National Ignition Facility demonstrates net fusion energy gain in world first

14 Dec 2022

Big gains: the record-breaking shot at the National Ignition Facility was made at just after 1 a.m. local time on 5 December. (Courtesy: LLNL)

Physicists working at a laser-fusion facility in the US have announced a world first – the generation of more energy from a controlled nuclear fusion reaction than was needed to power the reaction. They achieved this using the $3.5bn National Ignition Facility (NIF) – a football-stadium sized system of lasers based at the at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California. The laser shot, performed on 5 December, released 3.15 million joules (MJ) of energy from a tiny pellet containing two hydrogen isotopes – compared to the 2.05 MJ that those lasers delivered to the target.

 

Physicists simulate how SARS-CoV-2 forms

22 Nov 2022 Isabelle Dumé

The assembly and formation of SARS-CoV-2 from its constituent parts. (Courtesy: Zandi Lab, UC Riverside)

The genetic material inside viruses cannot survive for long without a protective coating of proteins. However, the process by which these proteins assemble to encapsulate (and therefore protect) the viral genome is not well understood – especially for coronaviruses, which have very large RNA genomes. A pair of researchers at the University of California in Riverside, US and Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory in China have now identified the interactions at play during the assembly of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and explored how these interactions lead to the genome being packaged into a new virion. The work could aid the design and development of drugs to fight this and other coronaviruses.

 

Medical physics and biotechnology: our favourite research in 2022

28 Dec 2022 Tami Freeman

Advanced computation: Artificial intelligence techniques such as deep learning and machine learning could enhance many areas of medicine. (Courtesy: iStock/metamorworks)

From developing advanced machine-learning algorithms to building devices that will improve access to effective treatments for patients across the world, researchers working in medical physics, biotechnology and the many related fields continue to apply scientific techniques to improve healthcare worldwide. Physics World has reported on many such innovations in 2022, here are just a few of the research highlights that caught our eye.

 

Colour of flower oscillates with time to improve pollination

22 Dec 2022

Oscillating colours: a magnified image showing the alternating orange and pink colours of the flower petals. (Courtesy: H Tsukaya/CC-BY)

An extremely rare case of a flower that oscillates in colour over time has been discovered by researchers in Japan. The team, led by Nobomitsu Kawakubo at Gifu University, showed that the transformations are tied to cyclic changes in the flowers’ reproductive organs, which act to guide pollinating insects towards them.

 

Quantum sensor survives at record-high pressures

21 Dec 2022 Isabelle Dumé

Measuring the photoluminescence of the NV centres under different pressures. (Courtesy: Zhen Zhai)

Quantum sensors based on microscopic flaws in the crystalline structure of diamond can work at pressures as high as 140 gigapascals, according to research by physicists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. The finding sets a record for the operating pressure of quantum sensors based on so-called nitrogen vacancy (NV) centres, and their newfound durability could benefit studies in condensed-matter physics and geophysics.

 

Double dose of quantum weirdness pushes sensors past the limit

17 Nov 2022

Extra spooky: Artist's impression of entangled and delocalized atoms within the interferometer. (Courtesy: Steven Burrows, Thompson group/JILA)

For most people, quantum mechanics seems pretty weird. Take the principle of delocalization, which states that a quantum particle can, in some sense, exist simultaneously in multiple locations. Then there’s entanglement: the invisible connection between particles that allows the state of one particle to determine that of another, even across vast distances.

 

Mercury’s superconductivity explained at long last

19 Dec 2022 Isabelle Dumé

Courtesy: Gianni Profeta and Cesare Tresca/University of L’Aquila

More than 100 years ago, the physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovered that solid mercury acts as a superconductor. Now, for the first time, physicists have a complete microscopic understanding of why this is so. Using a modern first-principles computational method, a team from the University of L’Aquila, Italy, found several anomalies in mercury’s electronic and lattice properties, including a hitherto undescribed electron screening effect that promotes superconductivity by reducing repulsion between pairs of superconducting electrons.

 

Zig-zag lightning could be mediated by metastable oxygen

21 Dec 2022

Stepping down: the zig-zag shape of lightning could be related to the presence of metastable oxygen molecules. (Courtesy: iStock/WolfeLarry)

Lightning flashes have distinctive zig-zag shapes and physicists have long wondered why. Now, John Lowke and Endre Szili at the University of South Australia have done calculations that could explain this behaviour.

