Atomic clock based on ytterbium atoms 4 times more accurate than before

October 3rd, 2009 TORONTO - An international team of physicists has for the first time observed magnetic behaviour in an atomic gas, addressing a decades-old debate as to whether it is possible for a gas or liquid to become ferromagnetic and exhibit magnetic properties. "Magnets are all around us - holding postcards on the refrigerator, pointing to magnetic north on a compass, and in speakers and headphones - yet some mysteries remain," said Joseph H.

September 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, scientists have determined that the technique of laser cooling could be used to create "exotic" states of matter. According to a report in National Geographic News, in a new technique, Martin Weitz and Ulrich Vogl of the University of Bonn in Germany used a laser to bring the temperature of dense rubidium gas far below the normal point at which the gas becomes a solid.

September 4th, 2009 BERLIN - In a new research work, a team of scientists has shown how optical atomic clocks in the future might become more compact and even portable, maybe even travel to space. The research was done by scientists from the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Braunschweig, Germany.

September 3rd, 2009 LONDON - Scientists and artists are planning to build a 40m-wide lunar clock by the River Thames by the year 2012. According to a report by BBC News, the aim is to create a new London landmark close to the proposed Olympic stadium as a monument to a more natural way of marking time.

July 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of scientists has for the first time observed energetic neutral atoms scattered off the Moon from the incoming solar wind ion beam. When the solar wind, made up mostly of ionized hydrogen, hits the Moon, most of it is absorbed, but some is reemitted as energetic neutral atoms.

July 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, scientists have suggested that the internal clock in plants can help make climate change scenarios and CO2 level figures more accurate. The study was done by an international team of researchers led by the University of Castilla-La-Mancha (UCLM) in Spain.

June 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Women are more accurate in hammering a nail in broad daylight than men, finds a new study. Duncan Irschick and his colleagues, at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, measured hammering performances of men and women.

June 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of scientists has claimed to have solved a century-old problem involving the proper understanding of tiny metal crystals in steel, by finding a 'touch of glass' in the crystals. The research team, from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has recently found evidence of an important similarity between the behavior of polycrystalline materials, such as metals and ceramics, and glasses.

May 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new technique tracks movement of freely moving single neutral atoms in real time, that is more than 99.7 percent accurate and sensitive enough to discern the arrival of a single atom in less than a millionth of a second. The system, developed by researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) in College Park and the Universidad de Concepcion in Chile, employs a novel means of altering the polarisation of laser light trapped between two highly-reflective mirrors, according to a JQI release.

May 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team from the UCLA (University of California Los Angeles) Department of Physics and Astronomy has created the world's smallest incandescent lamp. The team that developed the lamp was led by Chris Regan, a member of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, and includes Yuwei Fan, Scott Singer and Ray Bergstrom.

May 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A group of physicists at the University of Nevada, Reno, US, are reporting a refined analysis of experiments on violation of mirror symmetry in atoms that sets new constraints on a hypothesized particle, the extra Z-boson. "It is remarkable that the low-cost atomic precision experiments and theory are capable of constraining new physics at the level competitive to colliders," said Andrei Derevianko, an associate professor in the College of Science's Department of Physics.

April 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A group of physicists at the University of Nevada, Reno has analyzed data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that could ultimately prove or disprove the possibility of a fifth force of nature. The LHC is an enormous particle accelerator whose 17-mile tunnel straddles the borders of France and Switzerland.

April 14th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, a team of scientists has proposed the concept, principles and techniques of active optical clock. The study was done at the Institute of Quantum Electronics, School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University.

April 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers working with the world's most powerful electron microscope have filmed carbon atoms in live motion for the first time, as the atoms repositioned themselves around the edge of a hole punched into a graphene sheet. Viewers of the 'movie' that promises to become a blockbuster - at least over the Internet - observed chemical bonds breaking and forming as the suddenly volatile atoms are driven to find a stable configuration.

March 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - With the aid of a new method developed by scientists in Germany, the output frequency of the atomic fountains clocks has become more stable. At present, Caesium fountain clocks are the most accurate clocks in the world, furnishing the second accurate to 15 places after the decimal point.