March 2010

Cooling a "Macroscopic" Object to Its Quantum Ground State

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The largest thing that has ever been observed in its quantum ground state is as long as the width of a human hair.

LHC Physics Begins!

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The LHC at CERN has collided two beams of protons with a total center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV (seven trillion electron volts).

Found: 90% of the distant Universe

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90% of the distant Universe was thought to be missing, but it was recently found.

Why Your Medical Care Depends on Weapons Grade Uranium

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A shortage of radioactive technetium-99m threatens the availability of nuclear medicine procedures.

Death by human stampede

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Over the past 30 years, stampedes have killed at least 7,000 people and injured another 14,000.

rethinking quantum states and computers

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Even something as big as 200 micrometers will still be subject to quantum effects when cooled to nearly absolute zero.

On the evolution of toilets

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Some plants have evolved toilets in an effort to gather nitrogen.

Bacteria on your keyboard point to your identity but forensic value is unlikely

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Bacteria from our skins linger on the things we touch and they could act as a sort of living fingerprint.

Highest energy ever

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The Large Hadron Collider is about to set a record by achieving beam circulation at 3.5 TeV, bringing collisions between protons to 7 TeV center-of-mass energy.

a marauding star vs. our solar system

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An orange dwarf named Gliese 710 has an 86% chance of disturbing the Oort cloud and sending a stream of comets towards the Sun in about 1.5 million years.