Portal:Physics/News/Archive

This is an archive of entries that have appeared on Portal:Physics/News.

2013

• August 6, 2013. At the end of July, President Obama announced his intention to nominate France A. Córdova to be the Director of the National Science Foundation. Please see: ScienceInsider. Also, she "Explains Why She Said Yes" during an interview with ScienceInsider.

• August 6, 2013. The Turkish government clashes with scholars, students, and the Turkish Science Academy. - ScienceInsider and Chemistry World

• August 5, 2013. Latest CERN news from the CERN press office. CERN is "the world's largest particle physics laboratory" --Wikipedia, CERN.

• August 4, 2013. The "2013 Europhysics conference on High Energy Physics is a biennial conference, since 1971. The conferences in this series usually attracts 600-700 participants and is one of the worlds largest conferences in its field". Please see: The 2013 European Physical Society Conference on High Energy Physics.

• August 4, 2013. Stringent CERN tests further validate the Standard Model of Particle physics. Discovery magazine online, CERN press summary.

• August 1, 2013. Research on nanoscale stretchable conductor materials for technologies such as flexible electronics and related technologies.Nature Letters

• July 31, 2013. The political will emerges for a revival of science in Pakistan. Nature News.

• July 30, 2013. 'Laboratory Astrophysics’ began to officially emerge from Plasma Physics and fundamental physics as a new academic and scientific discipline in late 2012. Nature News

• July 25, 2013. NASA's IRIS Telescope, designed to provide detailed studies of the sun's chromosphere, has initially provided scientists with unprecedented detail of the lowest parts of the sun's atmosphere, known as the interface region. It's first images have been released. NASA IRIS site, Nature News.

• April 12, 2013. This week Nature News covers the investigation of silenced Canadian scientists, the addition of female EU scientists, a new editor for the well known scientific journal Science, and other science news. Nature News.

• April 12, 2013. Real-time detection of influenza A virus using semiconductor nanophotonics. Light Sci Appl Research Summary. Nature Publishing Group.

• April 10, 2013. Data shows that Saturn's ionosphere is flooded by rainwater transferred from Saturn's rings. Nature (Letter)

• April 10, 2013. "Germany hopes to generate at least 35% of its electricity from green sources by 2020; by 2050, the share is expected to surpass 80%." Nature News feature

• April 3, 2013. Space Station experiment shows that "something in the Galaxy is spewing out many more positrons — the antimatter counterparts of electrons — than can be accounted for from known astrophysical sources". Nature News

• March 2, 2013. For the first time since the Apollo program, astronauts will fly beyond Earth orbit sometime next year. See NASA News.

• March 2, 2013. All about NASA's Mars Science Laboratory with the newest rover. See the Latest News from NASA.

• February 28, 2013. A third Van Allen Belt has been discovered by NASA probes. See Nature News and NASA News for details.

• February 27, 2013. "A tireless advocate for science" - Norman Augustine. Nature News.

2012

• October 6, 2012. Technology seedlings (investment dollars) from agencies such as the National Science Foundation are embroiled in a federal budget debate. In January 2013, U.S. budget cuts may affect investment of federal dollars in rudimentary scientific research that later develops into much higher valued entrepreneurial startups in the private sector. New York Times.

• October 4, 2012. Technology continues to satisfy the needs of new businesses and may be affecting the current U.S. rate of employment. Additionally, since 1977 new businesses have been responsible for most of the employment in the U.S.A., but the rate of new start-up companies appears to be slowing. New York Times.

• October 3, 2012. Robert F. Christy passes away. He is mostly known for his contribution that simplified exploding the first atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project, and as an astrophysicist afterwards. He served as provost of Caltech and Caltech's temporary acting President from 1977-1978. New York Times

• October 2, 2012. A planned winter crossing of Antarctica can can generate useful research data as an analogue for exploring aspects of the Mars environment. New York Times.

• July 12, 2012. Discovery of Pluto's fifth moon. Astronomers announce the discovery of S/2012 P 1 -- the fifth moon of Pluto. It was identified with the Hubble Telescope. "The newfound moon and its kin may be remnants of an ancient smashup." -- Nature News

• July 4, 2012. Two experiments at the Large Hadron Collider point to a new but highly anticipated boson and it behaves like the sought after Standard Model Higgs boson. Such a quick final outcome was unexpected because CERN has been in operation for only two years and operating at only half-power. According to CERN a "one sigma means the results could be random fluctuations in the data, 3 sigma counts as an observation and a 5-sigma result is a discovery." Also, a 5 sigma measurement means a 99.9999 certainty.

