Tag Physics
UW-Madison astrophysics innovator Lawler wins national award
James Lawler is a professor of physics known for devising techniques to measure the chemical elements in the sun and other stars.
Ocean temperatures faithfully recorded in mother-of-pearl
Mother-of-pearl or nacre (pronounced nay-ker), the lustrous, tough-as-nails biomineral that lines some seashells, has been shown to be a faithful record of ancient ocean temperature.
UW getting electron beam lithography system for nanotech research
Researchers from four UW campuses around the state will benefit from the new system, which uses a specialized technique for creating patterns 5,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair.
IceCube search for the ‘sterile neutrino’ draws a blank
With the latest results from the icy observatory at the South Pole, scientists are almost certain that there is no such particle.
Antenna design turns entire vehicles into broadcasting equipment
UW–Madison engineers are working to increase the effective size of antennas by turning the military vehicles that carry them into transmitters.
New material combines useful, typically incompatible properties
A team of engineers and physicists has created an entirely new material in which completely contradictory properties can coexist.
Feds renew big IceCube Observatory contract with UW–Madison
IceCube, consisting of 5,000 optical sensors buried deep in the ice beneath the South Pole, reported the first detection of high energy cosmic neutrinos in 2013.
UW-Madison spinoff receives construction permit for medical isotope plant in Janesville
This is the first time since 1961 that the NRC has issued a permit for a facility to make the life-saving isotopes.
Lab keeps cancer treatment radiation machines honest
As radiation sources used to attack cancer grow in number and complexity, a UW–Madison center offers the last word on accurate radiation doses.
UW-Madison storage ring designated as historic site
The world's first dedicated source of synchrotron radiation, an electron storage ring named Tantalus, has been designated an historic site by the American Physical Society.
Medical physics publisher marks 30 years of success
A small Madison publisher focused on the use of radiation in medicine has just celebrated 30 years in business. Medical Physics Publishing focuses on technology used to diagnose and evaluate disability and disease - X-ray, CT, MRI, PET and ultrasound - and on radiation treatment for cancer.
Mother-of-pearl’s genesis identified in mineral’s transformation
How nature makes its biominerals - things like teeth, bone and seashells - is a playbook scientists have long been trying to read.
‘Garage Physics’ is a makerspace for undergraduate brainstorms
To physics professor Duncan Carlsmith, a student's proposal to make a four-rotor helicopter drone was fine fodder for what he calls "garage physics." But why stop at a quadcopter, he told the University of Wisconsin–Madison undergraduate. Make one that is mind-controlled, so a person with severe movement impairment could think: "Go open the fridge and show me what's inside," and that would actually happen.
Balzan Prize goes to UW neutrino pioneer
Francis Halzen, the University of Wisconsin–Madison physicist and leader of the giant neutrino telescope known as IceCube, has been named winner of a 2015 Balzan Prize.
New data from Antarctic detector firms up cosmic neutrino sighting
Researchers using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory have sorted through the billions of subatomic particles that zip through its frozen cubic-kilometer-sized detector each year to gather powerful new evidence in support of 2013 observations confirming the existence of cosmic neutrinos.
As giant physics machine restarts, essential role for UW continues
University of Wisconsin–Madison takes pride in the process of "sifting and winnowing, by which alone the truth can be found." So it makes poetic sense, says Wesley Smith, that he, as a UW–Madison physicist, is overseeing the ultrafast sifting and winnowing procedure for the CMS (compact muon solenoid) experiment, one of two general purpose detectors at history's largest scientific project, the Large Hadron Collider.
Telescopes hint at neutrino beacon at the heart of the Milky Way
Thanks to a confluence of data from a suite of vastly different telescopes, there are tantalizing clues that the massive black hole at the core of the Milky Way may be a cosmic accelerator. In a recent paper published in the journal Physical Review D, a team led by University of Wisconsin–Madison physicist Yang Bai reports a correlation of IceCube data with a recorded burst of X-rays from Sagittarius A, an object at the center of our galaxy that is believed to be a supermassive black hole.
UW physicist receives American Ingenuity Award for IceCube effort
Francis Halzen, the University of Wisconsin–Madison physicist who was the driving force behind the giant neutrino telescope known as IceCube at the South Pole, has been named a winner of the 2014 American Ingenuity Award.
Physicist turns smartphones into pocket cosmic ray detectors
Soon, the growing capability of your smart phone could be harnessed to detect cosmic rays in much the same way as high-end, multimillion-dollar observatories. With a simple app addition, Android phones, and likely other smartphone brands in the not-too-distant future, can be turned into detectors to capture the light particles created when cosmic rays crash into Earth’s atmosphere.