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. (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists in China have succeeded in teleporting information between photons further than ever before. They transported quantum information over a free space distance of 16 km (10 miles), much further than the few hundred meters previously achieved, which brings us closer to transmitting information over long distances without the need for a traditional signal. http://phys.org/news193551675.html Physics Thu, 20 May 2010 06:54:39 EST news193551675 (PhysOrg.com) -- A collaboration between the Advanced Photon Source and Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne National Laboratory has "seen" the crystallization of nanoparticles in unprecedented detail. http://phys.org/news193058818.html Nanotechnology Fri, 14 May 2010 12:29:09 EST news193058818 (PhysOrg.com) -- Phar Lap was a legendary racehorse that won many notable races. After its triumph in the famous Agua Caliente Handicap in 1932 in Mexico, the animal died in agony under mysterious circumstances while on tour in the USA. One of the suggestions at the time was that Phar Lap had been poisoned. http://phys.org/news192178886.html Chemistry Tue, 04 May 2010 08:01:49 EST news192178886 Advances in energy conservation, better materials for frontier technologies and new economic engines, and breakthroughs in understanding diseases: These are just a few of the potential discoveries, both basic and applied, to be enabled by an upgrade to the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory. DOE today announced formal approval for conceptual design of the APS upgrade, the first in a series of major milestones that the project must meet under DOE's project management regimen. http://phys.org/news192110702.html Physics Mon, 03 May 2010 13:05:18 EST news192110702 (PhysOrg.com) -- Our senses are essential for survival and for the exploration of natural environments, and much has been learned about the molecular basis of vision, olfaction, and taste. Yet only a few of the molecules mediating touch and sound perception have been discovered. http://phys.org/news191525518.html Chemistry Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:20:01 EST news191525518 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have developed the world's most efficient single photon detector, which is able to count individual particles of light traveling through fiber optic cables with roughly 99 percent efficiency. The team’s efforts could bring improvements to secure electronic communication, advanced quantum computation and the measurement of optical power. http://phys.org/news190484122.html Physics Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:30:01 EST news190484122 (PhysOrg.com) -- Experiments can sometimes lead to the discovery of completely unanticipated phenomena. Such is the case with the remarkable behavior exhibited by peptide nanostructures (in the form of supramolecular filaments) observed during experiments carried out by researchers from Northwestern University at beamline 5-ID of the DuPont-Northwestern-Dow Collaborative Access Team (DND-CAT) Synchrotron Research Center at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory. http://phys.org/news189972261.html Nanotechnology Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:05:02 EST news189972261 Rainer Blatt's and Piet Schmidt's research team from the University of Innsbruck have successfully realized a single-atom laser, which shows the properties of a classical laser as well as quantum mechanical properties of the atom-photon interaction. The scientists have published their findings in the journal Nature Physics. http://phys.org/news189248689.html Physics Wed, 31 Mar 2010 10:05:17 EST news189248689 Three new complementary research projects will turn carbon from a pollutant into useful products that could help both industry and the environment. http://phys.org/news188577599.html Nanotechnology Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:40:37 EST news188577599 (PhysOrg.com) -- At very cold temperatures, in the absence of light, a photomultiplier will spontaneously emit single electrons. The phenomenon, which is called "cryogenic electron emission," was first observed nearly 50 years ago. Although scientists know of a few causes for electron emission without light (also called the dark rate) - including heat, an electric field, and ionizing radiation - none of these can account for cryogenic emission. Usually, physicists consider these dark electron events undesirable, since the purpose of a photomultiplier is to detect photons by producing respective electrons as a result of the photoelectric effect. http://phys.org/news187421719.html Physics Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:30:02 EST news187421719 (PhysOrg.com) -- One of the issues associated with quantum information schemes revolves around the ability to develop quantum memories that allow for the retrieval of information on demand. Overcoming this issue is especially important for the advancement of long distance telecommunications. In order to use quantum means to send information over long distance, it is necessary to implement quantum repeaters so that data is not destroyed due to the absorption loss in optical fibers. http://phys.org/news187257862.html Physics Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:20:01 EST news187257862 Nuclear physics, which studies the huge variety of nuclei in all the matter that surrounds us, not only provides answers about the evolution of our universe, it also provides the underpinning knowledge needed to exploit nuclear properties in new technologies. http://phys.org/news185804594.html Physics Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:40:01 EST news185804594 Research presented in a paper by Morgan McGuire, assistant professor of computer science at Williams College, and co-author Dr. David Luebke of NVIDIA, introduces a new algorithm to improve computer graphics for video games. http://phys.org/news185723014.html Technology Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:44:00 EST news185723014 (PhysOrg.com) -- When it comes to squeezing hydrogen out of ammonia borane, the packaging matters, according to scientists from three national labs. Ammonia borane releases hydrogen with heating by a multi-step reaction, but the nominal heating required to release that hydrogen requires additional energy, decreasing the overall efficiency. The scientists found that less heat is needed to free the hydrogen when the ammonia borane is confined in a mesoporous form of silica. http://phys.org/news185206084.html Chemistry Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:10:07 EST news185206084 By creating diamond-based nanowire devices, a team at Harvard has taken another step towards making applications based on quantum science and technology possible. http://phys.org/news185372725.html Nanotechnology Sun, 14 Feb 2010 13:00:08 EST news185372725 While many of us enjoyed constructing little houses out of toy bricks when we were kids, this task is much more difficult if bricks are