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Researchers have discovered the heaviest-known bound isotope of sodium and characterized other neutron-rich isotopes, offering important benchmarks for refining nuclear models.

The neutron dripline marks a boundary of nuclear existence—indicating isotopes of a given element with a maximum number of neutrons. Adding a neutron to a dripline isotope will cause the isotope to become unbound and release one or more of its neutrons. Mapping the dripline is a major goal of modern nuclear physics, as this boundary is a testing ground for nuclear models and has implications for our understanding of neutron stars and of the synthesis of elements in stellar explosions. Now studies by two groups extend our knowledge of the properties of nuclei close to the dripline [1, 2]. Working at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory (RIBF) in Japan, Deuk Soon Ahn of RIKEN and colleagues have discovered sodium-39 (³⁹ Na), which likely marks the dripline location for the heaviest element to date (Fig. 1) [1].

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Continue reading “Are there Undiscovered Elements Beyond The Periodic Table?” »

From wearable gadgets to battery separators, the future of sustainable tech is starting to look like a mushroom. A team of researchers from the Institute of Experimental Physics in Linz have completed a proof-of-concept study, testing whether mycelium skin could substitute plastic in the production of soft electronics. The scientists used processed skin from the mushroom Ganoderma Lucidum – a saprophytic fungus native to some parts of Europe and China that grows naturally on dead hardwood.

This works by laying electronic components on the fungal skin through a process called physical vapor deposition, used to produce thin materials. The resulting electronic circuit has high thermal stability and can withstand thousands of bending cycles. The researchers say that combining conventional electronics with the biodegradable material could help reduce waste in the production of wearable electronics and sustainable battery separators, among other uses.

Continue reading “What if We Could Make Electronics From Mushrooms? | Mashable” »

We could be a step closer to the commercially viable production of limitless nuclear fusion energy.

A group of nuclear fusion researchers at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) achieved self-heating “burning plasma” for the first time ever in January, bringing commercially viable nuclear fusion one step closer.

Now, a new analysis of the plasma, published in a paper in the journal Nature Physics, reveals surprising new details that could help the scientific community finally achieve the holy grail of nuclear fusion — net energy production.

Continue reading “Limitless nuclear fusion energy is one step closer thanks to burning plasma experiment” »

Hypothetical bridges connecting distant regions of space (and time) could more or less look like garden variety black holes, meaning it’s possible these mythical beasts of physics have already been seen.

Thankfully however, if a new model proposed by a small team of physicists from Sofia University in Bulgaria is accurate, there could still be a way to tell them apart.

Play around with Einstein’s general theory of relativity long enough, it’s possible to show how the spacetime background of the Universe can form not only deep gravitational pits where nothing escapes – it can form impossible mountain peaks which can’t be climbed.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science announced allocations of supercomputer access to 56 high-impact computational science projects for 2023 through its Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program. These awards, which will pursue transformational advances in science and engineering, account for 60% of the available time on the leadership-class supercomputers at DOEs Argonne and Oak Ridge national laboratories.

The projects will support a broad range of large-scale research campaigns to advance knowledge in areas ranging from astrophysics to sustainable energy technologies to materials design and discovery.

Jointly managed by the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) and the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), the INCITE program is the primary means by which the facilities fulfill their mission to advance open science by providing the scientific community with access to their powerful supercomputing resources. The ALCF and OLCF are DOE Office of Science user facilities.

As LHC Run 3 gets into its stride and the first results at a new energy frontier roll in (p5), all eyes are on what’s next: the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), scheduled to start operations in 2029. Civil engineering for the major upgrade is complete (p7) and new crystal collimators for HL-LHC operations are to be put to the test during the current run (p35). Looking beyond the LHC, how best to deal with the millions of cubic metres of excavation materials from a future circular collider? (p9), and a new project to explore the use of high-temperature superconductors for FCC-ee (p8). The HL-LHC and proposed future colliders also feature large in the recent US Snowmass community planning exercise (p23).

The hundreds of gold-rich stars discovered in our Milky Way galaxy may have come from smaller galaxies that merged 10 billion years ago, according to new simulations by a supercomputer.

Using the ATERUI II supercomputer in the Center for Computational Astrophysics at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, scientists at Tohoku University and the University of Notre Dame developed new simulations of galaxy formation with the highest resolution yet.

The paper was published this week in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The universe may seem shapeless because it is so vast, but it does have a form that astronomers can observe. So, what is it shaped like?

Physicists think the universe is flat. Several lines of evidence point to this flat universe: light left over from the Big Bang, the rate of expansion of the universe at different locations, and the way the universe “looks” from different angles, experts told Live Science.