2006

Cosmic Tornado

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed an object that looks like a giant tornado in space. The helical structure actually results from shock waves where a powerful protostellar jet hits neighboring gas and dust.

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Topological Defects: Cosmology in the Lab

Cooling a thin liquid crystal film rapidly through a phase transition generates so-called topological defects-points in the image where four dark regions converge. These "knots" in the orderly pattern of the liquid crystal molecules are mathematically equivalent to the topological defects that may have been created in the cosmos by the young, rapidly cooling Universe.

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Merger of Two Black Holes

A sophisticated computer simulation of two black holes merging and emitting gravitational waves has been developed by physicists at the University of Texas, Brownsville.

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Theoretical Polymer Density Map

Theoretical polymer density map for a nanoparticle with "hair" made of polymer molecules.

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Superconducting Ceramic Single Crystal

Reflected light differential interference contrast optical micrograph revealing the surface structure of a superconducting ceramic single crystal.

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Coherent Electron Flow

Coherent flow of electrons through a quantum point contact formed in a two-dimensional electron gas inside a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure. Robert Westervelt and Eric Heller, Harvard University and Arthur C. Gossard, UC Santa Barbara, Physics Today, 56 N 12 (2003).

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Reflections of an Atom

Atoms move into the new device and then "reflect" back out, as shown in this distance vs. time plot of the experimental data.

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A New Way to Make Elements

New research suggests that antineutrinos unleashed in supernovae can forge rare isotopes that nuclear physicists had been unable to explain.

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Black Hole Merger

A sophisticated computer simulation of two black holes merging and emitting gravitational waves has been developed by physicists at the University of Texas, Brownsville.

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Time Projection Chamber

The Time Projection Chamber is a key element of the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland.

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Ingenious Algae

The alga Calyptrolithophora papillifera is encased in a shell of calcite crystals with a two-layer structure (visible on oblique face). Calculations show that this protective covering reflects harmful ultraviolet light.

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