Superfluidity seen on microscopic scales
Bulk superfluid helium has many unusual properties – it can flow up walls and through narrow pores without resistance. Helium-4 and helium-3 become superfluid below 2.12 and 0.003 Kelvin respect...
Defence diversification agency to be created
DERA has an annual turnover of £1bn, 90% of which comes from the Ministry of Defence, and is active in many areas of physics including semiconductors, materials and optics. The agency would encou...
Ground breaking physics in the garden
In Ammann’s scheme the plants are grown in a vertical structure with their roots protruding into a central column. A nozzle at the top of the structure sprays nutrients into this column, wetting...
Radio astronomers agree eight-hour day with mobile phone companies
Interference from satellites is an increasing problem for radio astronomers, and this problem is set to get worse as hundreds of telecommunications satellites are launched into low-Earth orbit over th...
UK budget stresses R&D
The government is to contribute £20 million to a University Challenge Fund to help universities to exploit academic research. The Welcome Trust and the Gatsby Trust have contributed a further ...
UK supports radical shake up at ESA
Although ESA has undergone a cost cutting exercise over the past two years, it is still looking for new sources of revenue. Rodota hopes to open up additional sources of finance by increasing the numb...
UK science minister praises physics
The UK government is committed to basic science, said Battle. “The ongoing comprehensive spending review gives us the opportunity to spell out our commitment to the science base, ” he adde...
Tera-byte disk drives
The device works by storing the data as regions of electric charge. The charge is trapped within a thin dielectric layer coated onto a conducting platter. The hard drive reads and writes data using fi...
RGO will close in October
The observatory employs 115 staff to provide technical support for the UK’s overseas telescopes. Some of these staff will transfer to the new Astronomical Technology Centre, which is part of the...
France cuts back SPOT programme
The French space agency CNES is hoping to follow in the footsteps of NASA’s Discovery mission programme by using smaller, cheaper spacecraft instead of larger, more expensive missions. SPOT Imag...
