University of Queensland researchers have cracked an issue that's frustrated chemists and physicists for many years, potentially causing a new age of effective, efficient, and environmentally friendly technologies Utilizing quantum mechanics, Professor Ben Powell from UQ's School of Mathematics and Physics has discovered a recipe that enables molecular switches to function at room temperature. "Switches are...
Fig. 1: Schematic view of the 3He+ ion’s external and internal magnetic interactions. Background: microwave radiation. Credit: MPI In joint experimental-theoretical research published in Nature, physicists at the Heidelberg Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK), together with collaborators from RIKEN, Japan, investigated the magnetic properties of the isotope helium-3. For the first time, the electronic and...
Nuclear fusion. Credit: The Conversation. The reinforcement learning algorithm, which controls the scorching plasma within a tokamak nuclear fusion reactor, was developed by an AI company backed by Google. The interior of a tokamak– the doughnut-shaped vessel created to include a nuclear fusion reaction– presents a unique type of chaos. Hydrogen atoms are shattered together at...
Credit: EWG. As the most current report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) explains, the 2020s have to be a decade of change. This is necessary to attain the goals of the Paris Agreement. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is foreseed to play a vital role to cut carbon emissions. Depending on...
An isotope of magnesium has been uncovered with a much shorter half-life than the time it takes to draw in electrons, representing a potential border to chemistry when it involves the graph of nuclides. More significant than 3000 different nuclides-- isotopes of the components-- have been found to day, although only 252 are thought-about secure....
Credit: techzle. Astronomers believe they have discovered proof for an incredibly powerful nuclear explosion in space-- one so unique that seeing one like it again is extremely unlikely. The explosion appears to have occurred inside an unusual neutron star found 140,000 light-years from Earth called MAXI J0556-- 332. Neutron stars are the remnant cores of bigger...
Fusion could create more energy than any other process that could be produced on Earth. Credit: Shutterstock There has been significant excitement about recent results from the Joint European Torus (JET) facility in the UK, suggesting that the dream of nuclear fusion power is inching closer to reality. We know that fusion works-- it is the...
Partial density of states for 2,3-butanediol with accompanying partial charge density images; isosurface of 0.0075 electrons/Bohr3. The gray, red, brown, and pink spheres are Ru, O, C, and H atoms, respectively. Credit: DOI: 10.3389/fenrg.2021.781001 From Plants to Jet fuel A long-overlooked first step in producing sustainable aviation fuels will start with the ideal arrangement of molecular...
Laser-thermal propelled spacecraft in Earth orbit awaiting its departure. Credit: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Could a laser send a spacecraft to Mars? That is a proposed mission from a group at McGill University, made to fulfill a solicitation from NASA. The laser, a 10-meter vast array in the world, would certainly heat up...