 

Satellites observe highest volcano plume ever

15 Dec 2022 Isabelle Dumé

A view of the volcano 100 minutes after eruption began. (Courtesy: Simon Proud / Uni Oxford, RALSpace NCEO / Japan Meteorological Agency)

The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano in 2022 was the tallest ever recorded, with a volcanic plume that reached almost 58 km in height. According to physicists at Oxford University and RAL Space in the UK, who measured the plume using data from a trio of geostationary satellites, it was also the first to pass through the Earth’s stratosphere and enter the lower mesosphere. The measurements, which are described in Science, shed new light on how volcanic eruptions affect the climate and reveal fresh information about a layer of Earth’s atmosphere that remains poorly understood.

 

Cleaner vacuum environments deliver experimental and manufacturing gains

20 Dec 2022 Sponsored by ANCORP

A new partnership between ANCORP and LOS Vacuum Products will enable scientists and engineers to optimize the vacuum conditions for their processes by exploiting the properties of aluminium and titanium

Breaking the mould: this multiport cluster flange, which was purpose built for a physics experiment at ETH Zurich, has an aluminium base with flanges that are faced with titanium (Courtesy: LOS Vacuum Products)

 

World’s smallest photon’ confined in dielectric nanocavity

16 Dec 2022 Isabelle Dumé

Illustration of the new bowtie structure, which can be seen in the middle of the picture. (Courtesy: DTU)

Researchers have confined light to dimensions smaller than the diffraction limit in a nanosized dielectric cavity for the first time. The work, which confirms a theoretical prediction made in 2006, could promote the development of new optical chip architectures that consume less energy than their electrical counterparts.

 

Large tunnel magnetoresistance appears at room temperature in a miniaturized magnetic tunnel junction

22 Dec 2022 Isabelle Dumé

A large room-temperature TMR of 85% was obtained in all-vdW Fe3GaTe2/WSe2/Fe3GaTe2 MTJs. (Courtesy: K Wang)

Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs), which consist of two ferromagnets separated by a non-magnetic barrier material, are found in a host of technologies, including magnetic random-access memories in computer hard disk drives as well as magnetic sensors, logic devices and electrodes in spintronic devices. They do have a major drawback, though, which is that they do not operate well when miniaturized to below 20 nm.

 

Geometric tensor measured in a superconducting quantum circuit

14 Dec 2022 Isabelle Dumé

Interacting system: A diagram of the researchers' four-qubit superconducting quantum chip. (Courtesy: Y Yu)

Researchers at Nanjing University in China have used a superconducting quantum chip to simulate a system of particles that are neither fermions nor bosons. As part of this simulation, they measured a parameter known as the quantum geometric tensor that provides local information about the system’s topological properties. The work marks the first time this quantity has been measured in a so-called non-Abelian system – a result that will be useful for studying the physics of complex systems such as topological materials.

 

Quantum science and technology: our favourite research in 2022

27 Dec 2022 Margaret Harris

Schrödinger and snowflakes: Celebrating all things quantum. (Courtesy: Shutterstock/sakkmesterke)

Quantum physicists celebrated in October when the Nobel committee awarded a long-awaited physics prize to Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger for their pioneering research on quantum entanglement. But the community certainly hasn’t been resting on its laurels, and with so many other exciting developments in 2022, it’s hard to pick just a few highlights. Nevertheless, here are some results that stood out for us in the fields of quantum sensing, quantum information, quantum computing, quantum cryptography and fundamental quantum science.

 

Baffled by the big questions in science? String theorist Michael Dine thinks he has the answers

19 Dec 2022 Claire Malone

Claire Malone reviews This Way to the Universe: a Journey into Physics by Michael Dine

Cosmic journey Michael Dine takes you on a tour of some of the biggest questions in science such as the nature of dark matter. (Courtesy: iStock/3000ad)

We’ve all been there – scrolling through the latest physics books, hoping that something will stop us in our tracks, turn our understanding on its head or be a thoroughly entertaining read. But when I picked up This Way to the Universe: a Journey into Physics, it was more to keep pace with the art of describing the most baffling questions in physics, past and present, to a general audience. The book largely did what I had hoped for, but it offered so much more.

 

JWST is performing ‘phenomenally’ one year on, say scientists

25 Dec 2022

A year after its launch, astronomers are revealing the secrets of the universe, as the first scientific results from observations made by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are released. This month, Physics World is publishing a series of blog posts on the discoveries. This is the fourth post in the series – you can read the previous one here.

The journey is just beginning: It’s been a year since the JWST launched, and it’s now well on its way to transforming astronomy. (Courtesy: ESA/ATG Medialab).

