Tag Physics
UW-Madison storage ring designated as historic site
The world's first dedicated source of synchrotron radiation, an electron storage ring named Tantalus, has been designated an historic site by the American Physical Society.
Medical physics publisher marks 30 years of success
A small Madison publisher focused on the use of radiation in medicine has just celebrated 30 years in business. Medical Physics Publishing focuses on technology used to diagnose and evaluate disability and disease - X-ray, CT, MRI, PET and ultrasound - and on radiation treatment for cancer.
Mother-of-pearl’s genesis identified in mineral’s transformation
How nature makes its biominerals - things like teeth, bone and seashells - is a playbook scientists have long been trying to read.
‘Garage Physics’ is a makerspace for undergraduate brainstorms
To physics professor Duncan Carlsmith, a student's proposal to make a four-rotor helicopter drone was fine fodder for what he calls "garage physics." But why stop at a quadcopter, he told the University of Wisconsin–Madison undergraduate. Make one that is mind-controlled, so a person with severe movement impairment could think: "Go open the fridge and show me what's inside," and that would actually happen.
Balzan Prize goes to UW neutrino pioneer
Francis Halzen, the University of Wisconsin–Madison physicist and leader of the giant neutrino telescope known as IceCube, has been named winner of a 2015 Balzan Prize.
New data from Antarctic detector firms up cosmic neutrino sighting
Researchers using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory have sorted through the billions of subatomic particles that zip through its frozen cubic-kilometer-sized detector each year to gather powerful new evidence in support of 2013 observations confirming the existence of cosmic neutrinos.
As giant physics machine restarts, essential role for UW continues
University of Wisconsin–Madison takes pride in the process of "sifting and winnowing, by which alone the truth can be found." So it makes poetic sense, says Wesley Smith, that he, as a UW–Madison physicist, is overseeing the ultrafast sifting and winnowing procedure for the CMS (compact muon solenoid) experiment, one of two general purpose detectors at history's largest scientific project, the Large Hadron Collider.
Telescopes hint at neutrino beacon at the heart of the Milky Way
Thanks to a confluence of data from a suite of vastly different telescopes, there are tantalizing clues that the massive black hole at the core of the Milky Way may be a cosmic accelerator. In a recent paper published in the journal Physical Review D, a team led by University of Wisconsin–Madison physicist Yang Bai reports a correlation of IceCube data with a recorded burst of X-rays from Sagittarius A, an object at the center of our galaxy that is believed to be a supermassive black hole.
UW physicist receives American Ingenuity Award for IceCube effort
Francis Halzen, the University of Wisconsin–Madison physicist who was the driving force behind the giant neutrino telescope known as IceCube at the South Pole, has been named a winner of the 2014 American Ingenuity Award.
Physicist turns smartphones into pocket cosmic ray detectors
Soon, the growing capability of your smart phone could be harnessed to detect cosmic rays in much the same way as high-end, multimillion-dollar observatories. With a simple app addition, Android phones, and likely other smartphone brands in the not-too-distant future, can be turned into detectors to capture the light particles created when cosmic rays crash into Earth’s atmosphere.
‘Cabinet of curiosities’ captures nature through work of artists and scientists
Of all the places Sierra Swenson expected to end up during her first semester at college, precious few were lined with jars full of preserved reptiles.
Advanced physics tool to shut down after almost 30 years
Faced with a federal funding shortfall, the University of Wisconsin–Madison has decided to shut down its Synchrotron Radiation Center near Stoughton on March 7.
IceCube pushes neutrinos to the forefront of astronomy
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a particle detector buried in the Antarctic ice, is a demonstration of the power of the human passion for discovery, where scientific ingenuity meets technological innovation.
The sun also flips: 11-year solar cycle wimpy, but peaking
In a 3-meter diameter hollow aluminum sphere, Cary Forest, a University of Wisconsin–Madison physics professor, is stirring and heating plasmas to 500,000 degrees Fahrenheit to experimentally mimic the magnetic field-inducing cosmic dynamos at the heart of planets, stars and other celestial bodies.
Miron Livny: Collaborative spirit supports Nobel Prize-winning science
In 1964, François Englert and Peter Higgs theorized the existence of a subatomic particle that gives all other particles mass. Nearly 50 years later in 2012, a global team of researchers found evidence that supports the existence of the Higgs boson particle at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland.