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Mr. Fusion Helps Students Build a Nuclear Reactor

By Guest PostAugust 18, 2011Science, Technologyalbert babb, brian greene, carl greninger, farnsworth hirsch fusor, garage, glassification of nuclear waste, high end suv, iec 9000, jayce glenn, microsoft employee, microsoft it operations, microsoft research science fair, new york, nuclear reactor, physicist, physics, thermonuclear reactor, united states operates 104 nuclear reactors, voila fusion, x ray machine

*Microsoft employee Carl Greninger helped a team of young students build a working nuclear reactor in his garage. He hopes the project can inspire a passion for physics in students around the country.*

REDMOND, Wash. – Sometimes you have to smash a few atoms to excite people about science.

So says Carl Greninger, a program manager in Microsoft IT Operations by day and full-fledged physics fanatic by night. That’s why he decided to help some young students get hands-on experience with something they couldn’t find in their classrooms: a working thermonuclear reactor.

For the past year, a group of local students – some as young as 13 years old – have met at Greninger’s garage every Friday night to build a type of fusion reactor known as a Farnsworth–Hirsch Fusor. Dubbed IEC-9000, their machine has been fusing atoms and producing neutrons since May. It cost about as much as a high-end SUV, weighs 1,400 pounds, and generates temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun. (more…)

X-Ray Telescope Finds New Voracious Black Holes in Early Universe

By Guest PostJune 17, 2011Sciencebig bang, black holes, cdfs, chandra, chandra deep field south, chandra x ray observatory, cosmic dawn, cosmic fog, early universe, eric gawiser, ezequiel treister, galaxies, giant black holes, Hubble Space Telescope, kevin schawinski, marta volonteri, massive black holes, NASA, neutral hydrogen, new jersey, optical and infrared images, photons, physics, priya natarajan, quasars, reionization, Rutgers University, supermassive black holes, university of hawaii, university of michigan, x ray image, yale university, young black holes

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Using the deepest X-ray image ever taken, a University of Michigan astronomer and her colleagues have found the first direct evidence that massive black holes were common in the early universe. This discovery from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory shows that very young black holes grew more aggressively than previously thought, in tandem with the growth of their host galaxies.

By pointing Chandra at a patch of sky for over six weeks, astronomers obtained what is known as the Chandra Deep Field South (CDFS). When combined with very deep optical and infrared images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the new Chandra data allowed astronomers to search for black holes in 200 distant galaxies, from when the universe was between about 800 million and 950 million years old. (more…)

Study Shows Interactive Teaching Methods Double Learning in Physics Classroom

By Guest PostMay 15, 20111 commentEducationbose einstein condensate, carl wieman, carl wieman science education initiative, cognitive psychology, cu sei, cwsei, ellen schelew, eric cornell, interactive teaching methods, louis deslauriers, nobel prize, pedagogy, physics, physics class, university of colorado boulder

Interactive teaching methods significantly improved attendance and doubled both engagement and learning in a large physics class, according to a University of British Columbia study involving University of Colorado Boulder Distinguished Professor Carl Wieman that is being published today in Science.

Led by Louis Deslauriers, a post-doctoral researcher at UBC’s Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative, or CWSEI, the study compared the amount of learning students experienced when taught by traditional lecture and by using interactive activities based on research in cognitive psychology and physics education. The teaching took place for three hours over one week. (more…)

IBM Honors the 25th Anniversary of High-Temperature Superconductivity

By Guest PostApril 18, 2011Technologyalex muller, CERN, dutch physicist, electrotechnology, georg bednorz, heike kamerlingh onnes, ibm scientists, Large Hadron Collider, magnetic resonance imaging scanners, meissner effect, microelectronics, mri, nobel prize, oxide material, physics, superconductivity, superconductor

*IBM scientists, J. Georg Bednorz and K. Alex Muller, discovered the first successful high-temperature superconductor using a breakthrough ceramic material*

ZURICH – 18 Apr 2011: Twenty-five years ago IBM scientists, J. Georg Bednorz and K. Alex Muller altered the landscape of physics when they observed superconductivity in an oxide material at a temperature 50 percent higher(1), (-238 deg C, -397 deg F) than what was previously known. This discovery opened an entirely new chapter in the field of physics and earned them the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1987.

Their now seminal paper titled, “Possible High Tc Superconductivity in the Ba – La – Cu – O System”(2) was received by the peer-reviewed journal Zeitschrift fur Physik B on 17 April 1986. (more…)

Roller Coaster Superconductivity Discovered

By Guest PostAugust 22, 2010Scienceatmospheric pressure, bi2223, carnegie institution, copper wires, copper-oxygen, crystal, electrical resistance, electricity, geophysical laboratory, Germany, liquid nitrogen boiling point, max plank institute, physics, solid state research, superconductors, three-layered bismuth oxide, transition temperature, viktor struzhkin, xiao-jia chen

Washington, D.C.— Superconductors are more than 150 times more efficient at carrying electricity than copper wires. However, to attain the superconducting state, these materials have to be cooled below an extremely low, so-called transition temperature, at which point normal electrical resistance disappears. Developing superconductors with higher transition temperatures is one of physics’ greatest quests.

(more…)

Tag Archives: physics

Mr. Fusion Helps Students Build a Nuclear Reactor

X-Ray Telescope Finds New Voracious Black Holes in Early Universe

Study Shows Interactive Teaching Methods Double Learning in Physics Classroom

IBM Honors the 25th Anniversary of High-Temperature Superconductivity

Roller Coaster Superconductivity Discovered