Latest news with #physics
Telegraph
5 hours ago
- General
- Telegraph
World's smallest violin fits inside human hair
It's a project unlikely to elicit much sympathy, but physicists at Loughborough University have laboured to create the world's smallest violin. The tiny instrument, which can only be seen under a microscope, has been etched in platinum using nanotechnology, and is significantly slimmer than a human hair. It was created to test and demonstrate the capabilities of the university's new nanolithography system, which can build and study the tiniest structures to see how materials behave at the smallest scale. 'Though creating the world's smallest violin may seem like fun and games, a lot of what we've learnt in the process has actually laid the groundwork for the research we're now undertaking,' said Prof Kelly Morrison, head of the physics department and an expert in experimental physics. 'People are always looking for something that runs faster, better, more efficiently, that requires continuing to find a way to scale down. As it gets harder to make things smaller, we now need different ways of approaching that.' The team chose to create the miniscule musical instrument in homage to the phrase 'the world's smallest violin', which is often employed sarcastically to imply a perceived problem is trivial and unworthy of concern. The expression is thought to have first emerged in the 1970s, and was popularised by the US television series M*A*S*H. The violin is a microscopic image rather than a playable instrument, and it has not yet been confirmed by any official channels as the world's smallest violin. However, it is unlikely there is any instrument smaller. It measures just 35 microns long and 13 microns wide, with a micron being one millionth of a metre. A human hair typically ranges from 17 to 180 microns in diameter. The violin was made using a technique called thermal scanning probe lithography, in which a heated, needle-like tip burns away highly precise patterns at nanoscale. It works similar to screen printing on a T-shirt where colour is squeezed through a stencil to leave the design behind. The team began by coating a small chip with a gel-like material, then used the heated tip to burn the pattern of the violin into the surface layer to create a violin-shaped cavity. A thin layer of platinum was then deposited onto the chip and the rest of the gel removed, to leave behind the violin in a process that takes around three hours. The finished piece is no larger than a speck of dust on the chip and can only be viewed in detail using a microscope. It's even smaller than a tardigrade – the microscopic, eight-legged micro-animals. Dr Naemi Leo, a research technician at Loughborough, said: 'Another comparison we can make is the size of the violin is the size of a tardigrade or small water bear, and they have a size of about 50 to 1,200 microns, so if you had a small tardigrade they might be able to play the violin.' Prof Morrison added: 'I'm really excited about the level of control and possibilities we have with the set-up. 'I'm looking forward to seeing what I can achieve – but also what everyone else can do with the system.' The team is also looking into whether the system can offer an alternative to magnetic data storage and computing technologies.
The Independent
8 hours ago
- General
- The Independent
Scientists find mysterious particle that wobbles is still acting weird
Final results from a long-running U.S. experiment have revealed that a tiny particle continues to act strangely, which scientists say is good news for our current understanding of the laws of physics. The experiment focused on muons, mysterious particles considered heavier cousins to electrons. Muons wobble like a top when inside a magnetic field, and scientists have been studying that motion to see if it lines up with the Standard Model, the foundational rulebook of physics. Tova Holmes, an experimental physicist at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, who is not part of the collaboration, said the experiment is "a huge feat in precision." Experiments in the 1960s and 1970s seemed to indicate all was well. However, tests at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the late 1990s and early 2000s produced something unexpected: the muons weren't behaving as they should. Decades later, an international collaboration of scientists decided to rerun the experiments with an even higher degree of precision. The team raced muons around a magnetic, ring-shaped track — the same one used in Brookhaven's experiment — and studied their signature wiggle at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago. The first two sets of results — unveiled in 2021 and 2023 — seemed to confirm the muons' weird behavior, prompting theoretical physicists to try to reconcile the new measurements with the Standard Model. Now, the group has completed the experiment and released a measurement of the muon's wobble that agrees with what they found before, using more than double the amount of data compared to 2023. They submitted their results to the journal Physical Review Letters. That said, it's not yet closing time for our most basic understanding of what's holding the universe together. While the muons raced around their track, other scientists found a way to more closely reconcile their behavior with the Standard Model with the help of supercomputers. There's still more work to be done as researchers continue to put their heads together and future experiments take a stab at measuring the muon wobble — including one at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex that's expected to start near the end of the decade. Scientists also are still analyzing the final muon data to see if they can glean information about other mysterious entities like dark matter. 'This measurement will remain a benchmark ... for many years to come,' said Marco Incagli with the National Institute for Nuclear Physics in Italy. By wrangling muons, scientists are striving to answer fundamental questions that have long puzzled humanity, said Peter Winter with Argonne National Laboratory. 'Aren't we all curious to understand how the universe works?' said Winter. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
The Independent
8 hours ago
- General
- The Independent
A long-running experiment finds a tiny particle is still acting weird
