Recent Comments

    Physicists uncover new Competing state of matter in Superconducting material

    January 6, 2019, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Ames Laboratory researchers used laser pulses of less than a trillionth of a second in much the same way as flash photography, in order to take a series of snapshots. Called terahertz spectroscopy, this technique can be thought of as “laser strobe photography” where many quick images reveal the subtle movement of electron pairings inside the materials using long wavelength far-infrared light.
    Credit: US Department of Energy, Ames Laboratory

    A team of experimentalists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and theoreticians at University of Alabama Birmingham discovered a remarkably long-lived new state of matter in an iron pnictide superconductor, which reveals a laser-induced formation of collective behaviors that compete with superconductivity.

    “Superconductivity is a str...

    Read More

    Tiny satellites could be ‘Guide Stars’ for huge next-generation Telescopes

    January 6, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    In the coming decades, massive segmented space telescopes may be launched to peer even closer in on far-out exoplanets and their atmospheres. To keep these mega-scopes stable, MIT researchers say that small satellites can follow along, and act as “guide stars,” by pointing a laser back at a telescope to calibrate the system, to produce better, more accurate images of distant worlds. In the coming decades, massive segmented space telescopes may be launched to peer even closer in on far-out exoplanets and their atmospheres. To keep these mega-scopes stable, MIT researchers say that small satellites can follow along, and act as “guide stars,” by pointing a laser back at a telescope to calibrate the system, to produce better, more accurate images of distant worlds.
    Credit: Christine D...
    Read More

    Next up: Ultracold Simulators of Super-Dense Stars

    January 5, 2019, Categories  Physics, Astronomy/Space

    Rice University graduate student Tom Langin makes an adjustment to an experiment that uses 10 lasers of varying wavelengths to laser-cool ions in a neutral plasma.
    Credit: Photo by Brandon Martin/Rice University

    Rice University physicists have created the world’s first laser-cooled neutral plasma, completing a 20-year quest that sets the stage for simulators that re-create exotic states of matter found inside Jupiter and white dwarf stars. The findings are detailed this week in the journal Science and involve new techniques for laser cooling clouds of rapidly expanding plasma to temperatures about 50 times colder than deep space.

    “We don’t know the practical payoff yet, but every time physicists have laser cooled a new kind of thing, it has opened a whole world of possibilities,” said ...

    Read More

    ‘Christmas Berry’ plant compound could fight Uveal melanoma

    January 5, 2019, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    christmas berry plant Benovic uveal melanoma
    Christmas berry plant (Ardisia crenata)

    A molecule derived from a type of primrose could prove to be a potent inhibitor of metastatic growth for a rare and aggressive cancer. Doctors diagnose about 2000 adults with uveal melanoma, a cancer of the eye, every year. In half of cases, the disease metastasizes to the liver. For these patients treatment options are scarce. Researchers at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center (SKCC) — Jefferson Health and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai found that a compound extracted from the Christmas berry primrose plant stops the cancer’s growth in preliminary tests. With further testing, the discovery could lead to new therapeutic options for patients with uveal melanoma.

    “I’m very optimistic,” said Jeffrey Benovic, PhD, Thomas Eakins Endowed Profes...

    Read More