quantum physics
How do you make lithium melt in the cold?
Washington, D.C. — Sophisticated tools allow scientists to subject the basic elements of matter to conditions drastic enough to modify their behavior. By doing this, they can expand our understanding of matter. A research team including three Car…
‘Sí’ on the new SI: NIST backs proposal for a revamped system of measurement units
Taking the first steps of what would be a major historical advance in the science of measurement, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is participating in a worldwide effort to recommend major revisions to the Internationa…
New search method tracks down influential ideas
Princeton computer scientists have developed a new way of tracing the origins and spread of ideas, a technique that could make it easier to gauge the influence of notable scholarly papers, buzz-generating news stories and other information sou…
UCSB physicists detect and control quantum states in diamond with light
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — — Physicists at UC Santa Barbara have succeeded in combining laser light with trapped electrons to detect and control the electrons’ fragile quantum state without erasing it. This is an important step toward using quantu…
Physicist designs perfect automotive engine
Marlan Scully, the Texas A&M University professor who applied quantum physics to the automotive engine and came up with a design that emits laser beams instead of exhaust, has been tinkering under the hood again. This time, he’s sized up the perfect engine — and improved it. Scully, known as the “Quantum Cowboy” for his innovations in quantum physics and his Franklin Society prize-winning research into beef cattle production, has invented a theoretical design more efficient than the Carnot engine, which had stood for nearly two centuries as the standard for efficiency — an engine so ideal it exists only in theory.