Rapid cooling of ordinary water or compression of ordinary ice: either of these can transform normal H2O into an exotic substance that resembles glass in its transparency, brittleness, hardness, and luster. Unlike everyday ice, which has a highly organized crystalline structure, this glass-like material's molecules are arranged in a random, disorganized way. Scientists have studied glassy water for decades, but the exact temperature at which water acquires glass-like properties has been the subject of heated debate for years, due to the difficulty of manipulating pure glassy water in laboratories.
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Feed SubscriptionPhysics group corrals record number of neutrons into one place
(PhysOrg.com) -- Neutrons, the particles that along with protons, exist in the nuclei of atoms (except for hydrogen) have been intensely studied ever since their discovery in the 1930s. And while many interesting developments have occurred as a result (fission reactions, etc) physicists have continued to be frustrated in their attempts to get a closer look at them, due to their not having an electric charge which could be used to hold them in place.
Read More »‘Next-generation’ optical tweezers trap tightly without overheating (w/ video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- Engineers at Harvard have created a device that may make it easier to isolate and study tiny particles such as viruses.
Read More »Developing more accurate cold atom accelerometers
For the first time, a team of French physicists, supported by CNES and ESA, has succeeded in developing a vibration-resistant cold atom accelerometer. Tested in parabolic flight, this prototype was able to measure infinitesimal accelerations, which until now was only possible in the laboratory. This could pave the way for the development of portable cold atom accelerometers and thus improved positioning and geological prospecting systems
Read More »Physicists discover ‘magnetotoroidic effect’
(PhysOrg.com) -- For many years, scientists have known about the magnetoelectric effect, in which an electric field can induce and control a magnetic field, and vice versa. In this effect, the electric field has always been homogeneous
Read More »3 Questions: Faster than light?
The news media were abuzz this week with reports of experiments conducted at the Gran Sasso particle detector complex in Italy, apparently showing subatomic particles called neutrinos had traveled from the giant particle accelerator at CERN, outside Geneva, to the Italian detector at a speed just slightly faster than the speed of light -- a result that, if correct, would overturn more than a century of accepted physics theory.
Read More »Tevatron retires: The era of big American physics about to end
The era of big American physics ends Friday with the retirement of the Tevatron particle accelerator, which has been recreating the Big Bang under four miles of Illinois prairie for 25 years.
Read More »Challenging Einstein is usually a losing venture
(AP) -- Betting against Einstein and his theory of relativity is a way to go broke.
Read More »Gee Whizzz! Basics on faster-than-light research
Some questions and answers about the experiment that appeared to show particles speeding faster than light.
Read More »Hints of universal behavior seen in exotic three-atom states
A novel type of inter-particle binding predicted in 1970 and observed for the first time in 2006, is forming the basis for an intriguing kind of ultracold quantum chemistry. Chilled to nano-kelvin temperatures, cesium atoms -- three at a time -- come together to form a bound state hundreds or even thousands of times larger than individual atoms. Unlike the case of ordinary atoms, wherein electrons are bound to a nucleus in a spectrum of energy levels on the order of an electron volt (that is, it would typically take an eV of energy to free the electron), the cesium triplets feature energy levels that are measured in trillionths of an electron volt (peV)
Read More »Compression experiments lead to shocking results
Using acceleration 1 trillion times faster than a jet fighter in a maximum turn, researchers have gained new insight into dynamic compression of aluminum at ultrahigh strain rates.
Read More »Physicists wary of junking light speed limit yet
(AP) -- Physicists on the team that measured particles traveling faster than light said Friday they were as surprised as their skeptics about the results, which appear to violate the laws of nature as we know them.
Read More »Scientists stunned, sceptical on faster-than-light particles
Physicists around the world expressed astonishment and scepticism in equal measure Friday after European scientists reported particles apparently travelling faster than light.
Read More »Exeter physicist advances early universe theory
Research by a University of Exeter astrophysicist has helped to explain how the first stars and galaxies formed.
Read More »Cloaking magnetic fields: The first ‘antimagnet’ device developed
Spanish researchers have designed what they believe to be a new type of magnetic cloak, which shields objects from external magnetic fields, while at the same time preventing any magnetic internal fields from leaking outside, making the cloak undetectable.
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