Category Physics

Martin Schiller et al. Isotopic evolution of the protoplanetary disk and the building blocks of Earth and the Moon, Nature (2018). DOI: 10.1038/nature25990

A team of researchers with the University of Copenhagen and the Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions has come up with a new explanation regarding the difference in composition of the planets in our solar system. In their paper published in the journal Nature, they describe their study of the calcium-isotope composition of certain meteorites, Earth itself, and Mars, and use what they learned to explain how the planets could be so different. Alessandro Morbidelli with Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in France offers a News & Views piece on the work done by the team in the same journal issue.

As Morbidelli notes, most p...

The diamond is held inside a sapphire ring and illuminated by 532-nm green laser. The red light is fluorescence from the NV centres. Credit: Jonathan Breeze, Imperial College London

The breakthrough means masers – the microwave version of lasers – could now be used more widely in a range of applications. The maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation), the older microwave frequency sibling of the laser, was invented in 1954. However unlike lasers, which have become widespread, masers are much less widely used because in order to function they must be cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero (-273°C).

In 2012, scientists demonstrated that a maser could operate at room temperature using the organic molecule pentacene...

NTU ground glass camera can take images in multispectrum, with potential uses in chemical sensing and food safety. Credit: Image courtesy of Nanyang Technological University

A new camera technology developed by scientists from NTU Singapore can take sharp, colour images without using a lens and colour filters. Using only a piece of ground glass and a monochrome sensor, the scientists created multi-coloured images by ‘reverse engineering’ the light that is scattered by the translucent matt surface of the ground glass, thus obtaining the original image that was projected on to it.

Since different wavelengths of light are scattered differently by the ground glass, the NTU scientists created an algorithm to reconstruct the image...

This is the target chamber (front) and ultra-high intensity laser (back) used in the micro-scale fusion experiment at Colorado State University. Credit: Advanced Beam Laboratory/Colorado State University

Record-setting efficiency for generation of neutrons. Nuclear fusion, the process that powers our sun, happens when nuclear reactions between light elements produce heavier ones. It’s also happening – at a smaller scale – in a Colorado State University laboratory. Using a compact but powerful laser to heat arrays of ordered nanowires, CSU scientists and collaborators have demonstrated micro-scale nuclear fusion in the lab. They have achieved record-setting efficiency for the generation of neutrons – chargeless sub-atomic particles resulting from the fusion process.

Laser-driven controlled ...