Hence, at CERN in Geneva the latest preliminary results were presented for the ATLAS and CMS experiments. Spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti said, "The results are preliminary but the 5 sigma signal at around 125 GeV we’re seeing is dramatic. This is indeed a new particle. We know it must be a boson and it’s the heaviest boson ever found. The implications are very significant and it is precisely for this reason that we must be extremely diligent in all of our studies and cross-checks." According to CERN positive identification of the new particle’s characteristics will take considerable time and data. CERN website, CERN press release, and New York Times article

• July 19, 2012. Effective writing is important for science and medical careers. Science Careers Blog. AAAS Science.

• July 9, 2012. Some implications of at last finding the Higgs Boson. Science section. The New York Times.

• June 29, 2012. The European Union funds the Extreme Light Infrastructure in Eastern Europe, and "will be a hub for fundamental and applied research — laser and particle accelerator engineering, biology and medicine, X-ray and gamma-ray imaging — as well as a promoter of technology transfer." Nature Physics

• June 29, 2012. Japan's operational nuclear reactors are set to go online despite large scale protests and warnings from scientists. Nature News

• April 7, 2012. Physicist crash electrons to find a heavy or dark photon and clues to help describe dark matter. Nature News

• April 6, 2012. "Scientists must find ways to improve academic efficiency if they are to keep their independence." Nature News

• April 5, 2012. "Explosive magnetic activity" on Venus which cause magnetic storms. Nature News

• April 2, 2012. Suprluminal neutrino experiment errors are discussed and project leaders step down. Nature News

• March 16, 2012. The ICARUS experiment finds neutrinos are not traveling faster than light, contradicting OPERA's results showing apparent superluminal neutrino speeds. Nature News.

• January 11, 2012. The Worldwide LHC Computing Grid processes ATLAS data by sending chunks of data to universities and labs all around the world. ATLAS experiment blog.

• January 10, 2012. Photons from a distant gamma ray burst provide insights into the possible existence of a grainy (or quantized) space-time. Nature News.

• January 04, 2012. The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey presents its initial findings after completing half its survey pertaining to the influence of dark energy. Nature News.

• January 04, 2012. U.S. federal support for science favors prestigious basic research over science applied to the public's well being. Nature News.

2011

• November 30, 2011. €80-billion European Commission plan for research raises the level of funding in some areas. Nature News.
• November 29, 2011. Funding problems for fusion-energy test reactor and the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme. Nature News.
• September 26, 2011. Fermilab high energy physics experiment to cease on September 30^th because of CERN and funding constraints. Fermilab will transition to "investigation of rare interactions involving known particles". Nature News.
• September 24, 2011. Texas desires to close low performing physics programs. Nature News.
• September 23, 2011. Important exoplanet's existence questioned. Nature News. See also: Fomalhaut b
• September 23, 2011. Neutrinos seem to be moving faster than light. Nature News.
• September 21, 2011. "Basic research funded by the Pentagon is facing an uncertain future", and Beyond the bomb Nature News.
• September 19, 2011. New exoplanets announced at conference. Nature News.
• September 2011. Autonomous Military Robotics: Risk, Ethics, and Design. Lin, Patrick ; Bekey, George ; Abney, Keith. (2008). California Polytechnic State University.
• September, 2011. Brief biography. F. E. low

  Coming of Age as a Physicist in Post-War America. MIT Physics Annual. 2001.

• September 2011. Murray Gell-Mann in the early 1960's and the Quark Model by George Zweig. Caltech. 2010.
• September 2011. An overview of Quantum chromodynamics (QCD)'\. MIT Physics Annual. 2001.

• July 8, 2011. Calculations show that quarks existed independently during a fraction of second after the big bang (at 2 trillion Kelvin). Physics World. Derived from AAAS Science v. 332. p. 1525. and free PDF version.

  Also see Wikipedia article Quark–gluon plasma.

