http://phys.org/physics-news/ en-us Phys.org provides the latest news on physics, materials, nanotech, science and technology. Updated Daily. New York University physicists have developed a method that models biological cell-to-cell adhesion that could also have industrial applications. http://phys.org/news257415266.html Physics Mon, 28 May 2012 15:00:01 EST news257415266 (Phys.org) -- In a recently published paper, the LHCb Collaboration has reported on a possible deviation from the Standard Model. Theorists are now working to calculate precisely this effect and to evaluate the implications that such unexpected result could have on the established theory. http://phys.org/news257408731.html Physics Mon, 28 May 2012 07:25:42 EST news257408731 (Phys.org) -- An international collaboration of scientists, including Thomas Blum, associate professor of physics, is reporting in landmark detail the decay process of a subatomic particle called a kaon – information that may help answer fundamental questions about how the universe began. http://phys.org/news257152899.html Physics Fri, 25 May 2012 08:21:53 EST news257152899 Many people anticipating the creation of an invisibility cloak might be surprised to learn that a group of American researchers has created 25 000 individual cloaks. http://phys.org/news257094354.html Physics Thu, 24 May 2012 19:00:01 EST news257094354 Researchers from Vestfold University College in Norway have created a simple, efficient energy harvesting device that uses the motion of a single droplet to generate electrical power. http://phys.org/news257100462.html Physics Thu, 24 May 2012 18:10:01 EST news257100462 Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology achieved a 17-percent increase in boiling efficiency by using an acoustic field to enhance heat transfer. The acoustic field does this by efficiently removing vapor bubbles from the heated surface and suppressing the formation of an insulating vapor film. http://phys.org/news257100162.html Physics Thu, 24 May 2012 17:43:46 EST news257100162 Physicists have trapped and cooled exotic particles called excitons so effectively that they condensed and cohered to form a giant matter wave. http://phys.org/news257080023.html Physics Thu, 24 May 2012 12:07:27 EST news257080023 (Phys.org) -- The laws of classical electromagnetism that were developed in the 19th century are the same laws that scientists use today. They include Maxwell’s four equations along with the Lorentz law, which describes the force exerted by electric and magnetic fields on charged particles. But Masud Mansuripur, a professor of Optical Sciences at The University of Arizona in Tucson, is now arguing that the Lorentz law of force is incompatible with special relativity and momentum conservation, and should be abandoned. In a recent issue of Physical Review Letters, he has suggested replacing the Lorentz law with a more general expression of electromagnetic force density, such as one developed by Albert Einstein and Jakob Laub in 1908. http://phys.org/news257069877.html Physics Thu, 24 May 2012 09:50:01 EST news257069877 'Tractor beams' of light that pull objects towards them are no longer science fiction. Haifeng Wang at the A*STAR Data Storage Institute and co-workers have now demonstrated how a tractor beam can in fact be realized on a small scale. http://phys.org/news257068727.html Physics Thu, 24 May 2012 09:20:01 EST news257068727 First of all, the neutrinophone isn’t really a phone. It has the potential to be used for communication across immense distances—including into outer space—but even Jeff Nelson says the neutrinophone’s debut was “little more than an outreach stunt.” http://phys.org/news257060289.html Physics Thu, 24 May 2012 06:38:34 EST news257060289 Although it's invisible, dark matter accounts for at least 80 percent of the matter in the universe. No one knows what it is, but most scientists would bet on weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs. http://phys.org/news256998676.html Physics Wed, 23 May 2012 13:31:51 EST news256998676 (Phys.org) -- Quantum computers may someday revolutionize the information world. But in order for quantum computers at distant locations to communicate with one another, they have to be linked together in a network. While several building blocks for a quantum computer have already been successfully tested in the laboratory, a network requires one additonal component: a reliable interface between computers and information channels. In the current issue of the journal Nature, physicists at the University of Innsbruck report the construction of an efficient and tunable interface for quantum networks. http://phys.org/news256995150.html Physics Wed, 23 May 