Parallel processing on a chip
Many businesses are now using desktop computers linked together to replace their old mainframe systems. These machines divide up complex problems into smaller ‘chunks’ which are then fed t...
Organic laser breakthrough
Organic lasers are attractive for optical applications because they are inexpensive to manufacture, can be grown as thin films and have good temperature stability. Results from the Princeton team sugg...
Physicist shares Japan Prize
Leo Esaki, the physicist who is president of the University of Tsukuba, is one of the joint winners of this year's Japan Prize
Carbon-based electronics
In addition to being very strong and flexible, carbon nanotubes also have unusual electronic properties. Nanotubes are described by two numbers, conventionally m and n, and a specific nanotube can be ...
Shady solar outhouses
The US Forest Service has recently installed solar outhouses, but positioned some of them in the shade
Flatter TV displays
The cathode ray tube may make a comeback in the TV display wars, with a new amorphic diamond film
Bench-top support
That was the conclusion drawn by John Enderby of Bristol University who gave a presentation on “Experimental physics in the UK: problems and promise” at the British Association‘s sci...
Fractional charge carriers discovered
Electric charge normally comes in an indivisible unit: the charge of an electron. Indeed, quarks were thought to be the only particles with fractional charge – and today they only exist in parti...
