CityU physics: undergraduate students prioritize connection and collaboration

21 Oct 2021 Sponsored by City University of Hong Kong

City University of Hong Kong’s undergraduate physics programme wants to attract ambitious international students as they take their next step towards a scientific career in research or industry

Eye on the prize: head of department Xun-Li Wang (far right) and head of undergraduate physics Kwok Sum Chan (far left) present students with their Undergraduate Final Year Project Awards at CityU’s Celebration of Physics PHY Annual Symposium 2021. (Courtesy: CityU Hong Kong)

Think big, recruit well, move fast: that’s the ambitious mantra informing the leading-edge research effort and undergraduate education programme within City University of Hong Kong’s Department of Physics. Although it only came into being in 2017, after the university chose to create distinct disciplinary specialisms from the former combined physics and materials science programme, the CityU Department of Physics demonstrates a unity of purpose and collective endeavour that suggest its ultimate goal – to create one of the leading academic centres for physics education and research in the Asia-Pacific region – is a realistic proposition over the medium term.

 

Automated imaging makes AFM experiments faster and easier

21 Oct 2021 Sponsored by Park Systems

By integrating robotics and machine learning into its latest atomic force microscope, Park Systems has for the first time fully automated the imaging process for research users

Easy to use The Park FX40 atomic force microscope showing (a) the Park FX40’s main-body; (b) the multi-sample chuck with kinematic mounting plates; (c) tip cassette for automatic tip exchange; and (d) new beam-bounce scheme to measure cantilever deflection. (Courtesy: Park Systems)

Scientists and engineers have for many years relied on atomic force microscopy (AFM) to reveal the secrets of materials at the nanoscale. This powerful and versatile technique, first invented by scientists at IBM and Stanford University in 1985, offers a 3D view of the sample’s surface with sub-nanometre resolution, while different measurement modalities allow researchers to map material phenomena that include frictional, nanomechanical, electrical, magnetic and thermal properties. AFM can also image any type of material in ambient conditions as well as under vacuum and in liquid, which has made the technique a vital tool in all areas of science and technology.

 

SETI Talks: Black Holes Are Real. How Do They Shape Structure and Evolution in Our Universe?

A SETI Talks sponsored by Daniel Swanson

Fantastical though they may seem, black holes are real, not just science fiction or ideas from the imaginations of theorists. Scientists are now able to study black holes, in detail, throughout our Universe.

 

Climate change in a nutshell: the causes and effects of global warming, simply put

21 Oct 2021 Laura Hiscott

Taken from the October 2021 issue of Physics World. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app.

Laura Hiscott reviews Small Gases, Big Effect: This is Climate Change by David Nelles and Christian Serrer

(Courtesy: Shutterstock/Bruce Rolff)

It might sound impossible to explain something as complex as the mechanisms of climate change both simply and accurately. But this is exactly what David Nelles and Christian Serrer – students at the University of Friedrichshafen, Germany – have achieved with their book Small Gases, Big Effect: This is Climate Change.

 

First positronium image recorded during a PET scan

21 Oct 2021 Tami Freeman

Simultaneous scans: Positronium lifetime image (left) and standardized uptake value image (right) of a phantom containing tumour and adipose tissue samples, recorded using the Jagiellonian-PET scanner. The positronium image reveals differences between cancerous and healthy tissues. (Courtesy: CC BY 4.0/Kamil Dulski, Jagiellonian University)

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a molecular imaging method used for cancer diagnosis. During the imaging procedure, positronium is also generated in the patient’s body, but current PET systems are not able to acquire positronium images. Now, researchers in Poland have created the first-ever positronium image recorded during a PET scan, reporting their results in Science Advances.

 

Searching for signs of alien technologies

20 Oct 2021 James Dacey

In this episode of the Physics World Stories podcast astronomers discuss the search for signs of extraterrestrial technologies. Fingerprints might include traces of pollution in exoplanet atmospheres, lights on the night sides of planets, and even the waste heat from megastructures such as Dyson spheres.

 

Small-world networks regulate transcription in cells

19 Oct 2021 Simon Lichtinger

Left: contact map highlighting beads that are close in space, comparing model simulations with experimental data for the modelled fragment. Right: DNA modelled as beads (connected by “spring” bonds, not shown). (Courtesy: CC BY 4.0/Nat. Commun. 10.1038/s41467-021-25875-y)

The regulatory patterns that underpin gene expression may originate from the spatial organization of the genome, according to a new study reported in Nature Communications. A collaborative research team, from the universities of Edinburgh, Göttingen and Oxford, has used simulations of a simple DNA model to provide insight into the mechanisms of this genetic control.