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Supermassive black holes can kill whole galaxies ScienceNow Share    
Wolfing down your food can be bad for your health, but who knew the same principle could apply to an entire galaxy? Astrophysicists have found that when a supermassive black hole quickly devours gas and dust, it can generate enough radiation to abort all the embryonic stars in the surrounding galaxy. It's not clear what this means for life's ability to take hold in such a bleak environment, but the research shows that the process might have determined the fates of many of the large galaxies in the universe. More
Physicists find a particle accelerator in the sky PhysicsWorld Share
The first evidence that thunderstorms can function as huge natural particle accelerators has been collected by an international team of researchers. In a presentation at a meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society in Glasgow, Martin Füllekrug of Bath University described how the team detected radio waves coinciding with the appearance of "sprites" -- glowing orbs that occasionally flicker into existence above thunderstorms. The radio waves suggest the sprites can accelerate nearby electrons, creating a beam with the same power as a small nuclear power plant. More Roman ingots to shield particle detector Nature News Share
Around four tons of ancient Roman lead was yesterday transferred from a museum on the Italian island of Sardinia to the country's national particle physics laboratory at Gran Sasso on the mainland. Once destined to become water pipes, coins or ammunition for Roman soldiers' slingshots, the metal will instead form part of a cutting-edge experiment to nail down the mass of neutrinos. More
Nuclear security push bleeding cryogenic science dry NewScientist Share
Members of the U.S. Congress will consider what to do about a serious shortage of helium-3 that is disrupting both scientific research and nuclear security. Helium-3 is invaluable for some scientific instruments. But supplies have been used up in making security systems to detect dangerous nuclear materials, and production can't be increased. A House subcommittee will try to pin down what went wrong and how to fix the problem. More Physicists untangle the geometry of rope ScienceNews Share
Researchers have unraveled the mathematics that keeps ropes from unwinding. The trick lies in the number of times each strand in a rope is twisted, say Jakob Bohr and Kasper Olsen, physicists at the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby. Their paper was posted online April 6 at arXiv.org. More
Volcanic ash relentless as tremors rock Iceland Scientific American Share
Powerful tremors from an Icelandic volcano that has been a menace for travelers across Europe shook the countryside as eruptions hurled a steady stream of ash into the sky. Ash from the volcano drifted southeast toward the European continent, sparing the capital Reykjavik and other more populated centers but forcing farmers and their livestock indoors as a blanket of ash fell on the surrounding areas. More Physicist's stolen Nobel still missing The Harvard Crimson Share
Though the man responsible for breaking into the home of Harvard Physics Professor Roy J. Glauber '45 was arrested on Friday, Glauber's stolen Nobel Prize medal has not yet been recovered. Last month, a burglar -- identified as Stephen Beaulieu -- broke into Glauber's home in Arlington, Mass. and stole the prestigious award that the professor had won in 2005 for his contributions to the quantum theory of optical coherence. More
Novel experiment prepares to join dark energy hunt Scientific American Share
An experiment is gearing up in Texas to take on one of the universe's biggest mysteries by compiling a three-dimensional map of the early cosmos. The hope is that the survey will help inform astronomers and cosmologists about the nature of dark energy, a mysterious and hypothetical agent thought to constitute nearly three quarters of the universe's mass. More MSU tops MIT as best nuclear physics grad school Detroit Free Press Share
For a university like Michigan State, small shifts in academic rankings don't necessarily mean much. Until, of course, they do. This year, MSU's graduate program in nuclear physics nabbed the No. 1 spot in the U.S. News & World Report rankings, pulling ahead of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after years in the No. 2 slot. More |
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