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Physics
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Research announcements from universities, hospitals and scientific institutions. Explore the stories, people and discoveries behind the headlines.

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Purdue physicists throw world’s smallest disco party
Physics

Purdue physicists throw world’s smallest disco party

Physicists at Purdue are throwing the world’s smallest disco party. The disco ball itself is a fluorescent nanodiamond, which they have levitated and spun at incredibly high speeds. The fluorescent diamond emits and scatters multicolor lights in different directions as it rotates. The party continues as they study the effects of fast rotation on the spin qubits within their system and are able to observe the Berry phase. The team, led by Tongcang Li, professor of Physics and Astronomy and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University, published their results ...

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Cricket physics: Science behind the modern bowler technique tricking batters
Physics

Cricket physics: Science behind the modern bowler technique tricking batters

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13, 2024 – Key to winning a cricket match is tricking the other team’s batters – no small feat as bowlers bowl cricket balls nearly 100 miles per hour. In recent years, a bowling technique that has become popular involves keeping the arm almost entirely horizontal during delivery, notably used by Sri Lankan stars Lasith Malinga and Matheesha Pathirana. The aerodynamics of such deliveries have perplexed sports physicists. In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, researchers have started to unravel the mysteries of how ...

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New material for optically-controlled magnetic memory discovered
Physics

New material for optically-controlled magnetic memory discovered

Researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) have made unexpected progress toward developing a new optical memory that can quickly and energy-efficiently store and access computational data. While studying a complex material composed of manganese, bismuth and tellurium (MnBi2Te4), the researchers realized that the material’s magnetic properties changed quickly and easily in response to light. This means that a laser could be used to encode information ...

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Are birds flying atoms?
Physics

Are birds flying atoms?

A crowd or a flock of birds have different characteristics from those of atoms in a material, but when it comes to collective movement, the differences matter less than we might think. We can try to predict the behavior of humans, birds, or cells based on the same principles we use for particles. This is the finding of a new study published in the Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment, JSTAT, conducted by an international team that includes the collaboration of MIT in Boston and CNRS in France. The study, based on the physics ...

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Physics

Biophysical Society announces the results of its 2024 Elections

ROCKVILLE, MD – Karen Fleming has been elected President-elect of the Biophysical Society (BPS). She will assume the office of President-elect at the 2025 Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, California and begin her term as President during the 2026 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California. Fleming is a Professor of Biophysics at Johns Hopkins University. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Notre Dame before going on to achieve a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Georgetown University Medical Center. In addition to her commitment to research, Fleming has dedicated significant time ...

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Plasma bubbles and the “engine” of fast radio bursts
Physics

Plasma bubbles and the “engine” of fast radio bursts

Rome, 7 August 2024 -- Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are one of the most recent open mysteries of modern astrophysics. Within a few milliseconds, these powerful events release an immense amount of energy, among the highest observable in cosmic phenomena. FRBs were discovered just over ten years ago and mostly arise from extragalactic sources. Their origin, however, is still uncertain and there are huge ongoing efforts by the astrophysics community around the world to understand the physical processes behind them. In very few cases, the rapid flash that characterises FRBs coincides with a persistent ...

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World’s highest-performance superconducting wire segment fabricated at UB
Physics

World’s highest-performance superconducting wire segment fabricated at UB

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Our energy future may depend on high-temperature superconducting (HTS) wires. This technology’s ability to carry electricity without resistance at temperatures higher than those required by traditional superconductors could revolutionize the electric grid and even enable commercial nuclear fusion. Yet these large-scale applications won’t happen until HTS wires can be fabricated at a price-performance metric equal to that of the plain copper wire sold at your ...

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Researchers reveal atomic-scale details of catalysts’ active sites
Physics

Researchers reveal atomic-scale details of catalysts’ active sites

The chemical and energy industries depend upon catalysts to drive the reactions used to create their products. Many important reactions use heterogeneous catalysts — meaning that the catalysts are in a different phase of matter than the substances they are reacting with, such as solid platinum reacting with gases in an automobile’s catalytic converter. Scientists have investigated the surface of well-defined single crystals, illuminating the mechanisms underlying many chemical reactions. However, there is much more to be learned. For heterogeneous catalysts, their 3D atomic structure, their chemical composition and the nature of ...

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Heating for fusion: Why toast plasma when you can microwave it!
Physics

Heating for fusion: Why toast plasma when you can microwave it!

Some believe the future of fusion in the U.S. lies in compact, spherical fusion vessels. A smaller tokamak, it is thought, could offer a more economical fusion option. The trick is squeezing everything into a small space. New research suggests eliminating one major component used to heat the plasma, freeing up much-needed space. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), the private company Tokamak Energy and Kyushu University in Japan have proposed a design for a compact, spherical fusion pilot plant ...

