The mass separator used in the experiments. Green: ion trajectory; blue and violet, laser beams. Credit: EPJ, Kaja et al. A new technique developed by researchers in Germany can measure ionisation states of this element more precisely than before, with implications for its detection and remediation in radioactive waste. The radioactive element neptunium is one of the principal components of nuclear waste. Mass spectrometry can be used to probe its complex atomic structure, which is of value both for its intrinsic interest and for determining the isotope composition of neptunium waste. Magdalen ..read more

A historical overview of different approaches to the quantum theory of gravitation from the early twentieth century shows how they have been combined to set our modern view of a unified ‘theory of everything’. Gravity is one of four fundamental interactions. The most precise description of this force is still provided by Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, published in 1915, an entirely classical theory. This description sets gravity apart from the other three forces - strong, weak, and electromagnetism - all described by quantum fields. Therefore, any attempt to unify the four forces mu ..read more

A navigable guide for graduate students. Credit: ErrantScience A new article offers a valuable guide for new graduate students starting out their careers in computational science. In recent years, a growing number of students have embraced scientific computation as an integral component of their graduate research. Yet since many of them are new to the field, they often have little to no coding experience, or any prior knowledge of computational tools. For many students starting out in the field, this can seem daunting, and leaves them unsure of where to start. In a new article published in EP ..read more

The Scientific Advisory Committee of EPJ is delighted to welcome Professor Konstantinos Bachas, as the new representative for the Hellenic Physical Society. Konstantinos (Dinos) Bachas is an Associate Professor at the University of Thessaly in Greece, specializing in experimental high energy physics. His research focuses on topics related to the physics of the LHC at CERN and the ATLAS experiment. These include searches for new physics using advanced statistical methods, Standard Model measurements mainly in diboson production channels, and various simulation and reconstruction tasks for the ..read more

By combining experimental data (yellow boxes: example of experimental setup and apparatus) and theoretical calculations (red boxes: example of theoretical approaches), it becomes possible to perform an evaluation of nuclear data for several applications (middle: example of a nuclear reactor). Those evaluated nuclear data are collected in a regularly updated public international library such as JEFF (Joint Evaluated Fusion and Fission). To describe the path of neutrons in the material but also the chain reactions that take place in a reactor and the changes in the composition of matter due to n ..read more

Cellular arrangements surrounding a tumour New analysis shows how key properties of biological tissues can be accurately described in the mathematical language of Onsager’s variational principle, widely used to describe continually changing systems in thermodynamics. A key feature of biological tissues is their inhomogeneity and their ability to grow via cell reproduction. To study this behaviour, it is important to describe it using equations, which account for factors including growth rates, chemical signalling, and tissue structure. In doing this, researchers aim to develop consistent conti ..read more

Many papers added to NIST databases mention atomic spectroscopy topics. Few of these include uncertainty estimates. Credit: A. Kramida (2024) A numerical toolbox offers a robust way to evaluate uncertainty in atomic wavelength measurements. If you repeat a measurement with the same or different instruments, you’ll get slightly different numbers each time. Estimating the uncertainties associated with these numbers turns them into an informative result. In a study published in EPJ D, Alexander Kramida, of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland, USA, now explains a new sta ..read more

mm Universe 2023 conference held in Grenoble (France). The mm Universe 2023 conference is the third edition in a series of biennial workshops. It is devoted to the observations of the sky at millimetre wavelengths, which has contributed to tremendous improvements in our understanding of a great variety of scientific topics ranging from the star formation in the Milky Way to the measurement of cosmological parameters. The mm Universe 2023 conference held in Grenoble (France), from 26 to 30 June 2023, has been organized by LPSC (CNRS and Université Grenoble Alpes). With more than a hundred of at ..read more

An international group of experts has produced a design for a free electron X-ray laser facility that is significantly smaller and cheaper than those that are currently in use. Very many advances in structural science since the 1970s were made by probing materials with synchrotron radiation: that is, high energy X-rays generated through accelerating high-energy electrons. The latest generation of such sources, X-ray free electron lasers (XFEL) are far more powerful than their predecessors, but are only accessible to international consortia and a few rich countries because of their high cost ..read more

Guest editors: Luc Bergé, Goran S. Djordjević and Zoran V. Popović One specificity of physics in the Balkans is the existence of a tradition, more than 30 years long, of organizing triennial Balkan congresses (International General Physics Conferences) within the Balkan Union of Physicists (BPU) as a platform for the presentation of the research results of hundreds of participants and their collaborators with the Balkans, from Europe and the world. The aim of this Focus point of EPJ Plus is to contribute to an overview of the state of the art of research in physics in the Balkans. Eleven of t ..read more