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(PhysOrg.com) -- In any kind of nuclear reactor, there is a small amount of the radioactive isotope strontium-90 that is formed as part of the regular fission process.

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new X-ray movie technique using extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulses from Artemis (link opens in a new window), one of the world's most advanced lasers, could help unravel the mysteries of phenomena such as magnetism or high-temperature superconductivity. The results are published in the latest edition of Physical Review Letters.

Recent breakthroughs have enabled scientists from the Northwestern University's Center for Quantum Devices to build cameras that can see more than one optical waveband or "color" in the dark. The semiconducting material used in the cameras – called type-II superlattices – can be tuned to absorb a wide range of infrared wavelengths, and now, a number of distinct infrared bands at the same time.

Nuclear fusion drives the stars, including our sun. But on Earth, despite efforts dating to the 1940s, sustained and controlled fusion for electrical power production has never been realized

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Purdue University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have created a device small enough to fit on a computer chip that converts continuous laser light into numerous ultrashort pulses, a technology that might have applications in more advanced sensors, communications systems and laboratory instruments.

An advanced material that could help bring about next-generation "spintronic" computers has revealed one of its fundamental secrets to a team of scientists from Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

A team of scientists from Italy and Germany has recently developed a model to predict the friction occurring when a rough surface in wet conditions (such as a road on a rainy day) is in sliding contact with a rubber material (such as a car tire tread block) in an article to be published shortly in the European Physical Journal E.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Subatomic events can be remarkably counterintuitive. Such is the case in theoretical physics when, under certain specific conditions, atoms exposed to intense infrared laser pulses remain stable rather than undergoing the ionization expected from electric fields at least as strong as the electrostatic forces binding the irradiated valence electrons. Inspired by the observed acceleration of neutral atoms1, and other recent experiments2, researchers at the Max-Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics in Berlin have shown that, in theory, angular resolved photoelectron spectroscopy can be used to directly image these so-called laser-dressed stable atoms.

The unification of quantum mechanics and Einstein's general relativity is one of the most exciting and still open questions in modern physics. General relativity, the joint theory of gravity, space and time gives predictions that become clearly evident on a cosmic scale of stars and galaxies.

This video demonstrating the power of superconductivity has been making the rounds this week and is an example of how video is really the best way to capture and share with thousands of viewers the amazing power of science! You will notice that the video is a demonstration without the science explained live.

A dynamical system in which repeated measurements on a single particle yield the same mean result as a single measurement of the whole ensemble is said to be ergodic.

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have developed a new and highly efficient way to characterize the structure of polymers at the nanoscale – effectively designing a routine analytical tool that could be used by industries that rely on polymer science to innovate new products, from drug delivery gels to renewable bio-materials.

The kick-off meeting for the second phase of the LAGUNA’s design study starts today at CERN. The principal goal of LAGUNA (Large Apparatus for Grand Unification and Neutrino Astrophysics) is to assess the feasibility of a new pan-European research infrastructure able to host the next generation, very large volume, deep underground neutrino observatory.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Light has its limitations – in this case not velocity, but rather its diffraction limit, which determines the spatial interaction volume in all implementations of optical spectroscopy and is in general also valid for time-resolved studies.

A new study by GW Professor Yongsheng Leng, assistant professor of engineering and applied science, and postdoctoral scientist Yajie Lei, reveals that solidified lubricants in tight pores do not change back to a liquid form.