2012 13:00:11 EST news256995150 (Phys.org) -- In quantum physics physical processes in condensed matter and other many-body systems can often be described with quasiparticles. In Innsbruck, for the first time Rudolf Grimm’s team of physicists has succeeded in experimentally realizing a new quasiparticle – a repulsive polaron – in an ultracold quantum gas. The scientists have published their results in the online issue of the journal Nature. http://phys.org/news256995339.html Physics Wed, 23 May 2012 13:00:05 EST news256995339 Plutonium is the most complex element in the periodic table, yet it is also one of the most poorly understood ones. But now a well-known scientific technique, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, may turn out to be the perfect tool for uncovering some of plutonium’s mysteries. http://phys.org/news256994284.html Physics Wed, 23 May 2012 12:30:01 EST news256994284 (Phys.org) -- A team of scientists from the University of Hawaii are working on microrobots created from bubbles of air in a saline solution. The bubbles take on their title of “robots” as a laser is deployed to work as an engine to power the bubbles’ directions and speed. The microrobots follow the positions of the projected light; multiple microrobots can be controlled at once. Among the demonstrations is an example of how bubble microrobots can pass around glass microbeads. Using a fine-tipped syringe filled with air and saline solution, the scientists went to work on making these robots out of bubbles. http://phys.org/news256993894.html Physics Wed, 23 May 2012 12:11:49 EST news256993894 (Phys.org) -- Whether used in telescopes or optoelectronic communications, infrared detectors must be continuously cooled to avoid being overwhelmed by stray thermal radiation. Now, a team of researchers from Peking University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Duke University (USA) is harnessing the remarkable properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) to create highly sensitive, “uncooled” photovoltaic infrared detectors. http://phys.org/news256987449.html Physics Wed, 23 May 2012 11:00:01 EST news256987449 Based on research she conducted for her doctoral dissertation several years ago, Jatila van der Veen, a lecturer in the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara and a research associate in UC Santa Barbara's physics department, created a new approach to introductory physics, which she calls "Noether before Newton." Noether refers to the early 20th-century German mathematician Emmy Noether, who was known for her groundbreaking contributions to abstract algebra and theoretical physics. http://phys.org/news256988946.html Physics Wed, 23 May 2012 10:50:23 EST news256988946 (Phys.org) -- An electron’s spin is separate from its motion, and is suitable for use in both highly-precise magnetic sensing as well as a qubit in quantum computing. Recently, scientists at the University of Konstanz in Germany have theoretically investigated the coupling of electron spin in carbon nanotube quantum dots, showing that the carbon nanotube’s nanomechanical vibrations can significantly affect the spin of an electron trapped on it. Moreover, their findings also theoretically show that the carbon nanotube itself can be affected by the electron’s spin. The researchers state that their findings have important implications for magnetic and mass nanosensors, quantum computing and other nanoscale applications. http://phys.org/news256979923.html Physics Wed, 23 May 2012 08:50:01 EST news256979923 (Phys.org) -- In the real world of so called “normal” materials, people expect certain things to occur as a result of certain actions. Covering an object with a cloak for example, should hide the object, but the cloak should still be visible (or vice-versa), or if you push or sit on a couch cushion, it should contract. Lately though, new science has been changing our perception of how materials should behave. For example, recent research into metamaterials; materials that aren’t normally found in nature, has been turning some of what we see as normal, on its head. The development of cloaking devices that hide objects and are themselves invisible, is one example. http://phys.org/news256972609.html Physics Wed, 23 May 2012 06:17:07 EST news256972609 (Phys.org) -- In a paper published in the May 20, 2012 edition of the journal Nature Physics, a research group from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook University reports the development and demonstration of a novel probe for atomic quantum matter. The paper, “Probing an Ultracold-Atom Crystal with Matter Waves," describes a proof-of-principle experiment on the diffraction of atomic