Physics

Quantum Mechanics Discovery Could Make Current Encryption Obsolete

According to quantum mechanics, small magnetic objects called nanomagnets can exist in two distinct states (i.e. north pole up and north pole down). They can switch their state through a phenomenon called quantum tunneling. When the nanomagnet switches its ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 5 2008 - 9:48pm

Atomic Coilgun Experiment Reveals Most Atoms Can Be Cooled And Stopped

Stopping and cooling most of the atoms of the periodic table is now possible using a pair of techniques developed by physicist Mark Raizen at The University of Texas at Austin. Raizen stopped atoms by passing a supersonic beam through an “atomic coilgun” a ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 6 2008 - 5:09pm

Mercury Versus Aluminum: The Race For The World's Most Accurate Clock

An atomic clock that uses an aluminum atom to apply the logic of computers to the peculiarities of the quantum world now rivals the world's most accurate clock, based on a single mercury atom. Both clocks are at least 10 times more accurate than the c ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 6 2008 - 5:39pm

Universe's First Trillionth Of A Second: Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe Reveals New Information

This week, NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) showed off three key findings contained in five years of data: (1)New evidence that a sea of cosmic neutrinos permeates the universe (2) Clear evidence the first stars took more than a half ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 7 2008 - 5:10pm

Gyro-resonant Electron Acceleration At Jupiter Could Help Protect Earth-orbit Satellites

Radio waves accelerate electrons within Jupiter’s magnetic field in the same way as they do on Earth, according to new research. The discovery overturns a theory that has held sway for more than a generation and has important implications for protecting Ea ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 9 2008 - 5:04pm

Beyond The Standard Model: Optical Method Shows 100X Improvement Over Other Neutron Detectors

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland have developed a new optical method that can detect individual neutrons and record them over a range of intensities at least a hundred times greater tha ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 10 2008 - 10:11pm

Numerical Simulation Says Carbon Nanotubes Could Be The Future Of Interconnects

Everyone knows computer chips have increased in speed and shrunk in size over the past few decades and their interconnects, the copper wires that transport signals around the chip and to other chips, have shrunk also. As interconnects get smaller, the copp ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 13 2008 - 10:06am

Entangled Photon Pairs Experiment Tests 'Spooky Action At A Distance'

Researchers at NIST and the Joint Quantum Institute (NIST/University of Maryland) have developed a new method for creating pairs of entangled photons, particles of light whose properties are interlinked in a very unusual way dictated by the rules of quantu ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 18 2008 - 5:47pm

NIST Is Building The 'Evolutionary Link' Between Chips Of Today And Future Organic Ones

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have set the stage for building the “evolutionary link” between the microelectronics of today built from semiconductor compounds and future generations of devices made largely from co ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 18 2008 - 4:38pm

Graphene Is A 'Superconducter' At Room Temperature

Graphene, a single-atom-thick sheet of graphite, is a new material which combines aspects of semiconductors and metals. University of Maryland physicists have shown that in graphene the intrinsic limit to the mobility, a measure of how well a material cond ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 24 2008 - 10:10am