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. New research shows that the speed of light may not be fixed after all, but rather fluctuates. http://phys.org/news283417026.html Physics Mon, 25 Mar 2013 07:57:12 EST news283417026 Physicists said Thursday they are now confident they have discovered a crucial subatomic particle known as a Higgs boson—a major discovery that will go a long ways toward helping them explain why the universe is the way it is. http://phys.org/news282464590.html Physics Thu, 14 Mar 2013 07:23:54 EST news282464590 Life as we know it is based upon the elements of carbon and oxygen. Now a team of physicists, including one from North Carolina State University, is looking at the conditions necessary to the formation of those two elements in the universe. They've found that when it comes to supporting life, the universe leaves very little margin for error. http://phys.org/news282413646.html Physics Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:14:19 EST news282413646 Farmers treat seeds chemically in order to rid them of pest infestation. Now researchers have developed a method that kills pathogens without harming the environment. Pioneering seed suppliers are already implementing the procedure commercially. http://phys.org/news279290922.html Biology Tue, 05 Feb 2013 12:51:35 EST news279290922 The electron is found in every atom and plays a key role in almost every chemical reaction. So, a complete understanding of its physical properties is vital. Researchers from the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science, together with their colleagues from Nagoya University, Japan, and Cornell University in the US, have completed the most precise calculations of the magnetic properties of the electron and a similar, heavier particle known as a muon. These results provide a stringent test of physicists' understanding of the subatomic world. http://phys.org/news277113168.html Physics Fri, 11 Jan 2013 07:52:57 EST news277113168 Amongst all known elementary particles, the top quark is peculiar: weighing as much as a Tungsten atom, it completes the so-called 3rd generation of quarks and is the only quark whose properties can be directly measured. Owing to its mass, the top quark is unstable and, in CMS, decays much before it can interact with the proton remnants through the strong interaction and form hadrons (the bound states of quarks). It decays mostly to a W boson and a bottom (b) quark, and can therefore be identified from final states which involve the complete usage of the CMS detector; electrons, muons, jets, missing transverse energy—almost all particles or experimental signatures one can think of may be produced in top-quark events. http://phys.org/news271323678.html Physics Mon, 05 Nov 2012 07:41:34 EST news271323678 For the past month the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) has sponsored a website allowing visitors to vote for the topic they believe will capture this year's Nobel Prize for physics. The site offered 14 Nobel-worthy topics and some representative names to go with each topic. A total of 350 votes were cast in the JQI poll, and the results are enumerated below. http://phys.org/news268373956.html Physics Tue, 02 Oct 2012 05:19:35 EST news268373956 (Phys.org)—No one has ever definitively observed a magnetic monopole, the hypothetical fundamental particle that has only a north or south magnetic pole, but not both like normal magnets do. However, scientists have observed a few types of monopole analogues – objects sometimes described as "quasiparticles" that behave like magnetic monopoles but don't meet all the requirements to be one – such as excitations in spin-ice crystals and in one-dimensional magnetic nanowires. Now in a new study, scientists have observed a new type of monopole analogue in the form of tiny defects that arise in quantum states of matter called Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). The discovery could help scientists better understand the fundamental nature of magnetism and may also lead to novel devices such as magnetronic circuits. http://phys.org/news266642937.html Physics Wed, 12 Sep 2012 08:20:01 EST news266642937 (Phys.org)—An electron, as well as other subatomic particles with an electric charge, is actually a little magnet—it spins like a top, giving it its own magnetic moment. http://phys.org/news266560120.html Physics Tue, 11 Sep 2012 05:28:54 EST news266560120 The announcement two months ago that physicists have discovered a particle consistent with the famous Higgs boson cleared a formal hurdle on Monday with publication in a peer-reviewed journal. http://phys.org/news266483848.html Physics Mon, 10 Sep 2012 08:17:46 EST news266483848 (Phys.org)—Today, technicians in Minnesota will begin to position the first block of a detector that will be part of the largest, most advanced neutrino experiment in North America. http://phys.org/news266164456.html Physics Thu, 06 Sep 2012 15:35:13 EST news266164456 Elementary particles have a property called "spin" that can be thought of as rotation around their axes. In work reported this week in the journal Physical Review Letters, MIT physicists have imposed a stringent set of traffic rules on atomic particles in a gas: Those spinning clockwise can move in only one direction, while those spinning counterclockwise can move only in the other direction. http://phys.org/news265551807.html Physics Thu, 30 Aug 2012 13:23:55 EST news265551807 A constant shower of subatomic particles rains down from space. A hundred years ago, this "cosmic radiation" was discovered by the Austrian physicist Victor Franz Hess. Among other things, the discovery laid the foundation for a whole new field of research: high energy physics - which recently gave us, for instance, the first experimental evidence for the Higgs boson. An anniversary conference looks at the past milestones of cosmic ray research and at future experiments. http://phys.org/news262971504.html Physics Tue, 31 Jul 2012 16:38:34 EST news262971504 (Phys.org) -- If you’re a little confused by the news that scientists at the European Organization  for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN, may have found the Higgs boson, you’re  probably not alone. Theoretical particle physics isn’t the easiest topic to understand. http://phys.org/news261650980.html Physics Mon, 16 Jul 2012 09:49:59 EST news261650980 Neutrinos are neutral elementary particles created by nuclear reactions such as those in our Sun and other stars. EU researchers sought to advance our understanding of their interactions in deep space with new mathematical