Inspired by the displays of science fiction like the holodeck from Star Trek and the Princess Leia projector from Star Wars, a BYU electrical and computer engineering team is working to develop screenless volumetric display technologies. Scientists at Brigham Young University (BYU) have created tiny 3D animations out of light. The animations pay homage to […]
Enlarge / It’s a myth that cows fart methane; they actually burp out the greenhouse gas. Agriculture now has a new tool for measuring that methane, which could help design cleaner and more productive farms. (credit: BerndBrueggemann/iStock/Getty Images) Optical frequency combs are essentially high-tech “rulers” for measuring different colors of light; they’re useful for making […]
Enlarge / A “Restricted Data” classification stamp on a document from the US Atomic Energy Commission in the early 1950s. The document pertains to the classification of opacity calculations that were part of the work on the hydrogen bomb. The document is no longer classified and is available in the US National Archives. (credit: Alexander […]
Blurring the lines between science and art: researchers used a “laser paintbrush” to create art on metallic canvases. Researchers at ITMO University in Russia have created a “laser paintbrush” capable of creating localized color on a metallic canvas, using their method to create miniaturized replicas of various works of art—including Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry […]
Enlarge / A multi-wavelength image of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. (credit: Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech) Supernovae happen. We’ve witnessed enough of them that we’re pretty sure of that. Why they happen has been another issue entirely. As we’ve worked on understanding the physics that drives these immense explosions, we’ve occasionally gone through awkward periods when the […]
(video link) Open a can of mixed nuts, and chances are you’ll find a bunch of Brazil nuts topping the heap—whether that’s a good or bad thing depends on how you feel about Brazil nuts. It’s such a common phenomenon that it’s known as the “Brazil nut effect” (though muesli mix also gives rise to […]
Enlarge / The Muon g-2 particle storage ring, now housed at Fermilab. (credit: Cindy Arnold/Fermilab) The Muon g-2 experiment (pronounced “gee minus two”) is designed to look for tantalizing hints of physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. It does this by measuring the magnetic field (aka the magnetic moment) generated by a subatomic […]
Enlarge / The line down the middle is where the trapped ions reside. (credit: Honeywell) About a year ago, Honeywell announced that it had entered the quantum computing race with a technology that was different from anything else on the market. The company claimed that because the performance of its qubits was so superior to those […]
Enlarge / One of the magnets used to help contain antimatter. (credit: Brookhaven National Lab) On Wednesday, scientists reported successfully cooling atoms made of antimatter using an ultraviolet laser. The cooling process deployed here works on normal matter, so it was also expected to work just fine with the antihydrogen used for these experiments. Rather […]
Two years ago, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) made headlines with its announcement of the first direct image of a black hole. Science magazine named the image its Breakthrough of the Year. Now the EHT collaboration is back with another groundbreaking result: a new image of the same black hole, this time showing how it […]