Physics

Physicists using the FIONA (For the Identification Of Nuclide A) device at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 88-inch Cyclotron have performed the first direct measurements of the mass numbers for the nuclei of nihonium (Nh, element 113) and moscovium (Mc, element 115). Left: average of known decay …

As a trainee, Galileo famously observed a light swinging in Pisa Cathedral and timed its swing against his pulse. He concluded that the period was constant and independent of its amplitude. Advised for You Galileo went on to suggest that a pendulum might control a clock and later designed such …

After decades of groundbreaking laboratory work, the world’s scientific and technical community came together on November 16, 2018, to redefine kilogram (kg), ampere (A), kelvin (K) and mole (mol) — four of the seven base units for the International System of Units (SI), informally known as the metric system. The …

Kerogen is a waxy, insoluble organic substance dispersed in sedimentary rocks and is the precursor of oil and gas. In a new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, researchers from MIT and elsewhere have captured 3D images of kerogen’s internal structure, with a level of …

An international team of experimental physicists has for the first time determined the structure of ι-N2, a crystallized version of nitrogen. Turnbull et al synthesized a single crystal of ι–N2 in a diamond anvil cell from ε–N2 at 65 GPa and 477 degrees Celsius. Image credit: Turnbull et al, doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-07074-4. …

GPS technology is so ubiquitous now that it can be hard to remember a day when you couldn’t just take out your phone and find out exactly where you are in the world. However, that’s actually a very recent development and one that could be denied to us in the …

Fusion powers the Sun, and thus all life on Earth. However, generating usable fusion power here on Earth has proven difficult. For decades, experimental reactors have achieved fusion at low levels, but never has there been net power generation. MIT says it has the tools to make true fusion power …

The kilogram is one of the most important and widely used units of measure in the world — unless you live in the US. For everyone else, having an accurate reading on what a kilogram is can be vitally important in fields like manufacturing, engineering, and transportation. Of course, a …

Rather than sucking space ships into a space-station, a tractor beam created by University of Adelaide researcher Ashby Hilton and his colleagues pulls atoms into a microscopic hole at the center of a special optical fiber. Atomic chamber in which tractor beams were created. Image credit: Institute for Photonics and …

More than 8 decades after they were anticipated to exist, physicists have discovered evidence of discrete systems of matter that could assist us better comprehend the electrical equivalent of ferromagnetism. What does that indicate? While some products are permanent magnets that produce their own electromagnetic field, other products, such as …