Category Physics

The tiny YbMgGaO4 crystal, here perched on a stand for testing, appears to be the next extremely rare material to produce an equally as rare observable quantum spin liquid. Credit: Georgia Tech / Martin Mourigal

Inside a new exotic crystal, physicist Martin Mourigal has observed strong indications of “spooky” action, and lots of it. The results of his experiments, if corroborated over time, would mean that the type of crystal is a rare new material that can produce an observable quantum spin liquid. Currently, only a small handful of materials are believed to possibly have these properties. This new crystal was synthesized for the first time only a year ago.

A “liquid” found inside a solid object may sound confusing to many people...

Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo, with SpaceShipTwo attached, takes off from Mojave Air and Space Port in California on an earlier test flight. Credit: Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic’s new spaceship has made a successful first glide flight, a key step after a deadly crash of its predecessor two years ago, the spaceflight company said on Saturday. The new SpaceShipTwo, dubbed VSS Unity, was hoisted aloft by carrier airplane WhiteKnightTwo VMS Eve from the Mojave Air & Space Port in California, the company said on Twitter.

Released from the mothership, VSS Unity flew home to Earth on its own, according to the company owned by British billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson. “VSS Unity has landed...

Graphic depicts the tethered enzymes and free-floating enzymes. Credit: Cornell University

Just like workers in a factory, enzymes can create a final product more efficiently if they are stuck together in one place and pass the raw material from enzyme to enzyme, assembly line-style. That’s according to scientists at Cornell’s Baker Institute for Animal Health, the first team to recreate a 10-step biological pathway with all the enzymes tethered to nanoparticles. They were inspired to study how nanoparticles could gain biological functions through the enzymes that drive sperm tails, which turn sugar into lactate and energy so quickly that sperm can speed along at 5 body lengths/s

“Sperm have a highly efficient energy-producing system,” said Chinatsu Mukai, a postdoctoral research associate...

Argonne high-energy physicist Wei Gai and engineer Scott Doran work on a newly developed positron target that could help provide a key component for the proposed International Linear Collider. Credit: Wes Agresta/Argonne National Laboratory

Although a lot of time and effort in particle physics are devoted to finding ways to increase the energy of certain experiments, sometimes it is even more important to find ways to safely, quickly and easily remove energy from an experiment. Researchers at the U.S. DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory have recently developed a new ultra-low-friction sliding contact mechanism that uses chilled water to remove heat from a key component of a next-generation collider.

For the past two years, Gai et al have been attempting to assemble a working prototype for a ...