Slow electrons to combat cancer

Ion beams are often used today in cancer treatment: this involves electrically charged atoms being fired at the tumour to destroy cancer cells. Although, it's not actually the ions themselves that cause the decisive damage. ...

Lithium fluoride crystals 'see' heavy ions with high energies

Lithium fluoride crystals have recently been used to register the tracks of nuclear particles. Physicists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow have just demonstrated that these ...

Electron bunches keep ions cool at RHIC

Accelerator physicists have demonstrated a groundbreaking technique using bunches of electrons to keep beams of particles cool at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)—a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science ...

Next up: Ultracold simulators of super-dense stars

Rice University physicists have created the world's first laser-cooled neutral plasma, completing a 20-year quest that sets the stage for simulators that re-create exotic states of matter found inside Jupiter and white dwarf ...

System monitors radiation damage to materials in real-time

In order to evaluate a material's ability to withstand the high-radiation environment inside a nuclear reactor, researchers have traditionally used a method known as "cook and look," meaning the material is exposed to high ...

Using water molecules to unlock neurons' secrets

Neurons are brain cells that communicate with each other by sending electrochemical signals along axons. When a neuron is about to release a signal in the form of an electric charge, it allows ions to pass through its membrane ...

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