Category Physics

The nuclear phase diagram: RHIC sits in the energy “sweet spot” for exploring the transition between ordinary matter made of hadrons and the early universe matter known as quark-gluon plasma. Credit: Image courtesy of Brookhaven National Laboratory

An in-depth look at the origins of matter and the environmental conditions that helped shape the universe today. Our understanding is shaped by re-creating events that constituted the Big Bang and by studying the primordial soup of fundamental particles of the very early universe. One of the best science tools for this is the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a DOE Office of Science User Facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

RHIC, a particle collider, is the first machine capable of mashing together heavy ions, which are atoms that h...

Photo of Nano-Bio System A schematic of the nano-biosystem (top) and an electron microscope image of quantum rods

A transformational advance has been made in an alternate lighting source, one that doesn’t require a battery or a plug: high-efficient energy transfer between semiconductor quantum rods and luciferase enzymes. Quantum rods and luciferase enzymes are nanomaterials and biomaterials, respectively. When combined correctly, these materials produce bioluminescence – except, instead of coming from a biomaterial, such as a firefly enzyme, the light eminates from a nanomaterial, and is green, orange, red, or near-infrared in color.

Each quantum rods is 4 nm wide and 50 nm long...

The water bridge pictured is formed under the influence of a high-voltage electrical field of about 15kV. It spans about 1 cm across two Teflon beakers, each filled with deionised water. Credit: © Woisetschläger/Fuchs – TU Graz.

Wetsus in The Netherlands and TU Graz have produced electrically charged water by means of a floating water bridge. Until its scientific rediscovery in 2007 at TU Graz, the “water bridge” phenomenon, discovered in the 19th century, had sank into oblivion. If extremely pure water ie water distilled many times, is placed in 2 beakers and subject to a high voltage, the fluid moves up the side of each beaker and forms a floating water bridge between the 2 vessels...

NIST researchers demonstrated an approach for detecting hidden flaws in ceramic capacitors, which store energy in the electronics for medical implants and spacecraft. NIST studied 3-millimeter-long capacitors (top photo), looking for cracks similar to the one shown in the NASA photo (bottom). Credit: NIST/NASA

Medical implants and spacecraft can suddenly go dead, often for the same reason: cracks in ceramic capacitors, devices that store electric charge in electronic circuits. These cracks, at first harmless and often hidden, can start conducting electricity, depleting batteries or shorting out the electronics...