http://phys.org/physics-news/ en-us PhysOrg Team Phys.org provides the latest news on physics, materials, nanotech, science and technology. Updated Daily. Scientists have developed an X-ray imaging method that could drastically improve the contrast of computed tomography (CT) scans whilst reducing the radiation dose deposited during the scan. The new method is based on the combination of the high contrast obtained by an X-ray technique known as grating interferometry with the three-dimensional capabilities of CT. It is also compatible with clinical CT apparatus, where an X-ray source and detector rotate continuously around the patient during the scan. The results are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) dated June 4-8, 2012. http://phys.org/news258036502.html Physics 2012-06-04T15:00:10-07:00 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 2012-06-04T14:00:01-07:00 Researchers from the Institute of Materials Structure Science at KEK and RIKEN discovered a new phenomenon, “electronic ferroelectricity,” through electric polarization measurements and synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiments. http://phys.org/news258019077.html Physics 2012-06-04T08:58:13-07:00 (Phys.org) -- In the centennial year of Max von Laue’s discovery that X-ray diffraction can be used to unravel the atomic architecture of molecules, a new approach to the determination of high-resolution structures has been demonstrated. An international team of researchers has analyzed tiny protein crystals using short pulses of X-ray light from the world’s first hard X-ray free-electron laser, the US Department of Energy’s 300 million dollar Linac Coherent Light Source at Stanford. The study demonstrates the immense potential of free-electron lasers for obtaining the structures of macromolecules from tiny crystals when illuminated with the blazing intensity of the ultrashort free-electron laser X-ray pulses, even though the crystals are destroyed in the process. In the current study, their structural analysis reveals details with a spatial resolution of 0.2 millionth of a millimeter. http://phys.org/news257763759.html Physics 2012-06-01T10:02:50-07:00 (Phys.org) -- Quantum computers are still years away, but a trio of theorists has already figured out at least one talent they may have. According to the theorists, including one from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), physicists might one day use quantum computers to study the inner workings of the universe in ways that are far beyond the reach of even the most powerful conventional supercomputers. http://phys.org/news257758899.html Physics 2012-06-01T08:41:50-07:00 (Phys.org) -- A European team of physicists has bested the record set by a team of Chinese researchers last month for distance in teleporting quantum bits (qubits). Where the Chinese team accomplished their feat by teleporting photons across a lake, the European team did so by performing the same feat across the ocean between two islands off the coast of Africa. It was apparently no easy feat as the team describes in the paper they’ve written and uploaded to the preprint server arXiv; they had so much foul weather to contend with that their experiment took nearly a year to complete. The record breaking distance by the Chinese team was close to 100 kilometers. The Europeans bested that mark by almost fifty kilometers, setting up a possible rivalry between the two teams to see which might be the first to successfully teleport a qubit to an orbiting satellite. http://phys.org/news257758516.html Physics 2012-06-01T08:35:33-07:00 (Phys.org) -- Whether the Higgs boson exists could be settled by the end of summer, say University of Michigan physicists involved in the search for the missing piece of particle physics' Standard Model. http://phys.org/news257757517.html Physics 2012-06-01T08:20:51-07:00 In this month's Physics World, Sidney Perkowitz, Candler Professor of Physics Emeritus at Emory University, explains how applied physics led to the innovation of flameless cooking in the late 19th century and addresses the challenge of feeding a rapidly growing population in a cleaner, more efficient way. http://phys.org/news257743170.html Physics 2012-06-01T04:22:02-07:00 An international team led by SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has proved how the world's most powerful X-ray laser can assist in cracking the structures of biomolecules, and in the processes helped to pioneer critical new investigative avenues in biology. http://phys.org/news257689199.html Physics 2012-05-31T14:00:16-07:00 Superconductivity, in which electric current flows without resistance, promises huge energy savings – from low-voltage electric grids with no transmission losses, superefficient motors and generators, and myriad other schemes. But such everyday applications still lie in the future, because conventional superconductivity in metals can't do the job. http://phys.org/news257689393.html Physics 2012-05-31T14:00:13-07:00 If the sight of a needle makes you squeamish, researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology are developing a new optical microscope for viewing blood cells that could do away with conventional