 

How nanoscience brings physics into biology

05 Dec 2022

Louis Minion reviews Nano Comes to Life: How Nanotechnology is Transforming Medicine and the Future of Biology by Sonia Contera

The future is nano The development of nanoscience means biology and medicine can be approached from an engineering perspective. (Courtesy: Shutterstock / FrimuFilms)

Part showcase, part manifesto, Sonia Contera’s Nano Comes to Life makes the ambitious attempt to convey the wonder of recent advances in biology and nanoscience while at the same time also arguing for a new approach to biological and medical research.

Single light source breaks data transmission rate record

08 Dec 2022 Isabelle Dumé

Artist’s impression of the new light source. Courtesy: A Jørgensen

A single light source has transmitted a record-breaking 1.8 petabits of data per second, say researchers in Denmark and Sweden. The achievement could aid the development of highly energy-efficient optical transmitters, thereby reducing the carbon footprint of the Internet and other data-hungry systems.

 

Electrochemical cell could detect airborne SARS-CoV-2

10 Dec 2022 Isabelle Dumé

Testing the new coronavirus detection system. (Courtesy: Andrea Starr | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

A new electrochemical cell could detect airborne viruses like SARS-CoV-2 in near real-time, according to researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). The device could be positioned on a wall or ceiling, or in air ducts, to warn occupants when even trace levels of the virus are present, they say.

 

Very dry and very humid indoor environments are worse for COVID spread

06 Dec 2022 Margaret Harris

Combination of factors: Maintaining a moderate relative humidity indoors can help reduce the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, especially when combined with good ventilation. (Courtesy: Shutterstock/Girts-Ragelis)

The virus that causes COVID-19 spreads most easily when the indoor relative humidity falls outside a “sweet spot” between 40 and 60%, say researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US. This finding, which is based on a comparison of meteorological data and population-level COVID-19 statistics, suggests that indoor humidity plays a significant role in the spread of COVID-19, and should be considered alongside ventilation and other measures to reduce disease transmission.

 

The physics of toilets: scientists are flushed with success

09 Dec 2022 Hamish Johnston

Listening in: the diarrhoea sensor installed over a toilet. (Courtesy: Maia Gatlin)

This week’s Red Folder focuses on that humble yet crucial appliance, the toilet.

Cholera, a bacterial disease that causes diarrhoea, affects millions of people worldwide and results in some 150,000 deaths per year, so identifying it early could help mitigate its spread. Yet monitoring cholera outbreaks and other bowel diseases that can cause diarrhoea is tricky.

 

Ask me anything: Rafal Janik – ‘We want to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere’

09 Dec 2022 Sarah Tesh

Rafal Janik is the chief operating officer at the photonic quantum technology company Xanadu in Toronto, Canada. Founded in 2016, Xanadu has become one of the world’s leading quantum hardware and software companiesLessons learnt Rafal Janik says it’s crucial to “build relationships, reach out and be brave if you want to further your career”. (Courtesy: Xanadu)

What skills do you use every day in your job?

 

Quantum microscopy sheds light on high-temperature superconductivity

09 Nov 2022 Isabelle Dumé

(Courtesy: Shutterstock/SIM VA)

Researchers have found quantitative evidence for a mechanism long predicted to be responsible for high-temperature superconductivity. Led by JC Séamus Davis of the University of Oxford, UK, the team used quantum microscopy to study a high-temperature superconductor called bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide (BSCCO). The work reveals that electrons in this material appear to enter a superfluid state due to strong electron pairing, which then allows them to move without any dissipation.

 

Ultrahigh-field MRI reveals brain changes in migraine sufferers

29 Nov 2022 Tami Freeman

Brain scans Researchers are using MRI to study structural microvascular changes in the brains of migraine sufferers. (Courtesy: RSNA)

A research team headed up at Keck School of Medicine of USC is using ultrahigh-field MRI to investigate the relationship between migraine and microvascular changes in the brain. The researchers have identified, for the first time, that migraine sufferers exhibit enlarged perivascular spaces – fluid-filled spaces surrounding blood vessels – in their brains. Study co-author Wilson Xu reported their findings at this week’s RSNA 2022, the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

 

AI model determines cardiovascular risk from routine chest X-ray

30 Nov 2022 Tami Freeman

Predicting risk Using a routine chest X-ray, the deep-learning model predicts future major adverse cardiovascular events with similar performance to the established clinical standard. (Courtesy: RSNA)

A deep-learning model developed by researchers from the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (AIM) Program can predict the 10-year risk of death from heart attack or stroke using a single chest X-ray.