elementary particles. It is even harder if these are particles of light - photons, which can only exist while flying at an incredible speed and vanish if they touch anything. http://phys.org/news185372336.html Physics Sun, 14 Feb 2010 13:00:04 EST news185372336 Researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), a collaboration of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Maryland at College Park, can speed up photons (particles of light) to seemingly faster-than-light speeds through a stack of materials by adding a single, strategically placed layer. This experimental demonstration confirms intriguing quantum-physics predictions that light's transit time through complex multilayered materials need not depend on thickness, as it does for simple materials such as glass, but rather on the order in which the layers are stacked. This is the first published study of this dependence with single photons. http://phys.org/news183752006.html Physics Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:14:03 EST news183752006 Physicists have finally managed to demonstrate quantum entanglement of spatially separated electrons in solid state circuitry. http://phys.org/news182430388.html Physics Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:07:07 EST news182430388 Research presented in a paper by Morgan McGuire, assistant professor of computer science at Williams College, and co-author Dr. David Luebke of NVIDIA, introduces a new algorithm to improve computer graphics for video games. http://phys.org/news180705224.html Technology Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:10:01 EST news180705224 Using a microscope the size of a football field, researchers from The University of Western Ontario are studying why some insects can survive freezing, while others cannot. http://phys.org/news180350816.html Biology Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:27:47 EST news180350816 To exploit the quantum world to the fullest, a key commodity is entanglement—the spooky, distance-defying link that can form between objects such as atoms even when they are completely shielded from one another. Now, physicists at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), a collaborative organization of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Maryland, have developed a promising new source of entangled photons using quantum dots tweaked with a laser. The JQI technique may someday enable more compact and convenient sources of entangled photon pairs than presently available for quantum information applications such as the distribution of "quantum keys" for encrypting sensitive messages. http://phys.org/news177763808.html Physics Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:50:39 EST news177763808 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have refined a technique to manufacture solar cells by creating tubes of semiconducting material and then "growing" polymers directly inside them. The method has the potential to be significantly cheaper than the process used to make today’s commercial solar cells. http://phys.org/news177092235.html Nanotechnology Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:17:54 EST news177092235 (AP) -- Four years after its first solar sail ended up in the ocean instead of orbit, The Planetary Society announced Monday that by the end of 2010 it will try again to launch a spacecraft that will be propelled by the subtle pressure of sunlight. http://phys.org/news177020675.html Space & Earth Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:00:01 EST news177020675 Collaborative users from the Advanced Photon Source at the Argonne National Laboratory, working with the Electronic & Magnetic Materials & Devices Group, have found a controllable way to modify the surfaces of pristine Nb-doped SrTiO3 (Nb:STO) at the nanoscale. http://phys.org/news176573506.html Nanotechnology Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:30:03 EST news176573506 (PhysOrg.com) -- Many scientists believe that quantum entanglement is required in order for effective quantum computing. Entanglement takes place when there is a connection that exists between two objects - even when they are spatially separated - that allows what happens to one to happen to the other. The link is such that each entangled object cannot be adequately described without its counterpart. So far, entangling qubits for practical use has been difficult, since scientists want to be able to entangle several qubits at once. http://phys.org/news176364815.html Physics Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:20:01 EST news176364815 Racing across the universe for the last 7.3 billion years, two gamma-ray photons arrived at NASA's orbiting Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope within nine-tenths of a second of one another. The dead-heat finish may stoke the fires of debate among physicists over Einstein's special theory of relativity because one of the photons possessed a million times more energy than the other. http://phys.org/news175965994.html Physics Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:27:56 EST news175965994 During its first year of operations, NASA's Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope mapped the extreme sky with unprecedented resolution and sensitivity. It captured more than one thousand discrete sources of gamma rays -- the highest-energy form of light. Capping these achievements was a measurement that provided rare experimental evidence about the very structure of space and time, unified as space-time in Einstein's theories. http://phys.org/news175961092.html Space & Earth Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:06:24 EST news175961092 (PhysOrg.com) -- European researchers have created a world-leading camera in CMOS that can record photons at a million times a second. Best of all, it will be really cheap to manufacture, offering applications in consumer products, entertainment and in-car safety systems. http://phys.org/news174731021.html Technology Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:24:11 EST news174731021 Clemson University researchers in collaboration with researchers at the University of Bremen, Germany, are working to make the physical pain and discomfort of mammograms a thing of the past, while allowing for diagnostic imaging eventually to be done in a home setting. http://phys.org/news174063465.html Medicine & Health Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:00:04 EST news174063465 Exploiting quantum mechanics for transmitting information is a tantalizing possibility because it promises secure, high speed communications. Unfortunately, the fragility of methods for storing and sending quantum information has so far frustrated the enterprise. Now a team of physicists in Sweden and Poland have shown that photons that encode data have strength in numbers. Their experiment is reported in Physical Review Letters and Physical Review A and highlighted in the October 5 issue of Physics. http://phys.org/news173964594.html Physics Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:30:22 EST news173964594