JON CARTWRIGHT – Page 60 – & THREE QUARKS EDITORIAL

Laser boosts light bulb efficiency

Physics WorldJon Cartwright2 June, 2009

Published in Physics World, 2 Jun 2009

The prevalence of cold, blue energy-saving light bulbs might soon begin to fade. That’s according to researchers in the US, who claim to have discovered how to make traditional incandescent bulbs 100% efficient.

“Many people still love incandescent light bulbs because they create the most pleasant light and are cheaper to buy,” Chunlei Guo of the University of Rochester, New York, told physicsworld.com. “The downside is the low efficiency of the conventional incandescent bulbs. This research addresses that very problem.” […]

The rest of this article is available here.

Cold-fusion television show angers APS

Physics WorldJon Cartwright1 June, 2009

Published in Physics World, 1 Jun 2009

Cold fusion has been controversial since its inception on 23 March 1989, when chemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons at the University of Utah in the US announced that they had achieved a sustained nuclear fusion reaction at room temperature. Two decades on, a US television documentary about the field has stirred up fresh debate after it linked the American Physical Society (APS) to an evaluation of some cold-fusion results by Robert Duncan, a physicist and vice chancellor of the University of Missouri.

The story began when Duncan was invited by the news show 60 Minutes to investigate whether certain electrochemical experiments can give off more energy in the form of heat than is supplied via an electric current. Those in the cold-fusion community take such excess heat as evidence of nuclear fusion because it cannot be explained by chemical reactions alone. […]

For the rest of this article, please contact Jon Cartwright for a pdf.

New method to seek life-supporting exoplanets

Physics WorldJon Cartwright28 May, 2009

Published in Physics World, 28 May 2009

Scientists in the US have come up with a new method to search for oceans on “exoplanets” — planets outside our Solar System. The method, which involves studying how colours shift with an exoplanet’s rotation, could help in the quest for discovering extraterrestrial life.

There are several methods already used to spot water on exoplanets. One is spectroscopy, which can reveal the characteristic absorption wavelengths of water molecules and which has already been used successfully on giant planets. Others involve searching for the appearance of clouds or the glint of light shining off a reflective surface, although this latter technique has so far only been used for other liquids, such as methane on Saturn’s moon Titan. […]

The rest of this article is available here.

‘Fountain pen’ injects nanodiamonds

Chemistry WorldJon Cartwright22 May, 2009

Published in Chemistry World, 22 May 2009

Researchers in the US have created a ‘fountain pen’ probe that can pattern nanodiamonds at high resolution and inject them into single cells. The probe could be used as a research and development tool for creating nanodiamond devices and exploring the effect of single cells carrying medical drugs.

Nanodiamonds have several unique properties that make them attractive in biomedicine: they have a high surface area for their volume, they are bio-compatible, and – although no-one is quite sure how – they are able to steadily release drugs that have been attached to them. […]

The rest of this article is available here.

Data storage enters the ‘fifth dimension’

Physics WorldJon Cartwright20 May, 2009

Published in Physics World, 20 May 2009

The first DVD–sized discs with storage capacities well over one terabyte could be available in as little as five years, according to researchers in Australia who have invented a new storage technique. The concept, which the researchers have already demonstrated on test media, uses layers of gold nanorods to achieve ‘five–dimensional recording’.

Optical discs, such as CDs and DVDs, store data as a spiral track of microscopic pits etched onto their surface. To read the data, light from a laser diode is reflected from the surface and the reflected light drops in intensity every time the beam hits a pit. […]

The rest of this article is available here.

‘Knowledge engine’ hits the Web

Physics WorldJon Cartwright18 May, 2009

Published in Physics World, 18 May 2009

Here’s a little test: if an electron beam were coming towards you with an energy of 1 GeV, how much lead would you need to stop it?

It’s not an easy question to answer. Even if you knew the formula that links the kinetic energy of electrons to their stopping distance in lead, you would have to do a little maths before you found the correct result. But now there might be an easier way: go to Wolfram Alpha, an internet “computational knowledge engine” that officially launches today. […]

The rest of this article is available here.

Carbon electrodes help form high capacity lithium-sulfur batteries

Chemistry WorldJon Cartwright17 May, 2009

Published in Chemistry World, 17 May 2009

Chemists in Canada have used a carbon framework to form an electrode in lithium-sulfur batteries that results in charge capacities several times greater than standard lithium ion batteries.

The researchers say that the electrode, which is based on a framework of ordered carbon rods and fibres, behaves like a ‘mini electrochemical reaction chamber.’ […]

The rest of this article is available here.

Antarctic input to rising oceans ‘overestimated’

Physics WorldJon Cartwright14 May, 2009

Published in Physics World, 14 May 2009

Sea–level rises resulting from the collapse of the unstable western Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS) under climate change could be half the generally accepted value, according to researchers from the UK and the Netherlands.

Jonathan Bamber of the University of Bristol, together with colleagues from the Delft Institute of Earth Observation and Space Systems and the Delft University of Technology, has used updated survey data and theory to calculate that the maximum contribution to sea levels would be about 3 m, and not 5 to 6 m as had been assumed. However, the calculations suggest that any sea–level rise would be 25% worse along the Pacific and Atlantic seaboards of the US. […]

The rest of this article is available here.

Nanocrystals stop blinking

Chemistry WorldJon Cartwright10 May, 2009

Published in Chemistry World, 10 May 2009

Researchers in the US have created the first semiconductor nanocrystals that do not intermittently ‘blink’ while emitting light. The breakthrough, which the researchers believe to be a result of a smooth transition in composition, may give way to a new breed of nanocrystals for applications ranging from biological imaging to low-threshold lasers.

Semiconductor nanocrystals are potentially attractive because their optical and electronic properties are strongly related to their size. So to change the emitted colour from blue to red, for example, a nanocrystal would only have to be grown several times larger. This is, however, impossible for more conventional semiconductors like gallium arsenide, because they would have to be so heavily doped they would no longer be a pure material. […]

This rest of this article is available here.

‘Chorus’ generates mystery space hiss

Physics WorldJon Cartwright7 May, 2009

Published in Physics World, 7 May 2009

If it weren’t there, astronauts and satellites might well be showered with electrons at lethal energies. It’s “plasmaspheric hiss” — a natural radio wave that lies in just the right place outside the Earth to deflect high-energy electrons out of space and safely into the atmosphere. Since its discovery more than 40 years ago no–one has been sure of its origin, but now researchers from the US, Sweden and France claim to have the answer.

Having analyzed data from NASA’s THEMIS mission, Jacob Bortnik of the University of California at Los Angeles and colleagues think plasmaspheric hiss is generated by secondary “chorus” emission of electromagnetic waves from unstable electrons farther out. “I personally thought we would not be able to find such an observation,” says Bortnik. “Turns out I was pleasantly surprised.” […]

The rest of this article is available here.