Tag: Physics
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High Tech Fashion: Radiation-proof is the new black
Yury Gogotsi and his colleagues have just developed highly conductive and scalable Ti3C2Tx-coated fabrics capable of efficient electromagnetic interference (EMI) shield. Pretty exciting, no doubt. But exactly how efficient are the high-tech products? Is their effect long-lasting enough to prevent them from being dumped like fast fashion clothes? Are they just another expensive wearable-tech fad?…
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Bacterial prospectors take on the final frontier
Bacteria currently used as catalysts in earthbound mining processes could one day be used to extract critical elements in space and further the human settlement of other planets. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh struck gold with their discovery in a recent study published in the journal Nature Communications. Led by Charles Cockell, Professor of…
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Cosmic ghost hunting: CNO neutrinos from the Sun detected for the first time
An international collaboration of particle physicists has announced the detection of solar neutrinos originating from the secondary fusion cycle powering the Sun. This is a world-first that could shine a light on the otherwise unseen solar core and further our understanding of stellar evolution. The Borexino Collaboration, using the eponymous Borexino detector at the Gran…
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The colours of nature
The colours most commonly associated with nature are shades of blues and greens. Very rarely does red make a vibrant appearance, and researchers at the University of Cambridge may have explained why. A team from the Department of Chemistry used computational modelling to determine that ‘matt structural colour’ – responsible for the most intense colours…
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NASA rover ‘Perseverance’ sets off in search of life on Mars
Launched on 30 July, NASA’s Mars 2020 mission is sending the Mars rover ‘Perseverance’ to search for traces of ancient life and study samples of rock and soil in a crater that once held a lake nine times the size of Loch Ness. It was launched at 07:50 local time from Cape Canaveral Air Force…
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ESA & NASA Solar Orbiter captures first pictures of ‘campfires’ on the Sun
The first images taken by the spacecraft Solar Orbiter have been released, revealing many miniature solar flares near the surface of the Sun, which have been called ‘campfires’. An international collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA, Solar Orbiter was launched on 10 February 2020 and in mid-June completed its first close pass…
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Rewriting astronomy: have gravitational waves revealed an object to fill the mass gap?
When two massive objects collide in space, ripples in space-time are sent through the universe. These ripples – gravitational waves – can be detected, and give an insight into what they may have been. Last August, the LIGO-Virgo collaboration detected gravitational waves from what was reported as the collision of a black hole and a…
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Oldest galaxy disk yet to be observed: ‘Wolfe Disk’ formed soon after the Big Bang
Astronomers have found a galaxy with a disk that formed just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang – early enough to challenge current ideas about galaxy formation. Massive disk galaxies, like our Milky Way, were expected to have formed around 3 or 4 billion years after the Big Bang. However, Marcel Neeleman at the…
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Can neutrinos shed some light on the imbalance of the universe?
One of the Universe’s greatest mysteries revolves around antimatter, or rather the lack thereof. Physicists are convinced that when our Universe began, matter and antimatter should have been created and dispersed in equal amounts. However, it is evident that we live in a Universe that is almost entirely dominated by matter. It’s just as well…