Neptune from Voyager 2 with Great Dark Spot at left

• July 7, 2011. Neptune completes first 165 year orbit since discovery and the precise length of its day is determined. Nature News.
• July 2, 2011 Nanoscale mechanical tests give accurate values of strengths for testing nuclear materials.
• June 8, 2011. Soyuz TMA-02M (mission insignia pictured) is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying a three-person crew to the International Space Station.

• June 8, 2011. An IUPAC committee acknowledges the discovery of the transuranium elements ununquadium and ununhexium
• June 2, 2011. NIST updates recommended values of physical constants to the 2010 CODATA recommended values. Fundamental Physical Constants from NIST NIST - Version history of the fundamental constants database
• May 26, 2011. Obstacles hinder the development and commercialization of novel carbon materials such as carbon nanotubes and graphene. Reported in Nature here and Nature News here
• May 25, 2011. To date the most accurate measurement of the shape of the electron reveals that it is almost a perfect sphere. This appears to be applicable to the study of anitmatter. Sciencedaily. Science News section.
• May 21, 2011. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) is a particle physics experiment that is mounted on the International Space Station. It was carried to the space station by the Space Shuttle Endeavour on May 16, 2011, and installed on May 19, 2011. Johnson Space Center, NASA, AMS-02 home page.
• May 19, 2011. The mechanics of the recent, magnitude 9.0 earthquake that struck Japan are covered by three research papers in the prestigious journal Science, along with the journal's News Focus section. These are avialble to the public free of charge at: AAAS Science magazine. The Tohoku-Oki Earthquake.
• May 16, 2011. Intel to mass-produce unconventional 3D transistors. Nature News.
• May 16, 2011. Update on White House deadline for scientific integrity policies. Nature News.
• May 16, 2011. Applying nonequilibrium statistical physics for predicting climate change. American Physical Society ---Trends
• May 12, 2011. Utilizing unusual type of grain boundary in graphene. "American Physical Society ---Synopses"
• March 21, 2011. China's science funding and science management system may be modified. --- Nature News.
• March 15, 2011. NSF and other federal agencies to start cutting physics programmes, which results in laying off staff, and shutting research facilities. --- Nature News.

• Recommendations for planning the procurment of energy critical elements for the U.S. --- American Physical Society.
• Inverse Doppler effect observed at optical frequencies (for the first time). --- Physics world. March 10, 2011.
• March 8, 2011 Simon van der Meer, a nobel laureate, passes at age 85. Physics World.

Artist's rendering of the MESSENGER probe in orbit around Mercury

• March 17, 2011. Successful insertion of the Messenger probe into orbit around the planet Mercury. --- NASA Mission News. *Tevatron is scheduled to shut down in September 2011. --- New York Times. 2011.
• March 8, 2011 US scientists in budget limbo. "Researchers face anxious wait as negotiations continue in Congress over 2011 budget." Nature News.
• Feb 11, 2011. Logical processing and programming are combined in a single structure, which may surpass the need to develop separate circuits. --- physics world.com. --- See also Spintronics.
• February 3, 2011. Updates on practical spacecraft powered by solar sails. Nature News.
• February 3, 2011. Amidst political turmoil, the mid-east synchrotron project (SESAME) needs an extra US $35 million. ---Nature News.
• February 01, 2011. A neutron star in the Cassiopeia supernova remnant may be transitioning to an uncommon state of matter known as superfluid. Nature News

• Scientists confer to redefine the kilogram (SI units). Nature News. January 28, 2011.

