Category Physics

The researchers at Aalto University have made an array of nanoparticles combined with dye molecules to act as a tiny laser. The lasing occurs in a dark mode and the laser light leaks out from the edges of array. Credit: Antti Paraoanu

Researchers at Aalto University, Finland are the first to develop a plasmonic nanolaser that operates at visible light frequencies and uses so-called dark lattice modes. The laser works at length scales 1000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair. The lifetimes of light captured in such small dimensions are so short that the light wave has time to wiggle up and down only a few tens or hundreds of times. The results open new prospects for on-chip coherent light sources, such as lasers, that are extremely small and ultrafast.

The laser operation in th...

This image shows levitating a 3cm diameter expanded polysterine sphere with a DIY portable tractor beam. Credit: Asier Marzo

Last year Asier Marzo, then a doctoral student at the Public University of Navarre, helped develop the first single-sided acoustic tractor beam – that is, the first realization of trapping and pulling an object using sound waves from only one direction. Now a research assistant at the University of Bristol, Marzo has lead a team that adapted the technology to be, for all intents and purposes, 3-D printable by anyone (with some assembly required, of course)...

Interactive 3-D models of human joints, showing how common medical complaints have arisen and how we are likely to evolve in the future, have been created at Oxford University.

Interactive 3D models of human joints, showing how common medical complaints have arisen and how we are likely to evolve in the future, have been created at Oxford University. The Oxford researchers made the 3D computer models by compiling 128 slice CT scans of bones from humans, early hominids, primates and dinosaurs. In all, they scanned 224 bone specimens, spanning 350 million years from the Devonian period to the modern day.
By using 3-D engineering and mathematical methods the group has produced 3-D ‘morphs’ to plot changes in the shapes of species throughout the human lineage...

Illustration shows the delivery route of hydrogen sulfide to damaged cells based on two projects completed in the University of Oregon lab of Michael Pluth. Credit: Michael Pluth

Molecules with the potential to deliver healing power to stressed cells – such as those involved in heart attacks – have been created by University of Oregon researchers. The research – done at a cellular level in the lab and far from medical reality – involves the design of organic molecules that break down to release hydrogen sulfide when triggered by specific conditions such as increased oxidative stress. Oxidative stress damages cells and is tied especially to heart disease and cancer, as well as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

“We have discovered that small organic molecules can be engineered to release ...