover New Monster Black Hole 'Practically in Our Back Yard'
The discovery of a so-called monster black hole that has about 12 times the mass of the sun is detailed in a new Astrophysical Journal research submission, the lead author of which is Dr. Sukanya Chakrabarti, a physics professor at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH).
Physicists Confirm Hitch in Proton Structure
A new precision measurement of the proton's electric polarizability performed at Jefferson Lab has confirmed an unexplained bump in the data. The proton's electric polarizability shows how susceptible the proton is to deformation, or stretching, in an electric field. Like size or charge, the electric polarizability is a fundamental property of proton structure. The data bump was widely thought to be a fluke when seen in earlier measurements, so this new, more precise measurement confirms the presence of the anomaly and signals that an unknown facet of the strong force may be at work. The research has just been published in the journal Nature.
Three Brookhaven Lab Physicists Named Fellows of American Physical Society
Three physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have been named Fellows of the American Physical Society (APS).
PPPL physicist wins awards for two fusion projects
Physicist Stefano Munaretto of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has received leadership roles in two DOE three-year awards.
New laboratory to explore the quantum mysteries of nuclear materials
Every day, researchers discover new details about the laws that govern the tiniest building blocks of the universe. These details not only increase scientific understanding of quantum physics, but they also hold the potential to unlock a host of technologies, from quantum computers to lasers to next-generation solar cells. But there's one area that remains a mystery even in this most mysterious of sciences: the quantum mechanics of nuclear fuels.
2022 Ronald C. Davidson Award for Plasma Physics Goes to Ian H. Hutchinson
AIP Publishing has selected Ian H. Hutchinson, a professor of nuclear science and engineering at MIT, as the recipient of its 2022 Ronald C. Davidson Award for Plasma Physics for his paper, "Electron holes in phase space: What they are and why they matter." The annual award of $5,000 is presented in collaboration with the APS Division of Plasma Physics to recognize outstanding plasma physics research by a Physics of Plasmas author.
'Smart plastic' material is step forward toward soft, flexible robotics and electronics
Inspired by living things from trees to shellfish, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin set out to create a plastic much like many life forms that are hard and rigid in some places and soft and stretchy in others.
Machine Learning Takes Hold in Nuclear Physics
Scientists have begun turning to new tools offered by machine learning to help save time and money. In the past several years, nuclear physics has seen a flurry of machine learning projects come online, with many papers published on the subject. Now, 18 authors from 11 institutions summarize this explosion of artificial intelligence-aided work in "Machine Learning in Nuclear Physics," a paper recently published in Reviews of Modern Physics.
Scientists count electric charges in a single catalyst nanoparticle down to the electron
If you often find yourself off by one when counting your socks after doing the laundry, you might want to sit down for this.
Department of Energy Announces $47 Million for Research at Tokamak and Spherical Tokamak Facilities
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded $47 million to U.S. scientists conducting experimental research in fusion energy science at tokamak and spherical tokamak facilities in the U.S. and around the globe. The awards support research that aims to close gaps in the science and technology basis for the tokamak approach to fusion energy. These awards will help support the Biden Administration's decadal vision to accelerate fusion as a clean energy technology.