de Broglie waves from a strongly correlated gas of atoms held in an optical lattice. http://phys.org/news256967606.html Physics Wed, 23 May 2012 05:30:01 EST news256967606 (Phys.org) -- JQI experimentalists under the direction of Ian Spielman are in the business of using lasers to create novel environments for neutral atoms. For instance, this research group previously enticed electrically neutral atoms to act like charged particles moving in magnetic and electric fields. The behavior of particles in strong electromagnetic fields, along with arbitrary control of the said fields, is central to both condensed matter physics, and quantum information science. http://phys.org/news256894798.html Physics Tue, 22 May 2012 08:40:32 EST news256894798 Francesca Ferlaino’s research team at the University of Innsbruck is the first to successfully create a condensate of the exotic element erbium. The Innsbruck experimental physicists hold the world record in attaining the first Bose-Einstein condensates of different chemical elements. http://phys.org/news256892364.html Physics Tue, 22 May 2012 07:59:55 EST news256892364 (Phys.org) -- Quantum physics and plant biology seem like two branches of science that could not be more different, but surprisingly they may in fact be intimately tied. http://phys.org/news256889606.html Physics Tue, 22 May 2012 07:13:33 EST news256889606 If you are not a condensed matter physicist, vanadium oxide (VO2) may be the coolest material you've never heard of. It's a metal. It's an insulator. It's a window coating and an optical switch. And thanks to a new study by physicists at Rice University, scientists have a new way to reversibly alter VO2's electronic properties by treating it with one of the simplest substances -- hydrogen. http://phys.org/news256818609.html Physics Mon, 21 May 2012 11:30:15 EST news256818609 Blood tests convey vital medical information, but the sight of a needle often causes anxiety and results take time. A new device developed by a team of researchers in Israel, however, can reveal much the same information as a traditional blood test in real-time, simply by shining a light through the skin. This optical instrument, no bigger than a breadbox, is able to provide high-resolution images of blood coursing through our veins without the need for harsh and short-lived fluorescent dyes. http://phys.org/news256818055.html Physics Mon, 21 May 2012 11:21:24 EST news256818055 (Phys.org) -- A team of French scientists studying the properties of Leidenfrost drops has found that liquid oxygen drops can be manipulated and controlled using a magnetic field at room temperature. They describe their work and the properties they’ve uncovered in a paper to be published in the journal Physical Review E. http://phys.org/news256812575.html Physics Mon, 21 May 2012 10:20:01 EST news256812575 A team of engineers at Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania has for the first time used "plasmonic cloaking" to create a device that can see without being seen - an invisible machine that detects light. It is the first example of what the researchers describe as a new class of devices that controls the flow of light at the nanoscale to produce both optical and electronic functions. http://phys.org/news256811881.html Physics Mon, 21 May 2012 09:38:29 EST news256811881 The relativistic Hall effect describing objects rotating at speeds comparable with the speed of light has been reported. http://phys.org/news256808350.html Physics Mon, 21 May 2012 08:39:52 EST news256808350 Quantum physics promises faster and more powerful computers, but quantum versions of basic logic functions are still needed to bring this technology to fruition. Researchers from the University of Cambridge and Toshiba Research Europe Ltd. have taken one step toward this goal by creating an all-semiconductor quantum logic gate, a controlled-NOT (CNOT) gate. They achieved this breakthrough by coaxing nanodots to emit single photons of light on demand. http://phys.org/news256563091.html Physics Fri, 18 May 2012 12:31:40 EST news256563091 Vacuum tubes have been retro for decades. They almost completely disappeared from the electronics scene when consumers exchanged their old cathode ray tube monitors for flat screen TVs. Their replacement – the semiconductor – is generally the cheaper, lighter, more efficient, and easier to manufacture of the two technologies. But vacuum tubes are more robust in high-radiation environments such as outer space. And since electrons travel faster in a vacuum than through a semiconductor, vacuum tubes are an intrinsically better medium for electricity. http://phys.org/news256559766.html Physics Fri, 18 May 2012 11:36:14 EST news256559766