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. An international team of scientists has shed new light on a fundamental area of physics which could have important implications for future electronic devices and the transfer of information at the quantum level. http://phys.org/news285925816.html Physics Tue, 23 Apr 2013 08:50:28 EST news285925816 A team led by the Austrian physicist Anton Zeilinger has carried out an experiment with photons, in which they have closed an important loophole. The researchers have thus provided the most complete experimental proof that the quantum world is in conflict with our everyday experience. The results of this study appear this week in the renowned journal Nature. http://phys.org/news285233096.html Physics Mon, 15 Apr 2013 08:25:06 EST news285233096 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 (Phys.org)—Exciting the atoms or molecules of a substance via the use of visible light, or photoexcitation, can play a significant role in a range of energy-conversion processes, such as natural photosynthesis (oxygen from water) and manmade solar cells (electricity from sunlight). But a better understanding of the photoexcitation process is necessary in order to fully exploit this potential resource. Researchers from Argonne National Laboratory and Northern Illinois University have shown that the ultrafast x-ray spectroscopy technique employed at a high-brightness x-ray light source such as the Argonne Advanced Photon Source can produce valuable new information about the physics underlying photoexcitation. http://phys.org/news279794947.html Physics Mon, 11 Feb 2013 09:00:02 EST news279794947 (Phys.org)—Although quantum theory can explain three of the four forces in nature, scientists currently rely on general relativity to explain the fourth force, gravity. However, no one is quite sure of how gravity works at very short distances, in particular the shortest distance of all: the Planck length, or 10-35 m. So far, the smallest distance accessible in experiments is about 10-19 m at the LHC. http://phys.org/news269510423.html Physics Mon, 15 Oct 2012 09:30:01 EST news269510423 Many quantum technologies—such as cryptography, quantum computing and quantum networks—hinge on the use of single photons. While she was at the Kastler Brossel Laboratory (affiliated with the Pierre and Marie Curie University, École Normale Supérieure and CNRS) in Paris, France, Virginia d'Auria and her colleagues identified the extent to which photon detector characteristics shape the preparation of a photon source designed to reliably generate single photons. In a paper about to be published in European Physical Journal D, the French team determined the value of key source parameters that are necessary to generate high-fidelity single photons. http://phys.org/news268568825.html Physics Thu, 04 Oct 2012 11:28:04 EST news268568825 Electronic devices and their components are getting smaller and smaller. Through his doctoral research at the Department of Applied Physics in Aalto University, Tomi Ruokola has examined how the heat generated by electronic components could be controlled and utilised. http://phys.org/news265442923.html Nanotechnology Wed, 29 Aug 2012 07:08:51 EST news265442923 (Phys.org) -- In the early days of chemistry, finding out what happened when two or more chemicals were mixed together led to the development of all manner of new materials and to deriving useful events, such as the production of heat or light, or things exploding. As the science progressed however, researchers found they wanted to know more about what really goes on when chemicals react, but were unable to find out due to the massive number of interactions that occur during even the most ordinary chemical reactions. Nowadays, researchers want to delve even deeper, to discover what goes on at the quantum level. To that end, a team working at the Cavendish laboratory in Cambridge, UK has developed a way to monitor and control one of the most basic chemical reactions, the meeting of two dissimilar individual atoms. In their paper published in Nature Physics they describe how they were able to do so by setting up special experiments in a cold environment using a laser. http://phys.org/news262418626.html Physics Wed, 25 Jul 2012 07:04:00 EST news262418626 (Phys.org) -- Within the exotic world of macroscopic quantum effects, where fluids flow uphill, wires conduct without electrical resistance and magnets levitate, there is an even stranger family of "unconventional" phenomena. These effects often defy explanation by current theoretical physics, but hold enormous promise for the development of such futuristic technologies as room-temperature superconductors, ultrasensitive microscopes and quantum computation. http://phys.org/news258176458.html Physics Wed, 06 Jun 2012 04:41:19 EST news258176458 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 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of Notre Dame and Pennsylvania State University have announced breakthroughs in the development of tunneling field effect transistors (TFETs), a semiconductor technology that takes advantage of the quirky behavior of electrons at the quantum level. http://phys.org/news251998197.html Nanotechnology Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:30:23 EST news251998197 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Finnish physicists has developed a novel way to amplify a microwave signal that unlike other amplifiers, produces noise that is just barely above that which is necessary due to the laws of quantum mechanics. The team, as they describe in their paper published in Nature, use a microwave cavity and a mechanical resonator to amplify a signal by 25 decibels while introducing a noise that is just 20 times the quantum limit. http://phys.org/news243165955.html Physics Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:06:10 EST news243165955 (PhysOrg.com) -- Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics scientists generate amplitude-squeezed light fields using single atoms trapped inside optical cavities. http://phys.org/news228643332.html Physics Thu, 30 Jun 2011 09:02:53 EST news228643332 (PhysOrg.com) -- Did you know that the humble robin uses quantum physics? http://phys.org/news214836535.html Physics Fri, 21 Jan 2011 12:49:18 EST news214836535 (PhysOrg.com) -- "One of the things we have been studying is how the world works on a really small scale," Bruno Sanguinetti, a scientist at the University of Geneva in Switzerland tells PhysOrg.com. "At the quantum level, the world can behave in ways that are far from our everyday experience. For example, information at the quantum level cannot be copied exactly." This is different, he continues, from the ease with which we can copy information in the classical regime. http://phys.org/news202368182.html Physics Mon, 30 Aug 2010 07:30:01 EST news202368182 At the quantum level, the forces of magnetism and superconductivity exist in an uneasy relationship. Superconducting materials repel a magnetic field, so to create a superconducting current, the magnetic forces must be strong enough to overcome the natural repulsion and penetrate the body of the superconductor. But there's a limit: Apply too much magnetic force, and the superconductor's capability is destroyed. http://phys.org/news186168291.html Physics Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:25:18 EST news186168291 (PhysOrg.com) -- One of the givens in physics is the weak equivalence principle. This principle has been considered solid since Einstein proposed that it is not possible to detect the difference between uniform acceleration and a uniform static gravitational field. The uniqueness of freefall allows uniform acceleration, even between masses that are different, according to Einstein's postulate in the theory of General Relativity. The weak equivalence principle is well established amongst the science community, but it has yet to be demonstrated completely. This is where Phillippe Bouyer at Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l’Institut d’Optique, Campus Polytechnique in Palaiseau, France, and his colleagues are attempting to go. http://phys.org/news179481148.html Physics Tue, 08 Dec 2009 10:00:01 EST news179481148