Physics World

There are today two main ways to measure the Hubble constant, which is a parameter that describes the rate at which the universe is expanding. However, these two techniques produce conflicting results This discrepancy is called the Hubble tension and it suggests that we may be missing something fundamental about how the universe works. Now, two independent groups of astronomers, one in the US and the other in Germany, are developing two new methods to measure the Hubble constant. One uses gravit

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This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast features Brian Pogue, who is professor of biomedical engineering at Dartmouth College in the US. He is also the co-founder of several start-up companies that are developing optics-based systems for medicine. In conversation with Physics World’s Tami Freeman, Pogue explains that optical technologies underlie many of today’s routine medical procedures. The field of optics is also converging with the world of medical physics, and Pogue talks about ex

NASA has successfully launched four astronauts on a 10-day mission to the Moon. The crew – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen – were aboard the Orion spacecraft that was launched yesterday by a Space Launch System rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission is the first crewed lunar flyby in more than 50 years but it also represents a number of significant firsts with Koch, Glover and Hansen set to be the first woman, Black person and Canadian, res

How did you get on? 14 words Warming up nicely 20 words Getting hot, hot, hot 26 words Top dog! Fancy some more? Check out our puzzles page. The post Word flower puzzle no. 2 appeared first on Physics World.

A new integrated photonics platform can perform precision quantum experiments that were previously only possible with multiple table-top lasers and other bulky apparatus. According to its US-based developers, the new chip-scale device could find applications in quantum computing and portable optical clocks based on trapped ions. Today’s quantum computers and optical clocks depend on a range of equipment that typically includes some combination of lasers, cryogenic coolers, vacuum chambers and op

Photon-counting computed tomography (PCCT) is an advanced medical imaging technique that differs from conventional X-ray CT in that it can discriminate between the energies of individual detected photons. Offering higher spatial, spectral and contrast resolution than conventional CT, PCCT could deliver significant benefits for disease characterization and enable new diagnostic approaches. Conventional CT measures the attenuation of X-rays after they pass through the body, enabling clinicians to

In recent years the news has been dominated by devastating hurricanes, cyclones, tornadoes, wildfires and floods, and data show that these hazardous events are increasing in frequency and strength. It is clear that our weather is becoming more extreme, with a warming world adding more energy to the atmosphere and increasing the power of these wind-fuelled events. With this in mind, Simon Winchester’s opening question in The Breath of the Gods: the History and Future of the Wind might surprise re

Most headline-grabbing advances in quantum mechanics today are experimental in nature: more qubits, entangled particles, fewer errors. Often overlooked are the advances in the mathematics that underpins the behaviour of these quantum systems. The walled Brauer algebra is an abstract but increasingly important mathematical structure that appears in quantum information theory whenever physicists study particles, symmetries and transformations involving permutations and partial transposition. Work

This property determines whether a quantum system can outperform even the fastest classical supercomputer. Until now, scientists could quantify magic in systems of qubits, but not in systems of bosons such as photons or hybrid devices of coupled bosons and spins, like those used in real quantum hardware. In this new work, a team of researchers from Taiwan and Japan proposed the first unified way to measure magic in systems that combine both spins and bosons. These hybrid platforms appear everywh

"<strong> Traces of an ancient river system<\/strong> In the Margin unit, strongly reflecting layers are dark in appearance and weakly reflecting lithologies appear as light. The projected radargram is shown with the HiRISE digital elevation model data and layers are traced (cyan dotted lines) from the subsurface to corresponding surficial topographic features. (Courtesy: NASA\/JPL\/UCLA\/UiO\/ETH Zurich)" Traces of an ancient river system In the Margin unit, strongly reflecting laye

Researchers at the CERN particle-physics lab near Geneva have been left stunned after a lorry containing a vial of antiprotons went missing. The lorry had been used by the Baryon-Antibaryon Symmetry Experiment (BASE) to successfully transport 92 antiprotons around the CERN site last month. Following their work, BASE researchers had left the lorry in the main CERN car park but found it had vanished the following morning. The antiprotons were contained in a cryogentically-cooled Penning trap compo

What happens when hard science fiction collides with big-budget cinema? The latest episode of Physics World Stories delves into the ideas within Project Hail Mary – a new film about a science teacher (portrayed by Ryan Gosling) who finds himself alone on a spacecraft with the job of saving humanity from a star-dimming threat. Host Andrew Glester talks to science-fiction author Andy Weir, whose 2021 novel inspired the production. Weir, also known for The Martian and Artemis – both adapted for th

Physicists who go into politics are a rare breed. Most famously there was Angela Merkel, who was chancellor of Germany for 16 years. Climate physicist Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo was elected Mexican president in a landslide win in 2024. Alok Sharma, meanwhile, was business secretary in the UK government and president of the COP-26 climate summit. But Dave Robertson is even more unusual. Having originally studied physics at the University of Liverpool in the UK, he worked as a physics teacher in Birm

Physicists at ETH Zurich in Switzerland have produced magnetic fields as high as 40 T in a superconducting coil that has a bore diameter of just 3.1 mm. Until now, creating such intense fields required large and expensive facilities and tens of megawatts of power. The new miniaturized structure requires a few thousand times less power than larger magnets and it could help bring ultrastrong benchtop magnets closer to reality. “All previous 40 T class magnets have been metres in size, weigh more t

Robots tend to move things physically, using arms or other appendages. But what if robots could move objects without physically touching them? Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, the University of Michigan and Cornell University have developed robotic swarms that can manipulate objects using only water, by inducing a fluidic torque. Strong viscous interactions exist in microscale systems, which can be used to generate fluid flows that actuate passive objects. In th

A couple of months ago I wrote about whether it’s possible to teach the art of entrepreneurship or if it’s a skill that’s innate to individuals. My article led to some invaluable feedback, notably from one reader who said that, yes, of course it can be taught. Not, they said, from formal lectures but mainly through mentoring by people who’ve learned the art of entrepreneurship themselves. That idea got me thinking about the wider benefit of “giving back” one’s experience to others who could gain

The amount of moisture in soil – and the way this moisture is distributed – combined with wind patterns in the lowest few kilometres of the atmosphere can influence where thunderstorms begin and how they develop. This new finding, from researchers at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH) could help in the development of new early warning systems for such events, which are increasing worldwide and becoming more intense and dangerous as the climate warms. Thunderstorms can develop quickl

More than 1600 researchers from 74 different countries have won “outstanding reviewer awards” from IOP Publishing, with researchers from China making up almost a third of awardees. The annual award recognises scientists who have delivered exceptional peer-review reports for IOP Publishing journals over the past year. Reviewer feedback to authors plays a crucial role in the peer-review process, boosting the quality of published papers for the benefit of authors and the wider scientifi

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