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Soft gold enables connections between nerves and electronics
Physics

Soft gold enables connections between nerves and electronics

Gold does not readily lend itself to being turned into long, thin threads. But researchers at Linköping University in Sweden have now managed to create gold nanowires and develop soft electrodes that can be connected to the nervous system. The electrodes are soft as nerves, stretchable and electrically conductive, and are projected to last for a long time in the body. Some people have a “heart of gold”, so why not “nerves of gold”? In the future, it may be possible to use this precious metal in soft interfaces to connect electronics to the nervous system for medical ...

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Physics

Ultrafine particles linked to over 1,000 deaths per year in Canada’s two largest cities

A first-of-its kind study conducted in Canada’s two largest cities by McGill-led researchers has linked about 1,100 premature deaths per year to an unregulated air pollutant. Ultrafine particles (UFPs) primarily come from vehicle emissions and industrial activities. Canada’s federal and provincial governments have not set concentration limits for UFPs, as they have for larger fine particles known as PM2.5. “Ultrafine particles are incredibly small, allowing them to penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. Increasing evidence suggests these pollutants may contribute to heart and lung diseases, as well as certain forms of cancer,” ...

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Synthesis of SiOC@C ceramic nanospheres with tunable electromagnetic wave absorption performance
Physics

Synthesis of SiOC@C ceramic nanospheres with tunable electromagnetic wave absorption performance

In recent years, microwave technology has dramatically progressed, marked by the arrival of the 5G era, owing to the advantages of electromagnetic waves in long-distance, wireless, and high-speed transmissions. However, electromagnetic wave pollution problems such as electromagnetic wave interference and electromagnetic wave radiation are becoming increasingly serious. Electromagnetic wave pollution not only affects the normal operation of electronic equipment, greatly threatens the information security of the scientific community, but also endangers human health and is a possible cause of cancer ...

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Purdue researchers trap atoms, forcing them to serve as photonic transistors
Physics

Purdue researchers trap atoms, forcing them to serve as photonic transistors

Researchers at Purdue University have trapped alkali atoms (cesium) on an integrated photonic circuit, which behaves like a transistor for photons (the smallest energy unit of light) similar to electronic transistors. These trapped atoms demonstrate the potential to build a quantum network based on cold-atom integrated nanophotonic circuits. The team, led by Chen-Lung Hung, associate professor of physics and astronomy at the Purdue University College of Science, published their discovery in the American Physical Society’s Physical Review X. “We developed a technique to use lasers ...

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Physics

Michigan Plasma prize honors University of Illinois professor

July 26, 2024 Contact: Kate McAlpine, 734-647-7087, kmca@umich.edu; Nicole Casal Moore, 734-709-1651, ncmoore@umich.edu; Phillip Kisubika, 217-244-7448, pkk18@illinois.edu Image ANN ARBOR—He has honed the power of plasma to advance semiconductor processing, high-quality thin films for magnetic hard drives, and fusion energy. For these and other accomplishments, University of Illinois Professor David Neil Ruzic has been chosen to receive the 2024 University of Michigan Prize for Excellence in Plasma Science and Engineering. Ruzic is the Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering in ...

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Atomic 'GPS' elucidates movement during ultrafast material transitions
Physics

Atomic 'GPS' elucidates movement during ultrafast material transitions

UPTON, N.Y. — Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have created the first-ever atomic movies showing how atoms rearrange locally within a quantum material as it transitions from an insulator to a metal. With the help of these movies, the researchers discovered a new material phase that settles a yearslong scientific debate and could facilitate the design of new transitioning materials with commercial applications. This research, recently published in Nature Materials, marks a methodological achievement; the researchers demonstrated that a materials characterization technique called atomic pair distribution ...

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Save your data on printable magnetic devices? New laser technique’s twist might make this reality
Physics

Save your data on printable magnetic devices? New laser technique’s twist might make this reality

The proliferation of all things digital doesn’t mean that printing technology is no longer relevant. In fact, printing technology is required to make the semiconductors necessary for the digital world. And as an Osaka Metropolitan University-led team has shown using a new printing technique, printable magnetic devices for high-density data storage might soon be realized. Dr. Ken-ichi Yuyama, a lecturer at the Graduate School of Science, and his colleagues report in APL Materials on the development of a new type of laser-induced forward transfer ...

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Nanoscale device simultaneously steers and shifts frequency of optical light, pointing the way to future wireless communication channels
Physics

Nanoscale device simultaneously steers and shifts frequency of optical light, pointing the way to future wireless communication channels

It is a scene many of us are familiar with: You're working on your laptop at the local coffee shop with maybe a half dozen other laptop users—each of you is trying to load websites or stream high-definition videos, and all are craving more bandwidth. Now imagine that each of you had a dedicated wireless channel for communication that was hundreds of times faster than the Wi-Fi we use today, with hundreds of times more bandwidth. That dream may not be far off thanks to the development of metasurfaces—tiny engineered sheets that can reflect and otherwise direct light in desired ways. In ...