blood tests. The device, in an early prototype stage, would make it possible to collect vital blood information by simply shining a light through the skin to look directly at the blood. The microscope’s benefits are manifold. Information is read immediately -- eliminating the waiting time for test results, and leading to earlier diagnoses. The microscope is widely accessible because it does not rely on medical labs to decipher the results. And crucial for the faint of heart – the 30-second procedure eliminates the use of needles. http://phys.org/news257674405.html Physics 2012-05-31T10:00:01-07:00 (Phys.org) -- High-temperature superconductivity doesn't happen all it once. It starts in isolated nanoscale patches that gradually expand until they take over. http://phys.org/news257663971.html Physics 2012-05-31T06:19:54-07:00 (Phys.org) -- One of the main sticking points to creating a true quantum computer capable of performing meaningful work, is the problem of storing quantum state information in memory. Recent efforts have resulted in highly efficient memory that lasted only a short time or low efficient memory that lasts longer. Now, a combined group of two teams, one from China and one from Germany, have come up with a way that appears to offer the best of both worlds. As they describe in their paper published in the journal Nature Physics, they found that they were able to store quantum information in atomic spin waves. http://phys.org/news257589516.html Physics 2012-05-30T09:38:46-07:00 European researchers have made important advances in understanding the major stumbling block to realisation of quantum computers, a phenomenon known as decoherence. http://phys.org/news257588448.html Physics 2012-05-30T09:20:55-07:00 While SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source was designed to push the limits as a high-energy X-ray laser, users' requests have led staff at the facility to successfully step it back to a lower minimum energy for some experiments. http://phys.org/news257585745.html Physics 2012-05-30T09:00:02-07:00 (AP) — Nestled nearly 5,000 feet beneath the earth in the gold boom town of Lead, S.D., is a laboratory that could help scientists answer some pretty heavy questions about life, its origins and the universe. http://phys.org/news257574193.html Physics 2012-05-30T05:40:01-07:00 The widely-held belief that moisture in the air during humid conditions helps make a cricket ball swing has been clean bowled in a scientific study. http://phys.org/news257570329.html Physics 2012-05-30T04:19:06-07:00 The storage of light-encoded messages on film and compact disks and as holograms is ubiquitous---grocery scanners, Netflix disks, credit-card images are just a few examples. And now light signals can be stored as patterns in a room-temperature vapor of atoms. Scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute have stored not one but two letters of the alphabet in a tiny cell filled with rubidium (Rb) atoms which are tailored to absorb and later re-emit messages on demand. This is the first time two images have simultaneously been reliably stored in a non-solid medium and then played back. http://phys.org/news257521254.html Physics 2012-05-29T14:42:03-07:00 (Phys.org) -- Why do the bubbles in a glass of stout beer such as Guinness sink while the beer is settling, even though the bubbles are lighter than the surrounding liquid? That’s been a puzzling question until now, as a team of mathematicians from the University of Limerick has shown that the sinking bubbles result from the shape of a pint glass, which narrows downwards and causes a circulation pattern that drives both fluid and bubbles downwards at the wall of the glass. So it’s not just the bubbles themselves that are sinking (in fact, they're still trying to rise), but the entire fluid is sinking and pulling the bubbles down with it. http://phys.org/news257510798.html Physics 2012-05-29T11:46:54-07:00 Friction is a key phenomenon in applied physics, whose origin has been studied for centuries. Until now, it has been understood that mechanical wear-resistance and fluid lubrication affect friction, but the fundamental origin of sliding friction has been unknown. http://phys.org/news257503639.html Physics 2012-05-29T09:49:17-07:00 NPL scientists have made the first measurements of airborne acoustic free-field pressures using a laser technique based on photon correlation spectroscopy. http://phys.org/news257496263.html Physics 2012-05-29T07:45:43-07:00 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 2012-05-28T15:00:01-07:00 (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 2012-05-28T07:25:42-07:00 (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 2012-05-25T08:21:53-07:00 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 2012-05-24T19:00:01-07:00 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 2012-05-24T18:10:01-07:00 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 2012-05-24T17:43:46-07:00 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 2012-05-24T12:07:27-07:00 (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 2012-05-24T09:50:01-07:00 '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 2012-05-24T09:20:01-07:00