Black Hole Merger Movie

Accurate calculations of the gravitational waveforms emitted during the collision of black holes can now be made. A new computer study of how a pair of black holes, circling each other, disturbs the surrounding space and sends huge gusts of gravitational waves outwards, should greatly benefit the experimental search for those waves with detectors such as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the planned Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA).

Site – http://www.aip.org

New String-Theory Notion Redefines the Big Bang

String theory — the concept that all particles can be represented as strings or string-loops of incredibly minute length, oscillating at various frequencies — was initially developed to help explain why quarks, the tiny fundamental particles that make up protons and neutrons, are always confined within larger composite particles. However, string theory has evolved to allow scientists to deal with some wider issues. For example, they can use string theory to devise explanations for some grand problems in cosmology, such as the state of the universe — its shape, size, etc. — just after the Big Bang, when quarks roamed freely.

Site – http://www.physorg.com

Your secrets are safe with quasar encryption

Japanese scientists have come up with a method for encrypting messages using radio waves from quasars. The researchers believe quasars could make an ideal cryptographic tool because the strength and frequency of the radio pulses they emit is impossible to predict. Each communicating party would only need to know which quasar to monitor and when to start in order to encrypt and decrypt a message.

Site – http://www.newscientist.com

IBM develops method to control atom-scale magnetism

IBM scientists have developed a new technique called spin-excitation spectroscopy to explore and control magnetism at its fundamental atomic level. The method promises to be important in designing future computer circuits and data-storage elements as they shrink toward atomic dimensions and in laying the foundation for new materials and computing devices that leverage atom-scale magnetic phenomena, such as quantum computers. Spin-excitation spectroscopy uses IBM’s low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope designed for use with magnetic fields up to 140,000 times stronger than the earth’s. The researchers first move atoms into position and then measure the interactions between their atomic spins, which are the fundamental sources of magnetism.

Site – http://www.eetimes.com

Video: Lifelike Robot Waves Away Skeptics

Photos of Repliee Q1—an eerily lifelike robot that debuted in Japan last year—might not have impressed you. But video of the android could just change your mind. Watch as the next robo-prototype, Repliee Q2, interacts with visitors, tells off assailants, and waves for the camera.

Site – http://news.nationalgeographic.com

Galaxy simulation breaks new ground

Two astronomers have performed one of the world’s largest astrophysics simulations to date in order to model the growth of galaxies. Using the “Earth Simulator” supercomputer in Japan, which is also used for climate modelling and simulating seismic activity, Masao Mori of the University of California at Los Angeles and Masayuki Umemura at the University of Tsukuba have calculated how galaxies evolved from just 300 million years after the Big bang to the present day. The results show that galaxies may have evolved much faster than currently believed.

Site – http://physicsweb.org

Steve Lawler

Steve Lawler is a definitive DJ and producer; a tastemaker whose sets combine quality house music with the power to move dance floors around the world. In the last few years, he's wowed crowds in such far flung places as Zouk in Singapore, Groovejet in Miami, Twilo in New York and the mighty Space in Ibiza. Courtesy of home, he provided the most groundbreaking sets of the season for many of those lucky enough to hear him. After two months he had been crowned 'King Of Space' by the locals – a rare and well deserved honour.

Site – http://www.djstevelawler.com

First Holographic Drives and Media to Ship in 2006

InPhase has packed 515Gb in a square inch of holographic media and plans 300GB drives and media later this year A story on Physorg.com is reporting that InPhase Technologies, a company focused on holographic storage, has produced a medium capable of holding 515Gb of data per square inch which overshadows the capacity of the highest density magnetic platters currently in production. InPhase was a big hit at this year’s CES when they demonstrated its holographic storage prototypes and showed off the various media options but said that initial products will only use the red laser, as opposed to blue and green, for reasons of cost.

Site – http://www.dailytech.com

Internet Companies Need Code of Conduct in Authoritarian Regimes

As Congressional hearings about how U.S. Internet companies do business in China are set to begin, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is calling for the industry and government to work together to develop simple guidelines to decrease the harm done by participating in authoritarian regimes. “Without careful thought, even well-meaning Internet companies can become the handmaidens of state repression. Internet routers can be turned into powerful wiretapping tools,” said EFF Activism Coordinator Danny O’Brien. “Web servers and search engines can become honeypots of personal data, plundered by state police to identify dissidents.”

Site – http://www.eff.org

High-energy physics at the highest level

It will be the most powerful particle collider on the planet. And Iowa State University physicists will be right there working with it. The European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva, Switzerland, is building the Large Hadron Collider, a new particle accelerator that will collide beams of protons or lead nuclei at close to the speed of light.

Site – http://www.physorg.com

Chip ramps up neuron-to-computer communication

A specialised microchip that could communicate with thousands of individual brain cells has been developed by European scientists. The device will help researchers examine the workings of interconnected brain cells, and might one day enable them to develop computers that use live neurons for memory. The computer chip is capable of receiving signals from more than 16,000 mammalian brain cells, and sending messages back to several hundred cells. Previous neuron-computer interfaces have either connected to far fewer individual neurons, or to groups of neurons clumped together.

Site – http://www.newscientisttech.com

Modeling the Chemical Reactions of Nanoparticles

As science enters the world of the very small, researchers will be searching for new ways to study nanoparticles and their properties. For the past several years, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have been experimenting with new methods for preparing nanoparticles on metal supports, with the aim of creating model catalyst systems to better study the special reactivity of nano-sized catalyst particles.

Site – http://www.physorg.com