Tag Physics
UW helps create the largest neutrino detectors in the world
A new era in neutrino physics in the United States is underway, and UW–Madison’s Physical Sciences Laboratory in Stoughton is playing a key role. Read More
Dark matter detection receives 10-ton upgrade
The researchers’ goal is to take the experiment online as quickly as possible to compete in a global race to be the first to detect dark matter. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
Computer innovator, UW–Madison alumnus Amdahl dies
University of Wisconsin–Madison alumnus Gene Amdahl (M.S.’49, Physics; Ph.D.’52, Mathematics and Physics), a pioneer in computer science, died earlier this week in Palo Alto, Calif., at the age of 92. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
‘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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More