2010

• The Large Hadron Collider search for the Higgs boson is extended for one more year, before being shut-off for upgrades. Nature news Dec 10, 2010
• New research indicates that the Universe does not cycle for eternity. Nature news. Dec 10, 2010.
• Exoplanets reveal new questions for planet formation theories---Nature news. 8 Dec, 2010.
• New information on dark energy---Physics World. Nov 25, 2010.
• Bose–Einstein condensate created from photons (light). Physics World 24 Nov, 2010
• Unobserved fission reactors may be detectable with neutrinos. Physics World. 24 Nov, 2010
• ESA space missions are extended, seven ESA probes will now operate until at least 2014. Physics World. 23 Nov, 2010
• Plasmonic sensor detects viruses, making earlier detection possible. Physics World 22 Nov, 2010
• Penrose claims to have glimpsed universe before Big Bang. Physics World. 19 Nov, 2010
• New theories posulate that Gamma ray bursts may actually originate from magnestars as an intermediate step, before collapsing into black holes. See: Cosmic blasts hint at inner magnetars. Nature News. Nov. 3, 2010; and Magnestars. Scientific American. 2003.
• Science in the city. Nature news. Oct. 20, 2010.
• UK science avoids deep spending cuts. Nature News. Oct. 20, 2010.
• UK's plan for science funding may be faulty, and affect international competitiveness. Nature News. Oct. 27, 2010.
• "Top 75 science producing clusters in the world from 2006 to 2008 generated some 57% of the research; 3.9 million papers." Nature News. Oct. 20, 2010.
• Fermilab is building a high frequency holographic interferometer to measure inherent spacetime noise. PhysOrg.com, and Symmetry Magazine October 28, 2010.
• The research of physicist Nergis Mavalvala links quantum mechanics with gravitational waves. John D and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. October 3, 2010
• Andre Geim jointly with Konstantin Novoselov were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on graphene. October 5, 2010
• Carl Wieman, 2001 Nobel physicist, chosen for White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Science Insider. AAAS. October 2010.
• June 23, 2010 - Magnetic levitation becomes an inexpensive sensor for analyzing food, water, and other beverages. EurekaAlert
• Extracting information from a non-random collection of symbols. Physorg.com news. September 27, 2010.
• The sun, other stars, and the interstellar medium surround the earth with radio noise. September 2010
• June 23, 2010 - Simulations reveal hydrogen's transition from one state of matter to another at nearly 3100 degrees Fahrenheit and pressure that is more than 1 million earth atmospheres (think Jupiter). EurekaAlert
• June 23, 2010 - Detecting the movements of single molecules without modifying them. EurekaAlert
• June 13, 2010 -A JAXA probe, the Hayabusa, (artist's impression pictured) returns to Earth, completing a seven-year mission to sample the asteroid 25143 Itokawa.

Artist's depiction of the asteroid sampling probe, Hayabusa.

• June 1, 2010 - New pin sized biomedical sensor pioneered at NASA's GRC, originally for use in space, could measure blood pressure and heart rate resulting in direct societal impact by assisting a lot of people. NASA news
• May 31, 2010 - Using sound to create light, with small losses and very high precision. (PTB)
• May 21, 2010 - Update from JAXA - Venus probe. Solar array paddles deployed and sun acquisition confirmed, at 250,000 km above the Earth. JAXA Venus probe site
• May 20, 2010 - Large amounts of wind and solar can be incorporated onto the power grid without extensive additional infrastructure. - National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• May 14, 2010 - Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on its final scheduled mission, delivering the Rassvet module to the International Space Station.

More physics news is available from Wikinews and the Current Events portal

Venus

Some migration routes

The Space Shuttle Atlantis blasts off for its final mission. 2010

• May 7, 2010 - Japan's JAXA to launch probe ( Akatsuki mission) to solve the problem of planet Venus winds clocked at 60 times the planet's rotation, which is fast compared to earth winds at just 10% to 20% of the rotation speed.--Physics Today
• Quantum entanglement might enable migrating birds to "see" the Earth's magnetic field as if it were a pattern of colors. --Popular Science
• April 23, 2010 - Three successful spacewalks occurred outside the International Space Station for a duration of more than six hours each in order to replace a depleted ammonia tank with a new one, along with other exterior work. STS-131
• April 10, 2010 - A new element, Ununseptium, with 117 protons has been discovered ("detected") by a joint Russia–US collaboration at Dubna, Moscow Oblast, Russia. - (see also: Physics World)
• April 9, 2010 - For engineers who design flight control strategies, a breakthrough in understanding fruit fly's aerobatic abilities has applications for tiny robotic insects that could be used for both search-and-rescue and surveillance. Physical Review Focus
• April 2, 2010 - Nanotechnology enhances ceramics so that they do not crack when cooled rapidly from high temperatures.---Physical Review Focus
• March 22, 2010 - Free electron lasers, first described in 1976 & 77, now provide high intensity from microwaves all the way up to x-rays, with applications ranging across physics, chemistry, and biology.---Physical Review Focus

