JON CARTWRIGHT – Page 59 – & THREE QUARKS EDITORIAL

Fusion in a cold climate

New ScientistJon Cartwright15 July, 2009

Published in New Scientist, 15 Jul 2009

For most researchers, any mention of cold fusion brings back memories of a shameful period in modern science. Now, 20 years after Martin Fleischmann instigated this field, he tells Jon Cartwright that he could not have done anything differently, and that if we cannot get fusion of some sort to work on a large scale soon, we’re doomed

Martin Fleischmann (Image: Jon Cartwright) — (c) 2009 Jon Cartwright

Martin Fleischmann can still remember the morning he entered his lab and saw the terrific hole in the workbench. It was about the size of a dinner plate. Beneath, nestled in a shallow crater in the concrete floor, were the remains of a chemistry experiment that had been fizzing idly for several months without incident. “It had obliterated itself!” he recalls.

It happened overnight, so no one witnessed the meltdown that took place in a basement lab at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, in 1985. But for Fleischmann and his longtime colleague Stanley Pons, there could be only one cause: room-temperature or “cold” fusion. If they were right, the chemists had made a reaction that nuclear physicists had thought next to impossible, one that potentially held the key to almost limitless clean energy. Yet four years later, and just weeks after they had announced their discovery at a now infamous press conference on 23 March 1989, their work was dismissed from mainstream science. Cold fusion became a pariah field, and Fleischmann and Pons fell under the shadow of disrepute. […]

The rest of this article is available here.

Ultracold atom takes a quantum walk

Physics WorldJon Cartwright9 July, 2009

Published in Physics World, 9 Jul 2009

Single atoms have been spotted doing the quantum version of the random walk by physicists in Germany. This sighting of a “quantum walk” could help in the design of quantum search algorithms, or in the understanding of the transition from the quantum, microscopic world to the classical, macroscopic world.

The random walk is a simple concept that has been used to describe many real-world systems from stock market prices to the Brownian motion of tiny particles floating on a liquid. It is usually described as a person who dictates his movements by the toss of a coin: get heads, for example, and he moves one step to the right; get tails and he takes a step to the left. After many coin tosses, the person’s position is random, but is most likely to be close to the start point. […]

The rest of this article is available here.

Antimicrobial nanoparticles may help fight brain infections

Chemistry WorldJon Cartwright28 June, 2009

Published in Chemistry World, 28 Jun 2009

Antimicrobial nanoparticles that can cross the, almost impermeable, blood-brain barrier have been created by Asian researchers. This may lead to better treatment for human brain infections such as meningitis and encephalitis, say the team.

Conventional antibiotics do not damage cell walls, but penetrate microbes to target specific actions such as cell division. However, with its morphology persevered, the microbe is still able to develop resistance. For this reason, many researchers have been investigating an alternative: antimicrobial peptides. These peptides do not have specific targets, and instead damage the membranes of microbes through an electrostatic interaction. This damage is hard to repair, and so resistance is prevented. These peptides are particularly useful for combating multidrug resistant microbes. […]

The rest of this article is available here.

Nanoparticles make ‘self-erasing’ images

Chemistry WorldJon Cartwright19 June, 2009

Published in Chemistry World, 19 Jun 2009

Materials displaying ‘self-erasing’ colour images have been created by chemists in the US, who have studied how certain nanoparticles can assemble and disassemble themselves under different wavelengths of light.

The materials, which are printed with ultraviolet (UV) light and erased with visible light, could one day be used for self-expiring bus tickets or for carrying secret messages. […]

The rest of this article is available here.

‘Sluggish’ jet streams linked to quiet Sun

Physics WorldJon Cartwright18 June, 2009

Published in Physics World, 18 Jun 2009

The unusually long quiet period of the Sun’s present activity may be due to the motion of “sluggish” jet streams beneath the solar surface, according to scientists at the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Arizona, US.

The scientists’ observations, which show an east–west jet stream has taken a year longer to migrate south by 10^° than in the previous solar cycle, also indicate that the sun is moving into its next cycle.

