PhysOrg news highlights
Date: Monday, March 28, 2005 @ 18:15:21 UTC Topic: Science
QUASIPARTICLE BEHAVIOR IN BOSE QUANTUM LIQUIDS, March 27
Quasiparticles carry energy in condensed matter. In the world of quasiparticle physics, understanding when and how these energy carriers fail opens doors to another level of understanding, and can lead the way to many new and important theories. Scientists at the U. S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered the failure point for the quasiparticle construct, the standard model of condensed matter physics. This could have far-reaching implications, for example, in the study of high-temperature superconductors, materials currently under intense scrutiny as a possible replacement for the conventional superconducting materials now used in many facets of everyday life.
Full story at http://www.physorg.com/news3516.html
BRITAIN'S TOP CLIMATOLOGIST BACKS GLOBAL WARMING CLAIMS, March 28
One of Britain's leading climate change experts has thrown his weight behind the claim that global warming is being caused by human activity in a report published today by the Institute of Physics.
The report by Professor Alan Thorpe, who takes up his post as chief of the Natural Environmental Research Council next month, aims to tackle sceptics who doubt the models scientists use to predict future climate change.
Full story at http://www.physorg.com/news3522.html
UNVEILING THE HIGH ENERGY MILKY WAY REVEALS 'DARK ACCELERATORS', March 25
In the March 25th 2005 issue of Science Magazine, the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) team of international astrophysicists, including UK astronomers from the University of Durham, report results of a first sensitive survey of the central part of our galaxy in very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays. Included among the new objects discovered are two 'dark accelerators' - mysterious objects that are emitting energetic particles, yet apparently have no optical or x-ray counterpart.
Full story at http://www.physorg.com/news3507.html
'DRAMA OF THE AMERICAN WORKING FAMILY' EXAMINED, March 25
Armed with a $3.6 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and a wide range of anthropological, linguistic and psychological research methods, a team of UCLA faculty is gearing up for a landmark study of a species under considerable stress: the middle-class, dual-income family.
The nine highly regarded UCLA researchers will devote the next three years to filming and documenting the everyday routines of 30 families residing in the greater Los Angeles area. The material then will be housed in the UCLA/Sloan Working Family Archive, where it can be studied in depth for years to come by researchers seeking to understand a sector of the American public that stands at a crossroads.
Full story at http://www.physorg.com/news3512.html
|
|