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Nobel Prize shared for cosmic microwave background studies 3 October 2006 |
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John C Mather and George F Smoot have won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics “for their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation”. The discovery has provided very strong evidence that the Universe was created in a massive explosion called the Big Bang. |
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Now you see it, now you don’t 5 October 2006 |
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Danish physicists have managed to light-up a cloud of atoms using light teleported from a source half a meter away. |
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Researchers discover element 118 19 October 2006 |
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If you think you have seen the above headline somewhere before, then you probably have. In 1999, nuclear physicists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US claimed to have produced three atoms of the super-heavy element with atomic number 118 -- the heaviest ever detected. But that claim was retracted three years later when it emerged that some of the data had been falsified. |
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Hydrogen Storage goes metal-free 22 November 2006 |
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Researchers in Canada have developed a new solid material that can store and release hydrogen near room temperature without involving a transition metal. The discovery could lead to the development of low-cost and lightweight materials for the onboard storage of hydrogen fuel in cars. |
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The Best of 2006 22 December 2006 |
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It was the year that water flowed on Mars and the first cloak of invisibility was unveiled. Physicists also made important advances in the manipulation of materials at the quantum level in 2006, furthering our knowledge of the fundamental properties of matter and bringing futuristic technologies like quantum computers closer to reality. |
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