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Using lasers to cool and manipulate molecules PhysOrg Share    
The complexity that makes molecules interesting also makes them more difficult to manipulate than atoms. Laser cooling of molecules, therefore, comes with its own set of problems. Physicists at Yale University believe they have found a solution. Click here to access the APS journal paper. More
Physics takes the wobble out of rowing PhysicsWorld Share
Every year, teams of rowers from Oxford and Cambridge universities sweep along the Thames river at close to 15 miles per hour in one of the world's most famous boat races. In each boat, the oars lie alternately left and right to generate – one might assume – an even push. But is this the most effective rig? More New microscope reveals the shape of atoms Scientific American Share
Chemistry textbooks typically include illustrations of atoms, but with caveats. The drawings depict atomic nuclei surrounded by electron orbitals – fuzzy spheres, barbells, tripods, and so on – but those figures represent the probability of finding an electron at a certain place around the nucleus rather than an actual "shape." Researchers have now managed to image the electron orbitals and show for the first time that, in a sense, atoms really look like those textbook images. Click here to access the APS journal paper. More Quasar may be fueling star creation in nearby galaxy Ars Technica Share
Scientists have found a quasar with no galaxy that appears to be fueling star production in a galaxy that's in need of a nucleus. The two could eventually merge, answering the question of why galaxy and their black hole size are directly related. More
Chink found in armor of perfect cloak ScienceNews Share
Tiny charged particles could reveal the location of a perfect invisibility cloak. Such a cloak — which exists only in theory at the moment — would render an object invisible by gently deflecting photons around it. But charged particles wouldn't be fooled: they would interact with the cloak in a telltale way, giving up the cloak's location, researchers report in a paper to appear in an upcoming Physical Review Letters. More Feds give clean coal projects $979 million The Associated Press via Google Share
Multibillion-dollar clean coal projects in West Virginia, Texas and Alabama are getting $979 million in federal stimulus funding, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said. The money will go toward retrofitting existing coal-fired power plants owned by American Electric Power, Southern Co. and Summit Texas Clean Energy to capture and store carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas linked to climate change. The Energy Department is aiming to have the technology available commercially – and to share with other big coal-using countries – in eight to 10 years More Great moments in science: the world's tiniest snowman Popular Science Share
What do tiny smiling snowmen mean for science? Not much; these physicists just decided to show off their ability to make really small things. This little guy measures just 10 micrometers across, or just 1/5th the width of a human hair. Scientists at the National Physics Laboratory in the UK built the snowman body from two tin beads, and milled the eyes and smile in the top bead using a focused ion beam. The snowman also has a platinum nose deposited by said ion beam, which probably beats a silly carrot any day. More |
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