Scientists created a ‘mini universe’ that measures time without a clock
A 24,000-atom experiment constructed an internal measure of time from entropy exchange between observed and unobserved regions.This “entropic…
UPenn engineers created a flexible, durable insulator out of mylar to protect future lunar habitats
Thin stacks of Mylar combined strong vacuum insulation with resistance to repeated compression in laboratory tests.Alumina coatings and…
Invisible ultrasound tube can transport solids, liquids, gases through mid-air
A 256-transducer array creates an invisible acoustic conduit that guides matter without contact with solid walls.The experiments demonstrate…
Lasers reveal a rugby-ball-shaped nucleus inside fermium-255
Precision laser spectroscopy shows that the nucleus of fermium-255 is strongly elongated, resembling a rugby ball rather than…
Scientists demonstrate sustained operation of the world’s first self-regulating nuclear clock
A thorium-229 nuclear clock in Vienna ran for more than 24 hours without intervention, automatically correcting its laser…
A tiny semiconductor device lifts quantum photon interference visibility to 90%
An optical cavity raised the first cascade photon’s measured interference visibility to 90%, compared with a typical value…
Quantum chip opens new way to read complex quantum systems
A quantum computing method called QCS reconstructed spectra from static, open and periodically driven quantum systems using one…
New semiconductor turns billions of spin oscillators into a shared time crystal
Continuous time crystals inside a semiconductor can synchronize with one another, locking many separate spin oscillators into a…
New recycling process converts plastic waste into useful chemicals using only water and oxygen
Researchers developed a catalyst-free recycling method that uses only water and oxygen to break down durable plastics such…
Physicists use thorium-229 to power the world’s first working nuclear clock
A clock built from thorium-229 has crossed an important line, from a long-discussed concept to a working device.…
For the first time ever, scientists create particles out of empty space
The universe looks like it is mostly empty space. Remove the stars, planets, dust, and gas, and what…
Undergraduate students built a cavity detector to search for axion dark matter
Dark matter is supposed to be everywhere, threaded through the Milky Way and outnumbering ordinary matter by a…