Theorists develop new continuity equation to help them visualize the process The post How do electromagnetic waves carry information about objects they interact with? appeared first on Physics World ..read more

Andrew Weld is the head of research and development at QLM technologies The post Ask me anything: Andrew Weld: ‘You’re probably going to be working for over 40 years, so make sure you enjoy what you do’ appeared first on Physics World ..read more

The Flexible Stellarator Physics Facility would test different approaches to stellarator magnetic confinement The post US plasma physicists propose construction of a ‘flexible’ stellarator facility appeared first on Physics World ..read more

In this podcast we chat about small-scale fusion and a familiar yet mysterious force The post Zap Energy targets fusion power without magnets, Claudia de Rham on the beauty of gravity appeared first on Physics World ..read more

What is the Diamond Light Source? The Diamond Light Source, which opened in 2007, is a 3 GeV synchrotron that provides intense beams of light that are used by researchers to study a wide range of materials. Diamond serves a user community of around 14,000 scientists working across all manner of fundamental and applied disciplines – from clean-energy technologies to pharma and healthcare; from food science to structural biology and cultural heritage. And now you are planning a major upgrade, Diamond-II – what does that involve? Diamond-II will consolidate our position as a world-leading facilit ..read more

Astronomers have found strong evidence that 21 Sun-like stars orbit neutron stars without losing any mass to their binary companions.  Led by Kareem El-Badry at the California Institute of Technology, the international team spotted the binary systems in data taken by ESA’s Gaia satellite. The research offers new insights into how binary systems evolve after massive stars explode as supernovae. And like many unexpected discoveries, the observations raise new questions for astronomers. Neutron stars are created when massive stars reach the end of their lives and explode in dramatic supernov ..read more

With the 2024 Paris Olympics just days away, sports fans are braced to see who will run, jump, row, fight and dance themselves into the history books. One of the most exciting moments will be the 100m sprint finals, when athletes compete to become the fastest man or woman on Earth. Over the years we have seen jaw-dropping performances from the likes of Usain Bolt and Florence Griffith-Joyner. Scientists have been captivated by top sprinters – trying to understand how physique, technique and nutritional intake can help athletes push the limits of human ability. In this episode of the Physics Wo ..read more

Gamma imaging is a nuclear medicine technique employed in over 100 different diagnostic procedures. Also known as scintigraphy, the approach uses gamma cameras to image the distribution of gamma-emitting radiopharmaceuticals administered to the body, with applications including thyroid imaging, tumour imaging, and lung and renal studies. Most clinical gamma cameras are large devices designed for whole-body scanning and located in their own dedicated room. While such systems offer high sensitivity and a large field-of-view (FOV), they are not ideal for patients who cannot attend the nuclear med ..read more

Physics at the extremes provides the raison d’être for the JEM-EUSO research collaboration – or, in long form, the Joint Exploratory Missions for Extreme Universe Space Observatory. Over the past 20 years or so, more than 300 scientists from 16 countries have been working collectively towards the JEM-EUSO end-game: the realization of a space-based, super-wide-field telescope that will scan the night sky and enable astrophysicists to understand the origin and nature of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (upwards of 5 x 1019 eV). In other words, JEM-EUSO promises to open a unique window ..read more

When the gravitational wave detectors LIGO and VIRGO observed signals from merging black holes with masses much higher than those of black holes that form from the collapse of stars, scientists were intrigued. Had these unusually massive black holes formed when the universe was very young? And might they contain large amounts of dark matter? According to new analyses of 20 years of data from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) survey, the answer to the second question is a firm “no”. At most, members of the survey say that these cosmological structures contain only few percent ..read more