The Physics arXiv Blog
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Matter wave lithography could carve single nanometre features
Atomic matter waves have been generating a bit of interest of late. The thinking is that atom waves can be manipulated in much the same way as light waves and so could be used to directly print atoms onto microchips to create nanoscale features. The question is: how small can these features be made and…
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Search ‘n’ hide
The best of the rest from the physics arXiv this week: Quantifying Evolvability in Small Biological Networks Experimental Verification of Broadband Cloaking using a Volumetric Cloak Composed of Periodically Stacked Cylindrical Transmission-Line Networks The Primordial Helium Abundance Where Are All the Young Stars in Aquila? The Big Bounce in Rainbow Universe
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Two new SETI searches see first light
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence is picking up steam. The folks over at the Berkeley SETI group now have 7 separate searches underway at infrared, visible and radio wavelengths. Today, Andrew Siemiona and pals outline the two newest programs which have recently seen first light and are hunting for pulses just a few hundred nanosceonds…
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A revolution for the science of snowflakes
The way snowflakes form is poorly understood. It seems clear that the process involves a subtle interplay of nonlinear effects in which small variations at the molecular level can produce large changes in the eventual shape. In particular, small levels of gaseous impurities are thought to have a major impact on the way these effects…
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Silicon ribbons pave the way for graphene-like sheets
Graphene is the hottest property in materials science these days. Its extraordinary electronic, thermal and physical properties make it the most heavily studied substance on the plant right now. But there is one thing that graphene can’t do and that is to fit easily into the silicon-based electronics industry. And while graphene based chips hold…
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Counting negative links make network models more realistic
Spotting communities within networks is a big deal. Not least for search engines that rely heavily for their results on the communities that form when websites point to each other. If a lot of websites point to another site then that proves it is of value. At least that’s what everyone has assumed. But links…
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The exoplanet photo gallery is bigger than you think
Astronomers tend to get excited by pinpricks of light. And perhaps today they have more reason than usual to celebrate the pixels that Paul Kalas at the University of California, Berkeley, and pals have found in one of the Hubble Space Telescope’s images. These pixels, they say, represent the first optical image of a planet…
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Cloak ‘n’ dagger
The best of the rest from the physics arXiv this week: Acoustic Noise in Deep Ice and Environmental Conditions at the South Pole Gravitational Strings. Do We See One? Computer Simulations of Pulsatile Human Blood Flow Through 3D-Models of the Human Aortic Arch, Vessels of Simple Geometry and a Bifurcated Artery: Investigation of Blood Viscosity…
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Quantum cloaking makes molecules invisible
Cloaking is surely the zeitgeist topic of the moment and for proof, you need look no further than the work of Jessica Fransson from the University of Upssala in Sweden and colleagues. This is a group who have who have applied the ideas of cloaking to the quantum world and come up trumps. the result…
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And here is the sunspot forecast…
Astronomers have been monitoring sunspot numbers since 1700 and using them as an indicator of solar cycles since 1913. Today we know that peaks in sunspot numbers have an important influence on the Earth, increasing the amount of drag on satellites and contributing to telecoms and and power outages. Accurate forecasts of sunspot activity could…