Physics

Realizing the STEP fusion dream will require cryogenic innovation at scale and at pace

Physics World: Deliver a UK prototype fusion energy plant, targeting 2040, and thereafter a sustainable, long-term pathway to the commercial viability of nuclear fusion. That’s the ambitious objective – and…

A New Option for Neutral-Atom Quantum Computing

Physics: Two independent teams show that neutral ytterbium-171 atoms can be trapped and used for quantum information processing, bringing quantum computers based on this platform a step closer to reality. According to Jeff Thompson, a physicist at Princeton University, now…

11,400 ‘Citizen Scientists’ Help Discover 1,031 New Asteroids After Search Of Old Hubble Images

Forbes: So-called “citizen science” initiatives are a powerful tool for astronomers looking for help to process huge datasets—and the Hubble Space Telescope makes a fine asteroid hunter. They’re the…

Nanotechnology enables visualization of RNA structures at near-atomic resolution

PhysOrg: We live in a world made and run by RNA, the equally important sibling of the genetic molecule DNA. In fact, evolutionary biologists hypothesize that RNA existed and…