If you throw a particle at a wall, there’s a chance that it will suddenly appear on the other side. This is thanks to a phenomenon known as quantum tunneling, and now a team of physicists has measured just how long that process takes.
Continue Reading
In recent tests run by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), experimental atomic clocks have achieved record performance in three metrics, meaning these clocks could help measure the Earth’s gravity more precisely or detect elusive dark matter.
Continue Reading
The tractor beam is a long-time staple of sci-fi, but now Australian researchers have created a real-world version. While it won’t exactly be capturing enemy spaceships anytime soon, the device can use light to pull in and trap atoms, which may be handy for quantum communications or memory systems.
Continue Reading
Waiting for water to boil is a minor inconvenience that we’ve all experienced. Maybe next time try the world’s most powerful X-ray laser, which has now been used to boil water to 100,000° C in 75 millionths of a billionth of a second, turning it into a new plasma-like state of matter in the process.
Continue Reading
At the heart of an atomic clock are, as the name suggests, atoms of a specific type. Now, physicists at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have found that lutetium atoms could make for more stable atomic clocks.
Continue Reading
Graphene hogs all the headlines about two-dimensional materials, but it might just be the beginning. Researchers have now isolated a 2D form of the soft metal gallium, dubbed "gallenene," which could make for efficient, thin metal contacts in electronic devices.
Continue Reading
Ball lightning has been consistently reported for centuries, and yet we still know very little about it. Now, scientists have created quantum ball lightning by knotting together the magnetic spins of atoms, which could help unlock the secrets of the phenomenon, or make more stable fusion reactors.
Continue Reading
As tiny as they are, there's a relatively large amount of empty space inside an atom. Now, scientists from Austria and the US have filled in some of those gaps, creating a new state of matter in the form of "giant atoms" filled with other atoms.
Continue Reading
Researchers have now found a way for graphene to be used as a clean and potentially unlimited energy source. By tapping into the random fluctuations of the carbon atoms that make up graphene sheets, the scientists can generate an alternating current strong enough to indefinitely power a wristwatch.
Continue Reading
To better understand molecular events, scientists use short-pulse X-ray lasers to take precise snapshots. Now, researchers at ETH Zurich have managed to shorten the pulse of an X-ray laser down to 43 attoseconds – which the team says is the shortest controlled event ever created by humankind.
Continue Reading
See the stories that matter in your inbox every morning