Solving solar system quandaries is simple: Just flip-flop the position of Uranus and Neptune
Quick: What's the order of the planets in the solar system? Need a little help? Maybe the following mnemonic rings a bell: "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Up Nine Pizzas." It's useful for remembering the order of the planets today, but it wouldn't have been as useful in the past, and not just because the International Astronomical... view more... (2007-12-12)
Circumstellar space: Where chemistry happens for the very first time
Picture a cool place, teeming with a multitude of hot bodies twirling about in rapidly changing formations of singles and couples, partners and groups, constantly dissolving and reforming. view more (2007-08-01)
Sustainable nuclear energy moves a step closer
In future a new generation of nuclear reactors will create energy, while producing virtually no long-lasting nuclear waste, according to research conducted by Wilfred van Rooijen, who will receive his Delft University of Technology PhD degree based on this research subject on Tuesday, 12 December. view more (2006-12-12)
Algorithm advance produces quantum calculation record
Two theoreticians from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Indiana University (IU) have published the most accurate values yet for fundamental atomic properties of a molecule-values calculated from theory alone. view more (2006-03-21)
Researchers putting a freeze on oscillator vibrations
University of Oregon physicists have successfully landed a one-two punch on a tiny glass sphere, refrigerating it in liquid helium and then dosing its perimeter with a laser beam, to bring its naturally occurring mechanical vibrations to a near standstill. view more (2009-06-18)
The colourful demise of a Sun-like star
A brand new image taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 shows the planetary nebula NGC 2440 - the chaotic structure of the demise of a star. view more (2007-02-15)
Magnet Made Of Pure Carbon
All known magnets contain metals and so far scientists believed that non-metallic material could not behave like a strong magnet. However, at the end of 20th century, some organic substances with strong magnetic properties were found, but they were magnetic only at very low temperatures, just above liquid helium. It seemed impossible to obtain... view more... (2001-10-24)
"Rational" Meccano
Nanofibrous carbon is interesting by itself: it consists of carbon fibres of 3 to 500 nm in diameter. These fibres can form " cylinders" (which make almost finished polymeric nanotubes), or a system of cones stowed one into the other at a certain angle to the fibre axis, or simply "wrapping package" - this is driven by the type of applied catalyst... view more... (2003-06-16)
Youngest solar systems detected by U-M astronomers
Astronomers at the University of Michigan have found what are believed to be some of the youngest solar systems yet detected. view more (2007-11-30)
'Supersolid' or melted 'superfluid' film: A quantum difference
New calculations support an alternative to "superfluidity" of a solid as the explanation for the behavior of an isotope of helium, 4He, at temperatures approaching Absolute Zero, according to a report in Physical Review Letters. view more (2005-06-16)
Low-risk balloon trip to the heart
Patients who are at high-risk of having a heart attack or who require a bypass must undergo a coronary angiography. A new balloon catheter, being presented at the MEDTEC exhibition, allows this to be done more swiftly, more easily and with less risk than previous examinations. Calcium and cholesterol can block coronary blood vessels. The thicker... view more... (2002-03-05)
New Honorary Fellows at the Institute of Physics
Dr Clive Foxell, Professor Klaus von Klitzing, Lord Robert May and Professor Joe Vinen have been awarded Honorary Fellowships at the Institute of Physics in recognition of their outstanding contributions to physics. Dr Clive Foxell has given exceptional service to the Institute of Physics and the physics community. He was President of the... view more... (2002-09-30)
Soap, DNA and semiconductors
How can studying soap lead to better methods for transporting drugs around the body? Where’s the link between semiconductors and DNA and how can statistical physics reveal how ecosystems evolve? Find out at the Institute of Physics Condensed Matter and Materials Physics (CMMP) Conference being held at the University of Bristol between 18 and... view more... (2000-12-13)
Rounding up gases, nano-style
A new process for catching gas from the environment and holding it indefinitely in molecular-sized containers has been developed by a team of University of Calgary researchers, who say it represents a novel method of gas storage that could yield benefits for capturing, storing and transporting gases more safely and efficiently. view more (2008-02-04)
Pocket-sized magnetic resonance imaging
The term "MRI scan" brings to mind the gigantic, expensive machines that are installed in hospitals. But research scientists have now developed small portable MRI scanners that perform their services in the field: for instance to examine ice cores. view more (2008-07-09)
Laser pulses show how birds fly
We all know that birds can fly. But no one has ever been able to explain how they can produce enough lift to neutralize their body weight. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have now discovered where the missing modicum of momentum is to be found. Using laser technology they have studied a nightingale in flight in a wind tunnel. In the 1980s... view more... (2003-10-03)
Examination of radiation left from birth of universe could alter theories
Using relic radiation from the birth of the universe, astrophysicists at the University of Illinois have proposed a new way of measuring the fine-structure constant in the past, and comparing it with today. view more (2007-04-03)
1843 stellar eruption may be new type of star explosion
Eta Carinae, the galaxy's biggest, brightest and perhaps most studied star after the sun, has been keeping a secret: Its giant outbursts appear to be driven by an entirely new type of stellar explosion that is fainter than a typical supernova and does not destroy the star. view more (2008-09-11)
Young stars in chaos
It is not only teenagers who like to congregate in intimate groups and disturb their neighbours and surroundings. As Matthew Bate (University of Exeter), will be explaining to the UK National Astronomy Meeting in Bristol on Friday 12 April, young stars also like to hang around in crowds and undergo chaotic close encounters with each other during... view more... (2002-04-04)
Physicists lead the field in solving matter mystery of the Big Bang
A University of Sussex-led team of scientists is ahead in the race to solve one of the biggest mysteries of our physical world: why the Universe contains matter. With the help of a new £2.3 million grant, the team is working on a project to make one of the most sensitive measurements ever of sub-atomic particles. The results, expected within... view more... (2003-12-10)
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