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SciencePhysics & ChemistryScientists Calculate the Pressure Inside a Proton and It’s Higher Than in a Neutron Star
The pressure inside the particles that make up every atom in the universe could be greater than the pressure inside the densest stars, according to a new measurement. Scientists at Jefferson Lab in Virginia calculated the pressure using the lab’s Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility, or CEBAF, and some tricky mathematics. The measurement will mainly … Continued
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SciencePhysics & Chemistry
Scientists Create Mind-Bending Rydberg Polarons, Atoms Full of Atoms
Some of the most exciting, mind-blowing physics happens when things get really, really cold—such as atoms clumping beneath the shell of a far-out electron. Imagine a bunch of people huddled under an awning, except the people are atoms, and the awning is… also an atom. This new assemblage, recently discovered by an international team of … Continued
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Tech News
Heaviest Element Should Completely Subvert the Rules of High School Chemistry
At the bottom right-hand corner of the periodic table sits a fantasy world. Until recently, these elusive elements’ names were just fancy translations of their numbers. They’re enormous and can only be produced in the lab. They only stick around for a few seconds at most before radioactively decaying into smaller elements. And when researchers … Continued
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SciencePhysics & Chemistry
Look at These Bacteria Moving Like Electrons Around an Atom
A team of researchers from MIT and Cambridge University has discovered that when bacteria are made to flow through a lattice, they synchronize and swim in patterns just like electrons orbiting atoms. By carefully tuning the dimensions of the lattice work, the team were able to make millions of bacteria move around the channels in … Continued
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SciencePhysics & ChemistryCan Atoms Ever Touch?
There’s a very commonly held view that atoms can never touch: bring them together slowly, and you reach a point where they begin to repel. But in this video, Professor Philip Moriarty explains that really isn’t the case. Philip is a little irritated by many of the discussion online about how molecules repel, never to … Continued
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Tech NewsSploid
Discuss: The laws that bind atoms and galaxies control your feelings too
Pour yourself a whiskey and think about this before going to sleep tonight: “What you perceive as a conscious perspective is actually a bunch of little particles banging into each other and swerving around based on the same rules that form stars, nebulae, and black holes… …That means these rules must contain within them the … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech NewsListen to the Sound of Atoms Bonding
You’d be forgiven for thinking that a large tuning fork, a nail, some Blu-Tack and a guitar amp sounded more like the contents of a DIY music studio than a science lab. But they are, in fact, all the ingredients required to listen to the sound of atoms bonding. No, really! In this video, Professor … Continued
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io9
This is the tiniest storage device ever built
Theoretically speaking, a single atom could be made to represent one computer bit — a technological prospect that could lead to unimaginably small storage devices. But getting atoms to behave in the desired way is easier said than done. Until now. Above: A scanning tunneling microscope showing single holmium atoms on a platinum surface. It’s … Continued
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Tech News
This Amazing Image Shows How Atoms In Glass Move When You Bend It
When you bend anything, you stretch the bonds between atoms and force the little fellas to move about against their will. This image shows exactly that happening, inside a sheet of glass. Just last month, scientists announced that they’d created the thinnest ever sheet of glass which was just two atoms thick. At the time … Continued
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Tech News
These First Photos of Atoms Bonding Were Taken Totally by Accident
What you’re looking at above is the exact moment that atoms for a covalent bond. It’s the first time this intricate single-molecule transformation has been captured in the act. It’s a breakthrough, it’s informative, in many ways it’s beautiful. And it was taken by sheer dumb luck. As reported in this week’s Science Felix Fischer … Continued
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SciencePhysics & ChemistryThis Stop Motion Movie Is Animated Using Individual Atoms
Occasionally, researchers at IBM take a break from exploring the limits of data storage at the molecular level—and instead make stop motion films, animated entirely with individual atoms. This is the result. Created using a custom, IBM-manufactured microscope which operates at -268°C, IBM claims this is the “world’s smallest movie.” By manipulating individual atoms, the … Continued
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io9
Dramatic diagrams of cell biology and atomic structure belong in a beautiful textbook
Artist MRK (Markos Kay) is best known for his mesmerizing digital videos like The Flow and the aDiatomea series. But he also creates striking static images inspired by cell biology, atomic structure, and his own digital creations. What makes MRK’s images so compelling is the way they make cell biology seem less abstract. Instead of … Continued
By Lauren Davis -
Tech News
The World’s Tiniest Clock Is Just One Atom
We’ve gotten pretty good at clocks. The nuclear clocks that exist right now are super accurate, so what more could you ask for? Something simpler. How about a clock that’s just one, single atom? That’s exactly what researchers just figured out how to make. Holger Muller, a physicist at the University of California at Berkeley, … Continued
By Eric Limer -
SciencePhysics & Chemistry
This Picture Shows Individual Atomic Bonds Inside a Molecule
This isn’t the view through your childhood kaleidoscope. Nor is it an alien craft come to beam you up. In fact, it’s the world’s first atomic force microscopy image of chemical bonds inside an individual molecule. Created by IBM scientists in Zurich, Switzerland, using noncontact atomic force microscopy, the image shows the varying electron concentration … Continued
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SciencePhysics & Chemistry
Atom Crash Produces Hottest Man-Made Temperature Ever
An atom-smasher called the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has just snagged a Guinness World Record for reaching the hottest man-made temperature ever—250,000 times hotter than the center of the sun. The face-melting temperature was achieved when gold nuclei—the part of the atom made of protons and neutrons that has a positive charge—were set zipping … Continued
By Leslie Horn -
Tech NewsBrand New Colors, Random Tats, and Other Stories We Didn’t Post
So much news passes before our collective eyes every day that we couldn’t possibly cover it all. Mostly because much of it isn’t worth covering! But here are a some borderline tidbits we passed on, just in case. If You Get a Random Tattoo From an App, You Deserve a Random Tattoo From an App … Continued
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io9
Why are electrons doomed to remain forever separated from their beloved protons?
We all know the story. Electrons and protons are attracted to each other. That’s why a balloon rubbed on hair clings to clothes. The electrons it gained are crying out for protons and dragging the rest of the balloon along with them. But electrons and protons are right next to each other in the atom. … Continued
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io9Brian Cox explains the interconnectedness of the universe, explodes your brain
The Pauli exclusion principle is the quantum mechanical concept that no two identical particles in all the Universe may occupy the same quantum state simultaneously. What does that mean, exactly? Well, for starters, it means that the butterfly effect has nothing on the consequences of the Pauli exclusion principle. In this clip from BBC’s A … Continued
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io9Brian Cox and Simon Pegg explain why atoms have so much empty space
If you’re a fan of lucid explanations of tricky scientific concepts, it’s hard to go wrong with theoretical physicist Brian Cox. But when you mix in physicist Jim Al-Khalili and Simon Pegg, you’ve got yourself a recipe for pedagogic gold. Also: thinly veiled sex jokes. In this clip from BBC’s A Night With the Stars, … Continued