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A new way to make element 116 opens the door to heavier atoms
Physics

A new way to make element 116 opens the door to heavier atoms

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are credited in the discovery of 16 of the 118 known elements. Now they’ve completed the crucial first step to potentially create yet another: element 120. Today, an international team of researchers led by Berkeley Lab’s Heavy Element Group announced that they have made known superheavy element 116 using a titanium beam, a breakthrough that is a key stepping stone towards making element 120. The result was presented today at the Nuclear Structure 2024 conference; the science paper will be posted on the online repository ...

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Control of light–matter interactions in two-dimensional materials with nanoparticle-on-mirror structures
Physics

Control of light–matter interactions in two-dimensional materials with nanoparticle-on-mirror structures

A new publication from Opto-Electronic Sciences; DOI 10.29026/oes.2024.230051 , discusses control of light–matter interactions in two-dimensional materials with nanoparticle-on-mirror structures. With the rapid development of high bit-rate wireless services driven by mobile internet, AI computing, high-definition videos, virtual reality/augmented reality (VAR) applications, and so on, the demand for wireless data rates has grown explosively in the past decades1, 2. Supporting such fast data rate at tens of Gbit/s pushes the carrier frequency to the THz (0.1-10 THz) ...

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Physics

All-optical ultra-long-distance image acquisition and transmission system

A new publication from Opto-Electronic Advances; DOI 10.29026/oea.2024.230202 , discusses an all-optical ultra-long-distance image acquisition and transmission system. With the exponential growth of data globally, the demand for high-speed acquisition and long-distance transmission of multidimensional data is escalating. Online video surveillance in sectors like industrial manufacturing has significantly boosted productivity while mitigating security risks. Real-time global video calls have revolutionized people's daily lives. Existing systems can leverage ...

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Microwave popcorn to particle accelerators: magnetrons show promise as radiofrequency source
Physics

Microwave popcorn to particle accelerators: magnetrons show promise as radiofrequency source

NEWPORT NEWS, VA - A pocket-size gizmo that puts the “pop” in microwave popcorn could soon fuel particle accelerators of the future. The small but mighty device is a magnetron – a mashup of the words “magnetic” and “electron.” The term was coined in 1921, and the technology was once a wartime secret before making its way into billions of homes as the heart of the modern microwave oven. Now, physicists and engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas ...

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Is a gamma-ray laser possible?
Physics

Is a gamma-ray laser possible?

Since the laser was invented in the 1960s, scientists have been working to increase lasers’ peak power and to design machines producing coherent light at progressively shorter wavelengths that can improve image resolution and enable probing of quantum nuclear states. Progress has been made with regard to peak power, most notably with the invention of chirped pulse amplification by University of Rochester researchers in the 1980s, a breakthrough that garnered the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018. However, developing ...

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Stretchable electronics might make their way onto the market thanks to roll-to-roll process
Physics

Stretchable electronics might make their way onto the market thanks to roll-to-roll process

Electronics have evolved over the years to supersede simply enhancing day-to-day life to becoming almost seamlessly integrated with daily life. People have become accustomed to wearable electronics, but what about stretchable ones? There is a growing demand for this type of technology, but the current methods are not easily scalable for mass production to make these devices available to the public. However, mass development may be possible using the roll-to-roll (R2R) process, which prints various layers on a flexible rolled substrate, cutting out the manual nature of the process. By rolling this type of electronic out into the market, the possibility for stretchable electronics and even ...

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New technique pinpoints nanoscale ‘hot spots’ in electronics to improve their longevity
Physics

New technique pinpoints nanoscale ‘hot spots’ in electronics to improve their longevity

When electronic devices like laptops or smartphones overheat, they are fundamentally suffering from a nanoscale heat transfer problem. Pinpointing the source of that problem can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. “The building blocks of our modern electronics are transistors with nanoscale features, so to understand which parts of overheating, the first step is to get a detailed temperature map,” says Andrea Pickel, an assistant professor from the University of Rochester’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. “But you need something with nanoscale ...

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New 3D anatomical atlas of the African clawed frog increases understanding of development and metamorphosis processes
Physics

New 3D anatomical atlas of the African clawed frog increases understanding of development and metamorphosis processes

New 3D Anatomical Atlas of the African Clawed Frog Increases Understanding of Development and Metamorphosis Processes The lifespan of Xenopus laevis is presented in unprecedented detail using high-quality X-ray microtomography images and 3D reconstructions to reveal embryonic development and metamorphosis processes. A 3D anatomical atlas of the model organism Xenopus laevis (the African clawed frog) is now available to aid researchers in understanding embryonic development and metamorphosis — the intriguing process by which a tadpole transforms into a mature frog. The lack of availability of this type of data has greatly limited the ability to assess and understand these complex ...

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