Oct 06, 2009 - Electron microscopes are the most powerful type of microscope, capable of distinguishing even individual atoms.

However, these microscopes cannot be used to image living cells because the electrons destroy the samples.

Now, MIT assistant professor Mehmet Fatih Yanik and his student, William Putnam, propose a new scheme that can overcome this limitation by using a quantum mechanical measurement technique that allows electrons to sense objects remotely.

Damage would be avoided because the electrons would never actually hit the imaged objects.

Oct 05, 2009 - Researchers at Ohio State University are experimenting with polymer semiconductors that absorb the sun’s energy and generate electricity. The goal: lighter, cheaper, and more-flexible solar cells.

They have now discovered that adding tiny bits of silver to the plastic boosts the materials’ electrical current generation.

Paul Berger, professor of electrical and computer engineering and professor of physics at Ohio State, led the team that reported the results online in the journal Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells.

Oct 05, 2009 - Controlling huge electromagnetic forces that have the potential to destroy the next generation of particle accelerators is the subject of a new paper by a University of Manchester physicist.

So-called ‘wake fields’ occur during the process of acceleration and can cause particles to fly apart. The particles are travelling at extremely high energies – and if they are subjected to these wake fields, they can easily destroy the accelerators. 

In his paper ‘Wake field Suppression in High Gradient Linacs for Lepton Linear Colliders’, accelerator physicist Professor Roger Jones examines research into the suppression of these wake fields.

Oct 04 2009 -Researchers have developed a new method for studying bacterial swimming, one that allows them to trap Escherichia coli bacteria and modify the microbes’ environment without hindering the way they move.

The new approach, described this month in Nature Methods, uses optical traps, microfluidic chambers and fluorescence to get an improved picture of how E. coli get around.

The microfluidic chambers provide a controlled environment in which the bacteria swim, and allow the researchers to introduce specific stimuli – such as chemical attractants – to see if the microbes change direction in response to that stimulus.

Oct 02 2009- An international team of physicists has for the first time observed magnetic behaviour in an atomic gas, addressing a decades-old debate as to whether it is possible for a gas or liquid to become ferromagnetic and exhibit magnetic properties.

"Magnets are all around us – holding postcards on the refrigerator, pointing to magnetic north on a compass, and in speakers and headphones – yet some mysteries remain," says Joseph H. Thywissen, a professor of physics at the University of Toronto and a visiting member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-based team leading the research. "We have perhaps found the simplest situation in which permanent magnetism can exist."

Oct 02, 2009 - NPL, along with collaborators, produced technical reports for the European Space Agency (ESA). The conclusions demonstrated that the lasers were a suitable method for measurement in such missions.

Formation flying missions involve multiple spacecraft flying between tens and hundreds of metres apart, which autonomously control their position relative to each other.

The benefit of such missions is they can gather data in a completely different way to a standard spacecraft – the formation can effectively act as one large sensor.

Oct 01, 2009 - Researchers have overcome a major obstacle in efforts to use tiny structures called carbon nanotubes to create a new class of electronics that would be faster and smaller than conventional silicon-based transistors.

Carbon nanotubes, which were discovered in the early 1990s, could make possible more powerful, compact and energy-efficient computers, as well as ultra-thin "nanowires" for electronic circuits.

The nanotubes might be ideal for future electronics because they conduct electricity more efficiently than any other metal, but their practical application requires that they be manufactured to specific standards.