While the laws of physics weren't made to be broken, sometimes they need revision. A major current law has been rewritten thanks to the three-port transistor laser, developed by Milton Feng and Nick Holonyak Jr. at the University of Illinois.With the transistor laser, researchers can explore the behavior of photons, electrons and semiconductors. The device could shape the future of high-speed signal processing, integrated circuits, optical communications, supercomputing and other applications. However, harnessing these capabilities hinges on a clear understanding of the physics of the device, and data the transistor laser generated did not fit neatly within established circuit laws governing electrical currents."We were puzzled," said Feng, the Holonyak Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "How did that work? Is it violating Kirchhoff's law? How can the law accommodate a further output signal, a photon or optical signal?"Kirchhoff's current law, described by Gustav Kirchhoff in 1845, states charge input at a node is equal to the charge output. In other words, all the electrical energy going in must go out again. On a basic bipolar transistor, with ports for electrical input and output, the law applies straightforwardly. The transistor laser adds a third port for optical output, emitting light. »

A European team of researchers is kick starting an EU-funded project with the aim of providing users with the tools they need to produce their own microsystems with nanoscale features for a lot less money and without big enterprise help. FEMTOPRINT ('Femtosecond laser printer for glass microsystems with nanoscale features') has clinched almost EUR 2.5 million in EU support to develop a 3D (three dimensional) printer for these microsystems, which are made of glass and are destined for use in research, academia and industry. The FEMTOPRINT project is backed by the 'Nanosciences, nanotechnologies, materials and new production technologies' Theme of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). Coordinated by the Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) in the Netherlands, the FEMTOPRINT partners say their 'femtoprinter' is the answer users need to form 3D patterns in glass material by using a low-power femtosecond (1 quadrillionth of a second) laser beam. Despite their super mini size, microsystems are unique in that they can help power up various devices. Mechanical and electric components are commonly found inside microsystems that help these tiny machines measure signals and drive components. For instance, accelerometers (electromechanical devices that measure acceleration forces) are used in the computing world for their capacity to protect hard drives in laptops. If you drop your laptop, you can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the accelerator detects the sudden fall and switches off the hard drive so that the damage is contained.  »

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have managed, with the help of an advanced X-ray flash, to photograph the movement of atoms during photosynthesis -- an achievement reported in the journal Science.The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble is home to one of the world's most advanced particle accelerators, whose pulsing X-ray beams are used by researchers to photograph and study life's tiniest components: atoms, molecules and proteins.Using the special X-ray camera, researchers can depict the position of atoms in a molecule and obtain a three-dimensional image of something that is smaller than a billionth of a metre. Researchers at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Gothenburg and at Chalmers University of Technology have now used this advanced technology to photograph the dynamics of life's most fundamental system: photosynthesis.The focus of the study was a protein which is central to the conversion of light to chemical energy during photosynthesis, and which process the Gothenburg researchers have been the first to (successfully photograph) (capture?). The X-ray image shows how the protein temporarily stores the light energy immediately before a chemical bond forms -- a movement that takes place on a scale of less than a nanometre. »

In a May 7 session at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) general assembly in Vienna, researchers presented the first interim results of the ESA mission GOCE, the Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer. Evaluations of the first data from the satellite indicate that current models of Earth's gravitational field in some regions -- the Himalayas, for example -- can be fundamentally revised. The results could contribute to better understanding of many geophysical processes.ESA's GOCE satellite has been orbiting the Earth for more than a year and surveying its gravitational field more accurately than any instrument previously. The goal of the researchers -- including scientists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) -- is to determine the gravitational force in precise detail even in pathless places like the Himalayas. Evaluations of the first data from the satellite indicate that current models of the gravitational field in some regions can be fundamentally revised. On that basis, researchers expect to develop a better understanding of many geophysical processes, including for example earthquakes and ocean circulation. Another success: The satellite will probably manage to work in space for a much longer period than intended. »

The hairs on the surface of water ferns could allow ships to have a 10 percent decrease in fuel consumption. The plant has the rare ability to put on a gauzy skirt of air under water. Researchers at the University of Bonn, Rostock and Karlsruhe now show in the journal Advanced Materials how the fern does this. Their results can possibly be used for the construction of new kinds of hulls with reduced friction.The water fern salvinia molesta is extremely hydrophobic. If it is submerged and subsequently pulled out the liquid immediately drips off it. After that it is completely dry again. Or to be more precise: it was never really wet. For the fern surrounds itself by a flimsy skirt of air. This layer prevents the plant from coming into contact with liquid. And that even with a dive lasting weeks.Materials researchers call this behaviour 'superhydrophobic'. This property is of interest for many applications such as rapidly drying swimsuits or simply for fuel-efficient ships. Meanwhile, it is possible to construct superhydrophobic surfaces modelled on nature. However, these 'replicas' have a disadvantage: the layer that forms on them is too unstable. In moving water it disappears after several hours at the latest.The researchers from Bonn, Rostock und Karlsruhe have now deciphered the trick the water fern uses to pin down its airy skirt. It has been known for some years now that on the surface of its leaves there are tiny whisk-like hairs. These are hydrophobic. They keep water in the surroundings at a distance. »

