Category Physics

Professor John Tyrer and the ExDtect device. Credit: Image courtesy of Loughborough University

As the world reels from the Brussels bombings, a device created at Loughborough University could provide the answer to safeguarding the travelling public. ExDtect – the brainchild of Loughborough professor John Tyrer – can identify tiny amounts of explosive particles invisible to the naked eye. Using complex laser technology it can remotely scan vehicles, cargo and crowded areas, eg airports, train stations and sports stadiums, automatically alerting an operator if it detects traces of explosives and accurately pinpointing its location.

The system is non-invasive, works in real time and causes no delays to the public or businesses...

A schematic image representing a periodic variation in the density of Cooper pairs (pairs of blue arrows pointing in opposite directions) within a cuprate superconductor. Densely packed rows of Cooper pairs alternate with regions having lower pair density and no pairs at all. Such a “Cooper pair density wave” was predicted 50 years ago but was just discovered using a unique “scanning Josephson tunneling microscope. Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory

Scientists have produced the first direct evidence of a state of electronic matter first predicted by theorists in 1964. The discovery may provide key insights into the workings of high-temperature superconductors. The prediction was that “Cooper pairs” of electrons in a superconductor could exist in 2 possible states...

The NOvA detector measures 50 feet by 50 feet by 200 feet, and the top surface of the detector as shown here is covered with readout and monitoring systems. Each gold-colored box in the image contains a photodiode array, cooling components, and associated electronics to detect light from 32 of the 344,000 cells that make up the detector. Credit: Reidar Hahn/Fermilab

Every second, trillions of neutrinos travel through your body unnoticed. Neutrinos are among the most abundant particles in the universe, but they are difficult to study because they very rarely interact with matter...

Electronic circuits straight from a pen. Credit: Image courtesy of INM – Leibniz-Institut für Neue Materialien gGmbH

Research scientists at INM have combined the benefits of organic and inorganic electronic materials in a new type of hybrid inks. This allows electronic circuits to be applied to paper directly from a pen, for example. This requires printable electronic materials that can be printed and retain a high level of conductivity during usage in spite of their curved surfaces. Some tried and tested materials include organic, conductive polymers and nanoparticles made of conductive oxides (TCOs).

To create their hybrid inks, they coated nanoparticles made of metals with organic, conductive polymers and suspended them in mixtures of water and alcohol...