Lifeboat Foundation

Humanity will get its first good look at Ceres and Pluto, giving us science writers some new pics to use instead of the same half dozen blurry dots and artist’s conceptions. SpaceX will also attempt a daring landing on a sea platform, and long duration missions aboard the International Space Station will get underway. And key technology headed to space and on Earth may lead the way to opening up the window of gravitational wave astronomy on the universe. Here’s 10 sure-fire bets to watch for in the coming year from Universe Today:

1. LISA Pathfinder

A precursor to a full-fledged gravitational wave detector in space, LISA Pathfinder will be launching atop a Vega rocket from Kourou, French Guiana in July 2015. LISA stands for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, and the Pathfinder mission will journey to the L1 Lagrange point between the Earth and the Sun to test key technologies. LISA Pathfinder will pave the way for the full fledged LISA space platform, a series of three free flying spacecraft proposed for launch in the 2030s.

An international collaboration including scientists at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) solved a 50-year-old puzzle that explains why beta decays of atomic nuclei are slower than what is expected based on the beta decays of free neutrons.

The findings, published in Nature Physics, fill a long-standing gap in physicists’ understanding of beta decay, an important process stars use to create heavier elements, and emphasize the need to include subtle effects—or more realistic physics—when predicting certain nuclear processes.

“For decades, scientists have lacked a first-principles understanding of nuclear beta decay, in which protons convert into neutrons, or vice versa, to form other elements,” said ORNL staff scientist Gaute Hagen, who led the study. “Our team demonstrated that theoretical models and computation have progressed to the point where it is possible to calculate some decay properties with enough precision to allow for direct comparison to experiment.”

Continue reading “Physicists solve a beta-decay puzzle with advanced nuclear models” »

The research contradicts a major assumption in physics.

Get to know two major icons of theoretical physics.

If you shrank yourself down and entered a proton, you’d experience among the most intense pressures found anywhere in the universe.

A team of scientists in the US has brought us a huge step closer to a superconductor capable of working at room temperature.

If humankind were to find a way to construct a large-scale superconductor that could work at room temperature, the way our energy grids and computers are built – and many other areas of daily life – would be fundamentally changed.

The phenomenon is the lack of electrical resistance and is observed in many materials when they are cooled below temperatures of around −180 degrees Celsius, making them rather limited in their application. However, a team from George Washington University in the US has revealed something that could help us finally reach what is one of the most sought-after achievements in modern physics.

Continue reading “Researchers close in on physics’ holy grail with ‘super’ breakthrough” »

A DAY of science challenges and investigations run by the Institute of Physics was hosted by Rugby High School.

Teams from 12 schools from across the West Midlands came to take part in Super Physics Day.

The teams of four used their knowledge of science to conduct three timed investigations including ‘Air Drop’, an RAF challenge to drop relief packages from a plane to the desired location.

Continue reading “School hosts students from across West Mids for physics day” »

A bizarre theory could explain dark matter.

Mirror Image

The Big Bang didn’t just result in our familiar universe, according to a mind-bending new theory — it also generated a second “anti-universe” that extended backwards in time, like a mirror image of our own.

Continue reading “New Theory: ‘Mirror Image’ of Our Universe Existed Before Big Bang” »

In September 2018, physicists at the University of Tokyo were trying to create insanely strong magnetic energy in an indoor environment. They expected an explosion. But they didn’t know it would be so powerful that it would knock an iron door off its hinges.

How did scientists accidentally generate the longest-lasting and strongest controllable magnetic energy field in human history?