A 'Star Wars' laser bullet

Action-packed science-fiction movies often feature colourful laser bolts. But what would a real laser missile look like during flight, if we could only make it out? How would it illuminate its surroundings? The answers lie ...

Water is surprisingly ordered on the nanoscale

Researchers from AMOLF and Swiss EPFL have shown that the surface of minuscule water drops surrounded by a hydrophobic substance such as oil is surprisingly ordered. At room temperature, the surface water molecules of these ...

An ultrafast microscope for the quantum world

The operation of components for future computers can now be filmed in HD quality, so to speak. Manish Garg and Klaus Kern, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, have developed a microscope ...

Toward achieving megatesla magnetic fields in the laboratory

Recently, a research team at Osaka University has successfully demonstrated the generation of megatesla (MT)-order magnetic fields via three-dimensional particle simulations on laser-matter interaction. The strength of MT ...

Can oil and water mix?

Common experience tells us that oil and water do not mix. Yet, it turns out that they can mix when oil is dispersed as small droplets in water. This strange behavior has long vexed scientists because there is no explanation ...

Researchers visualize quantum effects in electron waves

One of the most fundamental interactions in physics is that of electrons and light. In an experiment at Goethe University Frankfurt, scientists have now managed to observe what is known as the Kapitza-Dirac effect for the ...

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