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Slim, Warm Superconductors Promise Faster Electronics
from NewScientist
The thinnest superconductor yet is a layer of copper oxide material less than a nanometer thick. The feat suggests a new possible route to faster electronic components. Making superconductors super-skinny raises the prospect of being able to switch them on and off using electric fields, says Ivan Bozovic at Brookhaven National Laboratories in Upton, N.Y. That could allow them to be used in electronics, not just for carrying current from place to place.
Full Article
A Blast From the Deep, Dark Past
from ScienceNOW
Astronomers have imaged the most distant object ever seen -- a star collapsing into a black hole more than 13 billion light-years away. The resulting burst of gamma rays, detected by NASA's SWIFT satellite on Apr. 23, shows that stars were already forming and dying a mere 600 million years after the big bang. Full Article
Universe's Quantum 'Speed Bumps' No Obstacle for Light
from NewScientist
A hint that quantum fluctuations in the fabric of the universe slow the speed of light has not been borne out in observations by NASA's Fermi telescope. The measurements contradict a 2005 result that supported the idea that space and time are not smooth. Full Article
Novel Analysis Confirms Climate "Hockey Stick" Graph
from Scientific American
The "hockey stick" graph has been both a linchpin and target in the climate change debate. As a plot of average Northern Hemisphere temperature from two millennia ago to the present, it stays relatively flat until the 20th century, when it rises up sharply, like the blade of an upturned hockey stick. Full Article
Study Finds Quake Risk at Los Alamos
from The Los Angeles Times
A big earthquake and resultant fire could trigger potentially deadly releases of radioactive materials from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico due to "major deficiencies" in the nuclear weapons lab's safety planning, federal safety experts warned. Full Article
Building Black Holes
from Forbes
Scientists are learning to create black holes in their labs, using what are called metamaterials. Of course these aren't the type of black holes that swallow space with their brute gravitational force. In fact, they have little or no mass at all. Full Article
Baffling Patterns Form in Scientific Sandbox
from Wired
With nothing more than beads in a glass box, physicists have revealed yet another mysterious property of granular solids, now recognized by scientists as a unique state of matter, like solids or gases. Full Article
Tailoring the Optical Dipole Force for Use on Molecules
from PhysOrg
"Scientists have been working with dipole fields for quite some time," Peter Barker tells PhysOrg.com. "However, most of the work is focused on very small particles, like atoms, or on larger particles, such as for use as optical tweezers. There is an interim region between atoms and large particles, and that is what we are looking at. We want to be able to control molecules a little differently." Full Article
Helium Atoms Get the Ride of their Life
from Physics World
To the adrenaline junkie midway through a bungee jump, gravity must feel like it can accelerate matter at a spectacular rate. At the atomic scale, however, when it comes to shifting around neutral particles, gravity is incredibly ineffective compared with other fundamental interactions such as the strong and weak nuclear forces. Full Article
Findings on Mysterious Haze at Galaxy's Center
from The New York Times
In the latest episode of their continuing efforts to embrace and understand the dark side of creation, astronomers sifting data from a new satellite say they have discerned the existence of a mysterious haze of high-energy particles surrounding the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Full Article
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