 

Gender equality – how does medical physics shape up?

21 Nov 2018 Tami Freeman

How does the medical physics profession perform when it comes to gender equality? (Courtesy: iStock/grifare)

Physics has one of the largest gender gaps among all science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects; but within medical physics, the percentage of women is around 40%. So what is medical physics getting right, where could it improve further, and how could these factors be exploited to improve gender equality throughout physics as a whole?

 

Radiotherapy innovation: optimize the physics, but don’t ignore the biology

08 Sep 2021 Tami Freeman

Exceptional contribution: Natalka Suchowerska received the ESTRO honorary membership award for her achievements in innovation. (Courtesy: N Suchowerska)

“I’d like to reflect on the relationship between the successes we’ve had with physics and technology – and the relative neglect of the biology – in radiation therapy.” With these bold words, Natalka Suchowerska opened her presentation at the recent ESTRO 2021 meeting.

 

New technique boosts the performance of dual optical frequency combs

16 Nov 2022

Evenly spaced: illustration of the optical spectrum of a frequency comb. (Courtesy: J Wang/NIST)

A new technique that could vastly improve the accuracy of the time and distance measurements made using dual optical frequency combs has been developed by researchers in the US and Canada. By the dynamic adjustment of one of the combs, Emily Caldwell and colleagues at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado and Octosig Consulting in Quebec City have made the technique much more efficient.

 

Flowing liquid ‘chains’ are best described by Niels Bohr, not Lord Rayleigh

03 Nov 2022

Chain enlightening: Chains of water falling from nozzles with varying opening sizes. The metal chains are of similar size and orientation as the water chains. (Courtesy: Daniel Jordan and colleagues)

If you pour water out of a bottle, the liquid stream will often adopt a chain-like structure. The physics behind this curious phenomenon has been hotly debated for more than a century, but now this mystery may have been solved by experiments done by Antoine Deblais, Daniel Bonn and Daniel Jordan at the University of Amsterdam and Neil Ribe at the University of Paris-Saclay.

 

Physicists measure the fine structure constant directly for the first time

09 Dec 2022

Angle of rotation: A light source (left) sends a beam of light through a topological insulator with an intrinsic magnetic field (centre), changing the direction of polarization by an angle that is given by the fine structure constant. (Courtesy: Tatiana Lysenko / TU Wien)

The value of the fine structure constant – perhaps the most important constant in nature as it dictates the strength of electromagnetism – has been measured directly by researchers in Austria and the US. The technique they used involves measuring how much the polarization of light rotates as it passes through a magnetic topological insulator, and while it is not as accurate as other methods, the researchers believe its directness could lead to cleaner tests of whether this supposed constant varies over time.

 

Five exotic nuclei half-lives revealed in first experiment at FRIB

06 Dec 2022

Catching the drips: the FRIB Decay Station Initiator. (Courtesy: Facility for Rare Isotope Beams)

The first scientific results from the new Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University have been unveiled by physicists in the US. Heather Crawford at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and colleagues have synthesized five neutron-rich isotopes of three different elements, and have measured their half-lives for the first time. The nuclei are near the neutron drip line and the research provides a taste of how physicists will use FRIB to study exotic nuclei.

 

Spaghettified star ripped apart by a black hole lights up with a relativistic jet

09 Dec 2022

Tidal disruption event A black hole devours a star that has come too close. In rare circumstances, this may also result in jets moving with almost the speed of light that generate light at many frequencies. (Courtesy: Zwicky Transient Facility/R Hurt (Caltech/IPAC))

A star ripped apart by a supermassive black hole in a distant galaxy has been caught producing a rare but powerful jet of particles travelling at nearly the speed of light. The discovery, initially made by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) at Palomar Observatory in California, is the first time such a jet has been seen at optical wavelengths, and it is shedding light on how the star met its demise.

Such events are referred to as tidal disruption events, or TDEs, wherein ferocious gravitational tides from the black hole are able to twist and tear apart an entire star, sometimes in a matter of days, reducing it to a string of matter that spirals into the black hole in a process colourfully described as “spaghettification”. If too much matter piles up at the black hole’s maw, some of it can be spat away in a magnetically collimated jet.

