http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Identifying the mysterious mechanism underlying high-temperature superconductivity (HTS) remains one of the most important and tantalizing puzzles in physics. This remarkable phenomenon allows electric current to pass with perfect efficiency through materials chilled to subzero temperatures, and it may play an essential role in revolutionizing the entire electricity chain, from generation to transmission and grid-scale storage. Pinning down one of the possible explanations for HTS—fleeting fluctuations called charge-density waves (CDWs)—could help solve the mystery and pave the way for rapid technological advances. http://phys.org/news280917160.html Physics Sun, 24 Feb 2013 13:00:26 EST news280917160 Using the geometric and material properties of a unique nanostructure, Boston College researchers have uncovered a novel photonic effect where surface plasmons interact with light to form "plasmonic halos" of selectable output color. The findings appear in the journal Nano Letters. http://phys.org/news279471212.html Nanotechnology Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:53:38 EST news279471212 A thread of research pursued in a pan-European collaboration lead by Aalto University Department of Applied Physics scientists has yielded prominent results for the electron microscopy of nitrogen-doped graphene and carbon nanotubes. http://phys.org/news269767203.html Nanotechnology Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:20:17 EST news269767203 A Princeton University-led team of scientists has shown how electrons moving in certain solids can behave as though they are a thousand times more massive than free electrons, yet at the same time act as speedy superconductors. http://phys.org/news258826878.html Physics Wed, 13 Jun 2012 17:21:46 EST news258826878 The alphabet of data processing could include more elements than the "0" and "1" in future. An international research team has achieved a new kind of bit with single electrons, called quantum bits, or qubits. With them, considerably more than two states can be defined. So far, quantum bits have only existed in relatively large vacuum chambers. The team has now generated them in semiconductors. http://phys.org/news251554744.html Physics Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:19:14 EST news251554744 Researchers at the University of Sheffield have revolutionised the electron microscope by developing a new method which could create the highest resolution images ever seen. http://phys.org/news250170225.html Physics Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:44:00 EST news250170225 University of Illinois physicists have experimentally demonstrated for the first time how three-dimensional conduction is affected by the defects that plague materials. Understanding these effects is important for many electronics applications. http://phys.org/news237222842.html Physics Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:14:17 EST news237222842 (PhysOrg.com) -- Electron microscopes are among the most widely used scientific and medical tools for studying and understanding a wide range of materials, from biological tissue to miniature magnetic devices, at tiny levels of detail. Now, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have found a novel and potentially widely applicable method to expand the capabilities of conventional transmission electron microscopes (TEMs). Passing electrons through a nanometer-scale grating, the scientists imparted the resulting electron waves with so much orbital momentum that they maintained a corkscrew shape in free space. http://phys.org/news214408878.html Physics Sun, 16 Jan 2011 14:03:11 EST news214408878 An emerging field with the tongue-twisting name of "optofluidic plasmonics" promises a new way to detect and analyze biological molecules for drug discovery, medical diagnostics, and the detection of biochemical weapons. Investigators at the University of California, San Diego led by Yeshaiahu Fainman have succeeded in merging a microfluidics system with plasmonics -- sometimes called "light on a wire" -- onto a single platform. Plasmonics is based on electron waves on a metal surface excited by incoming light waves. http://phys.org/news206944069.html Physics Fri, 22 Oct 2010 06:00:01 EST news206944069 (PhysOrg.com) -- Just as the heartbeats of today's electronic devices depend on the ability to switch the flow of electricity in semiconductors on and off with lightning speed, the viability of the "spintronic" devices of the future -- technologies that manipulate both the flow and magnetic "spin" of electrons -- will require similarly precise control over semiconductor magnetism. http://phys.org/news184602542.html Physics Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:29:44 EST news184602542 (PhysOrg.com) -- There's nothing University of Nebraska-Lincoln physicist Herman Batelaan likes more than a challenge. And there are few areas of science more challenging than working at the sub-atomic, or quantum, world, where the laws of physics are different from those of our macro world. http://phys.org/news172919873.html Physics Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:18:51 EST news172919873