An international team of researchers has found a way to make random numbers truly random. The study, published in the journal Nature, was supported by the EU through the PERCENT ('Percolating entanglement and quantum information resources through quantum networks') and QORE ('Quantum correlations') projects, which received EUR 7 million and EUR 2 million respectively from the European Research Council (ERC). Funding also came from the QAP ('Qubit applications') project, funded with EUR 9.9 million under the 'Information society technologies' Thematic area of the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6).To create random number lists for encryption purposes, cryptographers usually use mathematical algorithms called 'pseudo random number generators'. But these are never entirely 'random' as the creators cannot be certain that any sequence of numbers isn't predictable in some way. Now a team of experimental physicists has made a breakthrough in random number generation by applying the principles of quantum mechanics to produce a string of numbers that is truly random. 'Classical physics simply does not permit genuine randomness in the strict sense,' explained research team leader Chris Monroe from the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) at the University of Maryland in the US. 'That is, the outcome of any classical physical process can ultimately be determined with enough information about initial conditions. Only quantum processes can be truly random - and even then, we must trust the device is indeed quantum and has no remnant of classical physics in it.'  »

A team of researchers from France, Germany and Switzerland has used a laser technique to trigger rain in the free atmosphere. The technique, details of which are published in the journal Nature Photonics, may be used to study the creation of droplets in clouds, and could even offer a new way to open up the heavens. Controlling the weather is a long-standing ambition of mankind. Throughout human history, tremendous efforts have been made to find ways of making rain. More recently, efforts to encourage rainfall (or suppress fog) have focused on using aircraft or rockets to seed clouds with silver salt particles or dry ice. The particles act as 'ice nuclei' around which raindrops can form.In this latest research, led by Dr Jérôme Kasparian of the University of Geneva in Switzerland, a unique instrument called the Téramobile femtosecond-terawatt laser used extremely powerful and ultra-short laser pulses to generate 'self-guided ionised filaments'. These ions induced condensation first in a cloud chamber and then, one cold, autumn evening, in the skies above the German capital city of Berlin. In follow-up laboratory experiments, the team explored the mechanisms behind the process, including photo-oxidative chemistry and electrostatic effects. 'This is the first experiment demonstrating that a laser is capable of generating condensation,' explained Dr Kasparian. His team believes that the laser technique can be used to modify local weather conditions. 'The reaction that we have obtained constitutes the first step in the formation of rain, and we foresee the possibility of replacing current techniques,' he added.  »

University of Toronto, a world-leading research university, announces a breakthrough development in video camera design. The Omni-focus Video Camera, based on an entirely new distance-mapping principle, delivers automatic real-time focus of both near and far field images, simultaneously, in high resolution. This unprecedented capability can be broadly applied in industry, including manufacturing, medicine, defense, security -- and for the consumer market.Inventor and principal investigator of the Omni-focus video camera, Professor Keigo Iizuka of The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, explains that, "the intensity of a point source decays with the inverse square of the distance of propagation. This variation with distance has proven to be large enough to provide depth mapping with high resolution. What's more, by using two point sources at different locations, the distance of the object can be determined without the influence of its surface texture." This principle led Professor Iizuka to invent a novel distance-mapping camera, the Divergence-ratio Axi-vision Camera, abbreviated "Divcam," which is a key component of the new Omni-focus Video Camera.The Omni-focus Video Camera is produced in collaboration with consulting investigator Dr. David Wilkes, president of Wilkes Associates, a Canadian high-tech product development company. It contains an array of color video cameras, each focused at a different distance, and an integrated Divcam. The Divcam maps distance information for every pixel in the scene in real time. A software-based pixel correspondence utility, using prior intellectual property invented by Dr. Wilkes, then uses the distance information to the ensemble of outputs of the color video cameras, and generates the final "omni-focused" single-video image. »

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed the first "dimmer switch" for a superconducting circuit linking a quantum bit (qubit) and a quantum bus -- promising technologies for storing and transporting information in future quantum computers. The NIST switch is a new type of control device that can "tune" interactions between these components and potentially could speed up the development of a practical quantum computer.Quantum computers, if they can be built, would use the curious rules of quantum mechanics to solve certain problems that are now intractable, such as breaking today's most widely used data encryption codes, or running simulations of quantum systems that could unlock the secrets of high-temperature superconductors. Unlike many competing systems that store and transport information using the quantum properties of individual atoms, superconducting qubits use a "super flow" of oscillating electrical current to store information in the form of microwave energy. Superconducting quantum devices are fabricated like today's silicon processor chips and may be easy to manufacture at the large scales needed for computation.As described in a forthcoming paper in Physical Review Letters, the new NIST switch can reliably tune the interaction strength or rate between the two types of circuits -- a qubit and a bus -- from 100 megahertz to nearly zero. The advance could enable researchers to flexibly control the interactions between many circuit elements in an intricate network as would be needed in a quantum computer of a practical size. »

Physicists at JILA have demonstrated a new tool for controlling ultracold gases and ultracold chemistry: electric fields.As described in the April 29 issue of Nature,* JILA scientists discovered that applying a small electric field spurs a dramatic increase in chemical reactions in their gas of ultracold molecules. JILA is a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado at Boulder.The discovery builds on the same JILA research team's recent pioneering observation of how molecules behave in the chilly world near absolute zero, which is governed by the curious rules of submicroscopic quantum physics. In this realm, the molecules act like waves instead of particles, and overlap of the waves determines whether chemical reactions occur to create different molecules.In their experiments, researchers study chemical reactions between pairs of ultracold molecules, each consisting of a single potassium (K) atom and a single rubidium (Rb) atom. These KRb molecules are susceptible to electric fields because they are electrically "polar": they have a positive electrical charge at the rubidium end of the molecule and a negative charge at the potassium end. In this latest publication, the researchers measured how electrical fields can control the rate at which these KRb molecules react, discovering how to speed up the reactions or slow them down. Controlling reactions in this way can allow researchers to create molecular products tailored for practical applications."We want these molecules to survive for a long time in our trap so that we can go on to do other quantum physics experiments, such as quantum simulations and quantum information processing," explains NIST Fellow Jun Ye, a senior author of the new paper. »