news 2011

New research offers breakthrough in nanotechnology Experts from the University of Sheffield have shed new light on the application of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) on a nano scale, paving the way for improved medical imaging techniques, computing, tele, data storage and photovoltaics.

A team of researchers has shown for the first time that chemical reactions at the nano-level which change the structure of carbon nanotubes can be sparked by an 'attack' from within. The discovery challenges previous scientific thinking that the internal surface of the hollow nanostructures is chemically unreactive, largely restricting their use to that of an inert container or a 'nano-reactor' inside which other chemical reactions can take place.

Researchers have taken a step forward in studying the wonder material graphene and revealing its exciting electronic properties for future electronic applications. The academics have revealed more about the electronic properties of its slightly fatter cousin - bilayer graphene. The researchers, from the universities of Manchester, Lancaster (UK), Nijmegen (the Netherland) and Moscow (Russia), have studied in detail the effect of interactions between electrons on the electronic properties of bilayer graphene.

PA 239/11 Research involving scientists from The University of Nottingham is pioneering a new method of studying and making molecules. The work, reported , could pave the way for the production of nanomaterials for use in a new generation of computers and data storage devices that are faster, smaller and more powerful.

An international research group has demonstrated a new technique that dramatically simplifies quantum circuits, bringing quantum computers closer to reality. Xiao-Qi Zhou and colleagues at the University of Bristol's Centre for Quantum Photonics and the University of Queensland, Australia, have shown that controlled operations ' ones that are implemented on the condition that a 'control bit' is in the state 1 - can be dramatically simplified compared to the standard approach.

The theory that our universe is contained inside a bubble, and that multiple alternative universes exist inside their own bubbles ' making up the 'multiverse' ' is, for the first time, being tested by physicists. Two research papers published in Physical Review Letters and Physical Review D are the first to detail how to search for signatures of other universes.

Birmingham particle physicists are today trawling through the data from particle collisions at the Large Hadron Collider that could indicate the existence of the Higgs boson. Against the regular backdrop of results from known processes, proton-proton collisions have produced considerable fluctuations that have intrigued scientists working at the ATLAS project in CERN.

Researchers have taken another step forward towards the understanding of wonder material graphene. Research institutes and universities around the world are already looking at ways to build devices such as touch-screen phones, ultrafast transistors and photodetectors. Now the new findings promise to accelerate that research, and potentially open up countless more electronic opportunities.

A violation of one of the oldest empirical laws of physics has been observed by scientists at the University of Bristol. Their experiments on purple bronze, a metal with unique one-dimensional electronic properties, indicate that it breaks the Wiedemann-Franz Law. This historic discovery is described in a paper published today.

A University of Warwick physicist has produced a galaxy sized solution which explains one of the outstanding puzzles of particle physics, while leaving the door open to the related conundrum of why different amounts of matter and antimatter seem to have survived the birth of our Universe. Physicists would like a neat universe where the laws of physics are so universal that every particle and its antiparticle behave in the same way.

ESA's Herschel Space Observatory is helping unravel the mystery of the origin of cosmic dust. Thanks to the resolution and sensitivity of Herschel, astronomers have been able to detect cosmic dust from a supernova, adding weight to the theory that these cosmic fireworks are responsible for its creation.

Climate researchers have turned to the Allied bombing raids of the Second World War for a unique opportunity to study the effect thousands of aircraft had on the English climate at a time when civilian aviation remained rare. The study, published in the International Journal of Climatology, reveals how civilian and military records can help assess the impact of modern aviation on the climate today.

'Cling-film' solar cells could lead to advance in renewable energy A scientific advance in renewable energy which promises a revolution in the ease and cost of using solar cells, has been announced today (Monday 4 July 2011) following work by scientists from the Universities of Sheffield and Cambridge.

Scientists at Oxford University have shown for the first time that molecular cages made from DNA can enter and survive inside living cells. The work, a collaboration between physicists and molecular neuroscientists at Oxford, shows that artificial DNA cages that could be used to carry cargoes of drugs can enter living cells, potentially leading to new methods of drug delivery.

University scientists have helped discover a supermassive black hole, the furthest away to be seen. The black hole appears to astronomers as a luminous quasar, or swirling disc of gas sitting at the centre of a distant galaxy. As the gas falls into the black hole, it gets hot and emits radiation, in the form of light.

by Simon Levey Thursday 30 June 2011 An international team of astronomers has announced the discovery of the most distant quasar yet seen. The quasar is an extremely bright source of light visible at infrared wavelengths, emitted as gas falls into a very massive black hole. The scientists have named it ULAS J1120+0641.

PA 201/11 A scientist at The University of Nottingham is part of a team of astronomers which has discovered the most distant quasar to date — a development that could help further our understanding of a universe still in its infancy following the Big Bang. This brilliant and rare beacon, powered by a black hole with a mass two billion times that of the Sun, is by far the brightest object yet found from a time when the Universe was less than 800 million years old — just a fraction of its current age.

An international team of scientists, including Chris Coath from the University of Bristol, have measured oxygen isotopes in solar wind, captured by NASA's Genesis mission, to infer the isotopic composition of the Sun, and, by inference, the solar system as a whole. Their results are published in Science.

New research by the University of Warwick and Humboldt University shows that the frequency of wars between states increased steadily from 1870 to 2001 by 2% a year on average. The research argues that conflict is being fed by economic growth and the proliferation of new borders.

Scientists involved in the MINOS experiment, including six members from UCL Physics and Astronmy, have announced the results from a search for a rare phenomenon: the transformation of muon neutrinos into electron neutrinos. The results of these two experiments could have implications for our understanding of the role that neutrinos may have played in the evolution of the universe.