2009

• October 29, 2009 - Results from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope indicate that "either that space-time is smooth and continuous, as general relativity proposed, or that the grains of space-time are smaller than we ever thought possible, and are having only the most minuscule effect on light waves". Discovery

2008

• April 13, 2008 John Wheeler died aged 96. "For me, he was the last Titan, the only physics superhero still standing." (Max Tegmark, New York Times)
• December 11, 2007 NASA's voyager 2 probe's recent measurements prove that the solar system is asymmetrical. Several scientists suggest that this is caused by galactic magnetic fields. (CNN)
• November 24, 2007 Speculation about space based solar power plants continues, and with oil prices rising, their use may become economical too. (New Scientist)
• October 28, 2009 - NASA's Ares I-X rocket is successfully test launched from Kennedy Space Center LC-39B.
• November 7, 2008 - Physicists revisited hydrogen production experiment, performed by Italian scientist G. D. Botto in 1833 (PhysOrg.com)
• September 10, 2008 - The first particle beam is successfully steered around the Large Hadron Collider accelerator ring at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland.
• May 1, 2008 - A team of nanoscientists have grown twisted nanowires that look like pine trees by twisting the original wire from which the trees were grown. (Science, [1] [2])
• April 13, 2008 - John Wheeler died aged 96. "For me, he was the last Titan, the only physics superhero still standing." (Max Tegmark, New York Times)

2007

• December 11, 2007 - NASA's voyager 2 probe's recent measurements prove that the solar system is asymmetrical. Several scientists suggest that this is caused by galactic magnetic fields. (CNN)
• November 24, 2007 - Speculation about space based solar power plants continues, and with oil prices rising, they might be economical too. (New Scientist)
• November 22, 2007 Johannes Kofler and Časlav Brukner of the University of Vienna and the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information have shown that the effects of Quantum superpositions of large objects such as Schrödinger's cat can be detected. (Nature News)
• November 22, 2007 An area of relative radio silence has been detected in the constellation of Eridanus. It is approximately a billion light years across. (New Scientist)
• April 5, 2007 – CERN and Fermilab engineers announce that a failure of a magnet within the LHC particle accelerator may delay the start of the experimental campaign of the project. (Reuters)
• March 26, 2007 – Antarctic melting may be speeding up according to satellite data. (Reuters)
• March 1, 2007 – Stephen Hawking to experience weightlessness for first time. (CNN)

2006

• 22 December 2006 – A new device detects land mines by listening for vibrations caused by directed sound waves. (New Scientist)
• 22 December 2006 – Optical buffers, devices which can store photons temporarily, have been invented. (New Scientist)
• 21 December 2006 – A transparent coating of conductive carbon nanotubes could be used as a heater, e.g. for car windows. (New Scientist)
• 19 November 2006 – MIT researchers explore method of transferring electricity wirelessly. (Wikinews)
• 30 October 2006 – Physicists raise concerns about the new, synthetic NBA ball (Wikinews)
• 29 October 2006 – Physicists test 'forgotten' Brownian motion theory (Wikinews)
• 19 October 2006 – Engineers develop robotic microhand (Wikinews)
• 14 October 2006 – Controversy-plagued Element 118, the heaviest atom yet, is finally discovered (Wikinews)
• 12 October 2006 – Dark matter lacks extra gravitational force (Wikinews)
• 3 October 2006 – 2006 Nobel Prize in physics awarded for microwave map of the universe (Wikinews)
• 21 August 2006: NASA discovers new evidence of dark matter

2005

• Physics Nobel Prize awarded for insights into light (4 October 2005)
• Einstein's equation turns 100 (27 September 2005)
• Insights on nutrient traffic in living cells (23 September 2005)
• Science of champagne bubbles explained (18 September 2005)
• Australian man allegedly ignites carpet and plastic with static electricity (17 September 2005)
• Light stopped for over a second (16 September 2005)
• Fireball generated in U.S. laboratory resembles black hole (15 September 2005)
• Brazilian physicist who discovered the pion dies (2 July 2005)

• Dark matter galaxy discovered
• Relativity turns 100
• NASA's Swift detects possible birth of black hole