News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed a technique to observe how radiation damages molecules over time-frames of just one quadrillionth of a second -- or a femtosecond.

An international team of scientists has announced a breakthrough in its quest to measure the mass of the neutrino, one of the most abundant, yet elusive, elementary particles in our universe. At the 2019 Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics conference in Toyama, Japan, leaders from the KATRIN experiment reported Sept. 13 that the estimated range for the rest mass of the neutrino is no larger than 1 electron volt, or eV.

For decades, people have been searching for suitable atomic nuclei for building an ultra-precise nuclear clock. For a long time it had been conjectured that a specific thorium isotope must have a nuclear state that would be suitable for this purpose. This long-sought core state of thorium has now been demonstrated experimentally for the first time -- twice, by 2 different international research teams.

Nuclear reactors are still the primary source for strong neutron beams to create isotopes for geologic dating, radiography and medicine, but researchers at UC Berkeley have enlisted engineering students in building a tabletop neutron source that could be nearly as effective. A new study shows that the high flux neutron generator can date rocks as old as 1 million years, as well as fine-grained materials like lavas and clays, extending the usefulness of argon-argon dating.

It is among the most spectacular events in the universe: a merger of neutron stars. An international team of researchers with strong representation from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has completed the first laboratory measurements of thermal electromagnetic radiation arising in such collisions. The resulting data enabled them to calculate the prevailing temperature when such stars merge.

The rare isotope iron-60 is created in massive stellar explosions. Only a very small amount of this isotope reaches the earth from distant stars. Now, a research team with significant involvement from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has discovered iron-60 in Antarctic snow for the first time. The scientists suggest that the iron isotope comes from the interstellar neighborhood.

Lithium fluoride crystals have recently been used to register the tracks of nuclear particles. Physicists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow have just demonstrated that these crystals are also ideal for detecting tracks of high-energy ions of elements even as heavy as iron.