“We need to continue these observations for many, many more years to fully understand what is going on,” said NSO researcher Frank Hill yesterday at a meeting of the solar-physics division of the American Astronomical Society in Boulder, Colorado, adding: “We cannot at this point definitively say [the jet stream] is a real cause, but I think it is quite clear that it is associated.” […]

The rest of this article is available here.

Black-hole analogue traps sound

Physics WorldJon Cartwright16 June, 2009

Published in Physics World, 16 Jun 2009

Physicists in Israel have created a black–hole analogue that can trap sound in the same way an astrophysical black hole can trap light. The system, which comprises a “density-inverted Bose–Einstein condensate”, may present one of the best chances yet to detect elusive Hawking radiation.

In an astrophysical sense, a black hole is a region of space so dense that the gravity at its centre approaches infinity. Surrounding this region is the so–called event horizon, beyond which nothing — not even light — can escape.

The rest of this article is available here.

Axions could shed light on solar mysteries

Physics WorldJon Cartwright12 June, 2009

Published in Physics World, 12 Jun 2009

If you think the weather on Earth is unpredictable, on the Sun it is far more puzzling. For decades scientists have wondered how its corona — or outer atmosphere — can be so much hotter than its surface, even though they are thousands of kilometres apart. Then there is the question of what powers solar flares, which can shower satellites and astronauts with lethal radiation.

Now a group led by Konstantin Zioutas at CERN thinks the answer might lie with the “axion”, a hypothetical particle that could also explain the mysterious dark matter that seems to make up most of the universe’s mass. “If the logic is correct, then we should have a good chance to directly see solar axions, or axions made in the laboratory by ourselves,” says Zioutas. […]

The rest of this article is available here.

‘Bilayer’ graphene shows tunable bandgap

Chemistry WorldJon Cartwright10 June, 2009

Published in Chemistry World, 10 Jun 2009

Since its discovery in 2004, the carbon-based material known as graphene has revealed a stream of attractive properties. Now, researchers in the US have shown that a two-layer version can deliver yet another: a wide, tunable bandgap. The discovery paves the way for new electronic devices, from lasers that change colour to electronic circuits that rearrange themselves.

Graphene is a sheet of carbon just one atom thick, with a structure that resembles chicken wire. Single sheets of the material have proved to have record-breaking strength, high conductivity and high transparency. But recently some scientists have come to suspect that the most interesting properties might arise in two parallel sheets, or so-called bilayer graphene. […]

The rest of this article is available here.

Green method to kill termites

Chemistry WorldJon Cartwright8 June, 2009

Published in Chemistry World, 8 Jun 2009

Researchers in the US have come up with a cheap, environmentally friendly way to kill termites and other pests. The method involves the applying a sugar derivative, which inhibits an anti-microbial protein normally secreted by the insects, thereby leaving them open to disease.

Insects have efficient immune systems, although much of their workings are still unknown. Nevertheless, one aspect that is well-understood is the existence of proteins called pattern-recognition receptors, which can spot microbes that should not be present. Such receptors come under a class of ‘gram-negative bacteria binding proteins’, or GNBPs. […]

The rest of this article is available here.

Metal pumps liquid uphill

Physics WorldJon Cartwright5 June, 2009

Published in Physics World, 5 Jun 2009

Researchers in the US have discovered a way of modifying metal surfaces so that they “pump” liquids uphill. The method, which involves exposing the surfaces to pulses of intense laser light, could be exploited in the future for analysing fluids “on-chip” or for biological sensing.

Earlier this week, physicsworld.com reported on research by Chunlei Guo and Anatoliy Vorobyev at the University of Rochester, New York, in which they claimed laser pulses could “blacken” a lightbulb’s tungsten filament and thereby boost its efficiency towards 100 %. Now, Guo and Vorobyev have used a similar technique to affect the surface “wettability” of platinum and gold plates. […]

The rest of this article is available here.