(Phys.org) —Photographers rely on precision lenses to generate well-focused and crystal-clear images. These high-quality optics—readily available and produced in huge quantities—are often taken for granted. But as scientists ...
Condensed Matter
Mar 11, 2013
0
0
Researchers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory watched nanoscale semiconductor crystals expand and shrink in response to powerful pulses of laser light. This ultrafast "breathing" provides ...
Nanophysics
Mar 19, 2015
0
2439
The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma Ray Observatory has begun formal operations at its site in Mexico. HAWC is designed to study the origin of very high-energy cosmic rays and observe the most energetic objects ...
Astronomy
Aug 21, 2013
0
0
Coating something rare—tiny shards of diamond—with the main ingredient in sand might sound unusual, but the end result turns out to have a number of valuable applications. The trick is, nobody knows for sure how the two ...
Nanomaterials
Sep 20, 2023
0
177
Ever play with a magnifying lens as a kid? Imagine a lens as big as the Earth. Now focus sunlight down to a pencil tip. That still wouldn't be good enough for what some Texas scientists have in mind. They want to make light ...
General Physics
Jul 11, 2016
5
50
(Phys.org) —Blazars are the brightest of active galactic nuclei, and many emit very high-energy gamma rays. New observations of the blazar known as PKS 1424+240 show that it is the most distant known source of very high-energy ...
Astronomy
Apr 18, 2013
1
0
Two studies published in the February 3 issue of Nature demonstrate how the unique capabilities of the world's first hard X-ray free-electron laser -- the Linac Coherent Light Source, located at the Department of Energy's ...
General Physics
Feb 2, 2011
3
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- A spinning neutron star is tied to a mysterious tail -- or so it seems. Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory found that this pulsar, known as PSR J0357+3205 (or PSR J0357 for short), apparently ...
Astronomy
Aug 18, 2011
34
0
Using ESA's XMM-Newton spacecraft, astronomers have investigated the nature of a peculiar pulsar wind nebula (PWN) in the supernova remnant (SNR) CTB 87. Results of the study, presented in a paper published November 26, shed ...
In 1884, a schoolmaster and theologian named Edwin Abbott wrote a novella called Flatland, which tells the story of a world populated by sentient two-dimensional shapes. While intended as a satire of rigid Victorian social ...
Optics & Photonics
Nov 6, 2019
0
158