Final results from a long-running U.S.-based experiment announced Tuesday show a tiny particle continues to act strangely -- but that's still good news for the laws of physics as we know them. 'This experiment is a huge feat in precision,' said Tova Holmes, an experimental physicist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville who is not part of the collaboration. The mysterious particles called muons are considered heavier cousins to electrons. They wobble like a top when inside a magnetic field, and scientists are studying that motion to see if it lines up with the foundational rulebook of physics called the Standard Model. Experiments in the 1960s and 1970s seemed to indicate all was well. But tests at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the late 1990s and early 2000s produced something unexpected: the muons weren't behaving like they should. Decades later, an international collaboration of scientists decided to rerun the experiments with an even higher degree of precision. The team raced muons around a magnetic, ring-shaped track — the same one used in Brookhaven's experiment — and studied their signature wiggle at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago. The first two sets of results — unveiled in 2021 and 2023 — seemed to confirm the muons' weird behavior, prompting theoretical physicists to try to reconcile the new measurements with the Standard Model. Now, the group has completed the experiment and released a measurement of the muon's wobble that agrees with what they found before, using more than double the amount of data compared to 2023. They submitted their results to the journal Physical Review Letters. That said, it's not yet closing time for our most basic understanding of what's holding the universe together. While the muons raced around their track, other scientists found a way to more closely reconcile their behavior with the Standard Model with the help of supercomputers. There's still more work to be done as researchers continue to put their heads together and future experiments take a stab at measuring the muon wobble — including one at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex that's expected to start near the end of the decade. Scientists also are still analyzing the final muon data to see if they can glean information about other mysterious entities like dark matter. 'This measurement will remain a benchmark ... for many years to come,' said Marco Incagli with the National Institute for Nuclear Physics in Italy. By wrangling muons, scientists are striving to answer fundamental questions that have long puzzled humanity, said Peter Winter with Argonne National Laboratory. 'Aren't we all curious to understand how the universe works?' said Winter. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Associated Press
9 hours ago
- General
- Associated Press
A long-running experiment finds a tiny particle is still acting weird
NEW YORK (AP) — Final results from a long-running U.S.-based experiment announced Tuesday show a tiny particle continues to act strangely -- but that's still good news for the laws of physics as we know them. 'This experiment is a huge feat in precision,' said Tova Holmes, an experimental physicist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville who is not part of the collaboration. The mysterious particles called muons are considered heavier cousins to electrons. They wobble like a top when inside a magnetic field, and scientists are studying that motion to see if it lines up with the foundational rulebook of physics called the Standard Model. Experiments in the 1960s and 1970s seemed to indicate all was well. But tests at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the late 1990s and early 2000s produced something unexpected: the muons weren't behaving like they should. Decades later, an international collaboration of scientists decided to rerun the experiments with an even higher degree of precision. The team raced muons around a magnetic, ring-shaped track — the same one used in Brookhaven's experiment — and studied their signature wiggle at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago. The first two sets of results — unveiled in 2021 and 2023 — seemed to confirm the muons' weird behavior, prompting theoretical physicists to try to reconcile the new measurements with the Standard Model. Now, the group has completed the experiment and released a measurement of the muon's wobble that agrees with what they found before, using more than double the amount of data compared to 2023. They submitted their results to the journal Physical Review Letters. That said, it's not yet closing time for our most basic understanding of what's holding the universe together. While the muons raced around their track, other scientists found a way to more closely reconcile their behavior with the Standard Model with the help of supercomputers. There's still more work to be done as researchers continue to put their heads together and future experiments take a stab at measuring the muon wobble — including one at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex that's expected to start near the end of the decade. Scientists also are still analyzing the final muon data to see if they can glean information about other mysterious entities like dark matter. 'This measurement will remain a benchmark ... for many years to come,' said Marco Incagli with the National Institute for Nuclear Physics in Italy. By wrangling muons, scientists are striving to answer fundamental questions that have long puzzled humanity, said Peter Winter with Argonne National Laboratory. 'Aren't we all curious to understand how the universe works?' said Winter. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
New York Times
9 hours ago
- General
- New York Times
What Secrets Lie in a Particle's Wobble? Physicists Still Can't Say.
It has been 12 years since physicists transported a giant magnetic ring down the Atlantic coast, around Florida, up the Mississippi River and across two interstates to Batavia, Ill. On Tuesday, the team behind that ring unveiled their final result: the most precise value yet recorded for the tiny wobble of a subatomic particle called the muon. Physicists hoped that the measurement, submitted to the journal Physical Review Letters, would open a window to new types of energy and matter that so far have only been theorized. 'We want to know how our universe formed, what it's made out of and how it interacts,' said Peter Winter, a physicist at Argonne National Laboratory and a spokesman for the Muon g-2 Collaboration, which ran the experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, or Fermilab. The new result, he said, 'will stand as a benchmark for years to come.' But a glaring problem remains. Physicists have predicted two distinct values for the muon's wobble but aren't sure which is correct. The new result matches one prediction, but until the other prediction can be satisfyingly explained away, scientists won't know if they have uncovered evidence of new physics. 'The Fermilab experiment is hugely successful, they did their job,' said Aida El-Khadra, a physicist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who leads the Muon g-2 Theory Initiative. 'We theorists, we still need to follow up.' Until the dust settles, Dr. El-Khadra added, 'the jury is still out.' Muons are similar to electrons but far heavier and unstable in nature. When placed in a magnetic field, they precess, or wobble, like a spinning top. The speed of that wobble depends on a property of the muon related to its internal magnetism, known to physicists as g. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