models and signal detection methods. http://phys.org/news258192877.html Physics Wed, 06 Jun 2012 09:14:44 EST news258192877 In the biggest result of its kind in more than ten years, physicists have made the most sensitive measurements yet in a decades-long hunt for a hypothetical and rare process involving the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. http://phys.org/news258036635.html Physics Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:00:01 EST news258036635 (Phys.org) -- So far, astrophysicists thought that super-massive black holes can only influence their immediate surroundings. A collaboration of scientists at the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS) and in Canada and the US now discovered that diffuse gas in the universe can absorb luminous gamma-ray emission from black holes, heating it up strongly. This surprising result has important implications for the formation of structures in the universe. The results have just been published in The Astrophysical Journal and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. http://phys.org/news256318886.html Space & Earth Tue, 15 May 2012 16:41:51 EST news256318886 (Phys.org) -- Researchers working out of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have constructed a device that appears to offer some evidence of the existence of Majorana fermions; the elusive particles that are thought to be their own antiparticles. The team, as they describe in their paper published in Science, created a device with a topological superconductor that was also able to measure the relationship between current and voltage at significant points on a nanowire which when in the presence of a magnetic field or electrical current, indicated the existence of Majorana fermions. http://phys.org/news253519905.html Physics Fri, 13 Apr 2012 07:12:18 EST news253519905 Using particles from space to look into the heart of nuclear reactors - this is the goal of researchers at Nagoya University. http://phys.org/news245338712.html Technology Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:00:01 EST news245338712 A group of three researchers from KEK, Shizuoka University and Osaka University has for the first time revealed the way our universe was born with 3 spatial dimensions from 10-dimensional superstring theory in which spacetime has 9 spatial directions and 1 temporal direction. This result was obtained by numerical simulation on a supercomputer. http://phys.org/news243858352.html Physics Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:26:15 EST news243858352 Yesterday physicists in Europe reported possible signs of the Higgs boson, a missing piece in the particle-physics puzzle long suspected of giving elementary particles -- such as electrons and quarks -- their mass. http://phys.org/news243069906.html Physics Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:40:01 EST news243069906 Brown University physicists have set the strongest limit for the mass of dark matter, the mysterious particles believed to make up nearly a quarter of the universe. The researchers report in Physical Review Letters that dark matter must have a mass greater than 40 giga-electron volts. The distinction is important because it casts doubt on recent results from underground experiments that have reported detecting dark matter. http://phys.org/news241276015.html Physics Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:07:06 EST news241276015 (PhysOrg.com) -- The Universe wouldn't be the same without the Higgs boson. This legendary particle plays a role in cosmology and reveals the possible existence of another closely related particle. http://phys.org/news235809985.html Physics Wed, 21 Sep 2011 07:46:54 EST news235809985 The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment has begun its quest to answer some of the most puzzling questions about the elusive elementary particles known as neutrinos. The experiment’s first completed set of twin detectors is now recording interactions of antineutrinos (antipartners of neutrinos) as they travel away from the powerful reactors of the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group in southern China. http://phys.org/news232616980.html Physics Mon, 15 Aug 2011 08:49:54 EST news232616980 Nearly half of the Earth's heat comes from the radioactive decay of materials inside, according to a large international research collaboration that includes a Kansas State University physicist. http://phys.org/news231506652.html Space & Earth Tue, 02 Aug 2011 13:00:44 EST news231506652 Experiments at the world's biggest atom smasher have yielded tantalising hints that a long-sought sub-atomic particle truly exists, with final proof likely by late 2012, physicists said Monday. http://phys.org/news230818080.html Physics Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:08:13 EST news230818080 (PhysOrg.com) -- The nucleus of an atom, like most everything else, is more complicated than we first thought. Just how much more complicated is the subject of a Petascale Early Science project led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory's David Dean. http://phys.org/news229749340.html Physics Wed, 13 Jul 2011 04:17:58 EST news229749340 By shooting a beam of neutrinos through a small slice of the Earth under Japan, physicists say they've caught the particles changing their stripes in new ways. These observations may one day help explain why the universe is made of matter rather than anti-matter. http://phys.org/news227353614.html Physics Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:47:09 EST news227353614 (PhysOrg.com) -- As the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) ramps up the rate and impact of its collisions, physicists hope to witness the emergence of the Higgs boson, an anticipated, but as-yet-unseen, fundamental particle that scientists believe gives mass to matter. http://phys.org/news223899549.html Physics Fri, 06 May 2011 12:10:05 EST news223899549 (PhysOrg.com) -- In the early 20th century, two famous discoveries about spin were made. One of them, discovered by Albert Einstein and Wander Johannes de Haas, explains a relationship between the spin of elementary particles. They found a relationship between magnetism and angular momentum. (Around that time, Einstein also put forth his theory of general relativity.) A little more than a decade later, Paul Dirac unveiled his equation dealing with a relativistic quantum mechanical wave, providing an explanation of electrons as elementary spin-1/2 particles. http://phys.org/news218363088.html Physics Thu, 03 Mar 2011 08:25:06 EST news218363088