 

Japan-United Arab Emirates Moon mission successfully launches

11 Dec 2022

Lunar bound: The mission comprises of a Japanese-built Moon lander and the UAE’s Rashid lunar rover (courtesy: SpaceX)

The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) first lunar rover successfully took off today from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The UAE rover was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 02:38 local time as part of a UAE-Japan mission to the Moon. If successful, the rover will make the UAE the fourth nation, after China, Russia and the US to operate a spacecraft on the Moon.

 

Quantum physics is weird, but here’s how it’s making us money

07 Dec 2022 James McKenzie

Following a visit to the UK’s National Quantum Technology Showcase, James McKenzie is excited about the prospects of UK firms developing “quantum 2.0” technology

Powerful aim A quantum computer microchip developed by the University of Sussex spin-off company Universal Quantum, which wants to build the world’s first million-qubit quantum computer. (Courtesy: Universal Quantum)

Physicists have long boasted of their success in what’s known as “quantum 1.0” technology – semiconductor junctions, transistors, lasers and so on. But the future will increasingly focus on “quantum 2.0” technology, which taps into phenomena like superposition and entanglement to permit everything from quantum computing and cryptography to quantum sensing, timing and imaging.

 

Quantum teleportation opens a ‘wormhole in space–time’

30 Nov 2022

Teleporting qubits: artist’s impression a wormhole created in a quantum processor. (Courtesy: A Mueller/Caltech)

The equivalent to a wormhole in space–time has been created on a quantum processor. Researchers in the US used an advanced quantum teleportation protocol to open the wormhole and send quantum signals through it. By studying the dynamics of the transmitted quantum information, the team gained insights into gravitational dynamics. The experiment could be further developed to explore quantum gravity or string theory.

 

Black holes could reveal their quantum-superposition states, new calculations reveal

17 Nov 2022

Superposition on a massive scale: illustration of a mass-quantized black hole that was created using NightCafe Creator AI. (Courtesy: University of Queensland)

Quantum superposition is not just a property of subatomic particles but also of the most massive objects in the universe. That is the conclusion of four theoretical physicists in Australia and Canada who calculated the hypothetical response of a particle detector placed some distance from a black hole. The researchers say the detector would see novel signs of superimposed space–times, implying that the black hole may have two different masses simultaneously.

 

UK firm Universal Quantum wins major quantum-computing contract

18 Nov 2022

Cash generator The UK quantum start-up firm Universal Quantum has been awarded €67m from the German Aerospace Centre. (Courtesy: Universal Quantum)

A British quantum start-up firm has been awarded one of the largest government quantum-computing contracts ever given to a single company. Universal Quantum has won the €67m contract from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to build fully scalable quantum computers based on trapped-ion technology.

 

Want to slash your energy bill? Try these record-breaking solar cells

16 Nov 2022 James McKenzie

Could a new solar cell with a record-breaking efficiency of 30.1% transform the commercial potential of solar panels, asks James Mckenzie

Bright future Combining silicon and perovskite, “tandem” solar cells such as this one developed by researchers in the Netherlands could transform the solar sector. (Courtesy: Niels van Loon)

 

Microscale structure of rock affects microseismicity at underground carbon dioxide storage site

24 Nov 2022 Sabrina Reichert

Underground storage: illustration of the geological strata at the Illinois Basin Decatur Project in the US. (Courtesy: N Bondarenko, Y Podladchikov & R Makhnenko/Science Advances)

Mitigating and reversing the effects of climate change is the most important scientific challenge facing humanity. Carbon sequestration describes a range of technologies with the potential to reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Most of these schemes involve storing the gas underground, however, this is not without risk, and scientists are concerned that underground storage could lead to increased seismic activity (a phenomenon known as “induced seismicity”).

 

Meteorites have a seismic effect on Mars, revealing what lies below the surface

05 Dec 2022

Before and after: images of Amazonis Planitia taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The image on the left shows the region before the impact while the image on the right shows the effect of the meteorite. (Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Two meteorite impacts on the Martian surface have given scientists a better understanding of the interior structure of the Red Planet. The impacts happened in 2021 and an international team of researchers has shown that surface seismic waves detected on Mars were caused by the impacts. A second, related study, examined the seismic waves in detail and concluded that the planet’s crust varies in density.

 

How could galactic cosmic rays affect astronauts travelling to Mars?

07 Dec 2022 Tami Freeman

Future travel plans Artist's concept depicting astronauts and human habitats on Mars. (Courtesy: NASA)

With the pending return to long-duration crewed spaceflights, astronauts will face significant risks from exposure to space radiation. Galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) pose a particular challenge as they are not easily shielded and have dose rates as high as 0.5 mGy/day.