Operations

Melbourne physicists are trying to detect the undetectable – by searching for signs of its demise.

Nicole Bell and her colleagues at the University of Melbourne are analysing data on neutrinos, gamma and cosmic rays for evidence of the decay or annihilation of dark matter.

This mysterious material is suspected to exist because of the gravitational tug it exerts on the visible universe. But it has not, as yet, been found.

[Read more…] about Dark matter: detecting the invisible

By James Mitchell Crow

US researchers are beginning to understand how copper oxides can transmit electricity with no power loss at temperatures not far below -100˚C. Research which gives clues as to just how these superconductors work was presented at the Australian Institute of Physics Congress in Melbourne by Michael Norman from Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois.

Norman said his co-workers  had found pockets of electrons hidden within the superconducting materials. The discovery could help unravel the mechanism of operation of superconductors, he said, and point the way towards materials that superconduct at room temperature and above.

Norman is convinced such materials exist, it is just a question of finding them. “The record for high temperature superconductors has already increased by a factor of eight. To achieve room temperature superconductivity, we only need to improve by another factor of two.”

[Read more…] about Superconductors reveal their secrets

Discoveries in diagnosing diseases, finding new clues to detect climate change and the structural soundness of materials have all emerged from Australia’s nuclear research reactor.  Adi Paterson, the director of ANSTO (the body that manages the reactor) spoke about the role that nuclear science will play in Australia’s future.

[Read more…] about The future of nuclear science

Solar flares could have temporarily worsened the hole in the ozone layer, particularly in the southern hemisphere, says Marc Duldig of the Australian Antarctic Division.

Bursts of energetic particles erupting from the sun during some solar flares can boost levels of ozone-destroying chemicals in our atmosphere. Researchers from the Division are using ground-based sensors to detect the high energy solar particles.

[Read more…] about Are solar flares damaging our ozone layer?

In March 1989, six million people in the Canadian province of Quebec suffered a nine-hour blackout due to currents induced in their electricity grid by a geomagnetic storm. The currents themselves were caused by charged particles from a solar coronal mass ejection which struck Earth. There are reports of a storm 150 years ago with many times that power.

Today, such events would be even more disastrous, knocking out the electronic and communications systems upon which we all depend.

That’s why the US, Australia and many other developed nations are investing in understanding and modelling the Sun-Earth system to enable us to forecast space weather, according to Colorado researcher Tim Fuller Rowell.

[Read more…] about Could space storms blackout our homes and phones?

By James Mitchell Crow

Australian-based researchers have recreated inside their laboratory the atmospheric conditions that cause auroras. One day the results of their experiments could power a mission to Venus or Mars.

Christine Charles from the Australian National University told delegates at the Australian Institute of Physics conference in Melbourne that their work will help physicists to understand the formation of the auroras—the undulating bands of lights visible in the night sky over the north and south poles. [Read more…] about Northern lights in the lab