Physical Sciences
Frustration crops up throughout nature when conflicting constraints on a physical system compete with one another. The way nature resolves these conflicts often leads to exotic phases of matter that are poorly understood. This week’s issue of Science Magazine features new results from the research group of Christopher Monroe at the JQI, where they explored how to frustrate a quantum magnet comprised of sixteen atomic ions – to date the largest ensemble of qubits to perform a simulation of quantum matter.
| 5 min read
The COUPP-60 experiment, located at SNOLAB, had a breathtaking morning on May 01 as it experienced the first bubble in the experiment chamber!
| 1 min read
Sequestered in the farmland near Stoughton, an unusual UW-Madison facility — part machine shop, part design lab, part physics outpost — continues to make machines, equipment and detectors for the world's most advanced experiments.
| 3 min read
An old, somewhat passé, trick used to purify protein samples based on their affinity for water has found new fans at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where materials scientists are using it to divvy up solutions of carbon nanotubes, separating the metallic nanotubes from semiconductors.
| 3 min read
Research that shows how glycerine and other byproducts from biodiesel production can be converted to catalysts for greener industrial processes is being honored with the 2013 Glycerine Innovation Award.
| 1 min read
Berkeley Lab physicists and their colleagues in CERN’s ALPHA experiment present the first direct evidence of how atoms of antimatter interact with gravity.
| 3 min read
A dramatic leap forward in the ability of scientists to study the structural states of macromolecules such as proteins and nanoparticles in solution has been achieved by a pair of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).
| 3 min read
In a process comparable to squeezing an elephant through a pinhole, researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology have designed a way to engineer atoms capable of funneling light through ultra-small channels.
| 3 min read
With the help of a solitary sea squirt, scientists have resolved the longstanding puzzle of the crystal structure of vaterite, an enigmatic geologic mineral and biomineral.
| 3 min read
A strange stellar pair nearly 7,000 light-years from Earth has provided physicists with a unique cosmic laboratory for studying the nature of gravity.
| 3 min read
ASU engineer Amy Landis has a pivotal role in a new potentially far-reaching effort to use biomaterial to produce rubber in a more environmentally and economically sustainable way.
| 3 min read
