量子彩票是你最好的赌注

量子彩票是你最好的赌注

是不是每次滚出来的球都不是你持有的彩票的号码？那么，何不来玩玩由一名英国大学生发明的游戏――赌辐射衰减周期的量子彩票？

Quantum lottery is your best bet (Mar 28)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/3/20
Convinced the balls are always against you when you play the lottery?
Then why not bet on radioactive decay in the "quantum lottery", a game
invented by a university student in the UK.

偶极子激光器工作温度首次降至室温

偶极子激光器工作温度首次降至室温

英国和瑞士物理学家首次将偶极子激光器的工作温度降至室温。研究人员宣称，这种半导体激光器件所需要的能量仅为类似的传统固态激光器的十分之一。该技术突破可为光存储系统(CD, DVD, etc.)提供极低功率消耗的激光器。

Polariton laser reaches room temperature (Mar 27)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/3/19
The first polariton laser to operate at room temperature has been
demonstrated by physicists in the UK and Switzerland. The researchers
claim that the semiconductor device requires ten times less energy to
operate than a comparable conventional solid-state laser. The
breakthrough could lead the way to very low power lasers for use in
optical data-storage systems (Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 126405).

对牛顿定律进行终极检验的实验

对牛顿定律进行终极检验的实验

奥地利的一名物理学家最近提出了一个实验，有可能揭示牛顿万有引力定律的一个缺陷。如果该缺陷确实存在，那么解释银河系的运动就不需要被迫引入暗物质了。

Experiment sets the ultimate test for Newton's laws (Mar 16)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/3/12
A physicist in Australia has come up with an experiment that could
potentially reveal a flaw in Newton's law of gravitation. If the flaw
exists, it would be the first evidence in support of theories that
explain the movement of galaxies without having to introduce "dark
matter" (Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 101101).

双负性媒质的频率范围已经接近可见光波段了

美国研究人员最近制作的一种材料，在波长为813纳米的红外光波段，其导磁率和介电率都为负值。这是目前为止能实现双负性的材料所达到的最短波长，并且已经与可见光谱380-780纳米非常接近。之前的纪录为1500纳米。这个结果朝着实现可见光波段双负性材料(DN-NIMs)的目标前进了一大步。

Double-negative metamaterial edges towards the visible (Mar 16)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/3/13
Researchers in the US have created a metamaterial that has a negative
magnetic permeability and negative electric permittivity for infrared
light with a wavelength of 813 nm. This is claimed to be the shortest
wavelength yet for such a metamaterial and lies just outside of the
visible spectrum at 380-780 nm. The previous record had been about 1500
nm, and the result is an important step towards the creation of
double-negative negative-index metamaterials (DN-NIMs) that operate in
the visible range.

用探针来寻找精细结构常量的变化

用探针来寻找精细结构常量的变化

美国宇宙学家计划用一种新的方法来测量130亿年前的精细结构常量，以了解该常量的值是否与现在不同。该方法通过测量氢原子如何吸收宇宙微波背景辐射光子来获得精细结构常量的值，虽然还有待天文观察的验证。精细结构常量决定了电磁相互作用的强度，是自然界里的一个基本常量，这个方法有可能提供新的证据证明该常量实际上并不一定保持恒定。

Probe seeks changes in fine-structure constant (Mar 23)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/3/18
Cosmologists in the US have proposed a new way to measure the
fine-structure constant as it was some 13 billion years ago -- and see
if its value differed from that measured today. The method, which has
yet to be verified using astronomical observations, involves measuring
how hydrogen atoms absorbed photons from the cosmic microwave
background. It could provide further evidence that this fundamental
constant of nature -- which defines the strength of the electromagnetic
interaction -- is not actually a constant after all (Phys. Rev. Lett. 98
11301).

物理学家们在纳米尺度下对光进行控制

物理学家们在纳米尺度下对光进行控制

欧洲的物理学家们揭示了一种可以在远小于激光波长的尺度下对激光的光强分布进行调控的技术。这种技术结合了脉冲成形和近场光学等手段。研究人员认为，这是将激光作为微小尺度下操作物质的工具这一研发进程中一个巨大的进步。

Physicists control light at the nanoscale (Mar 22)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/3/15
Physicists in Europe have unveiled a new technique that can control the
intensity distribution of laser pulses at dimensions that are much
smaller than the wavelength of the laser light. The method combines
pulse-shaping techniques with near-field optics and the researchers
claim that it is a major step forward in the development of laser-based
tools for the manipulation of matter on a very small length scales
(Nature 446 301).

自旋需要长时间来逐渐变慢

美国工程师们发现，在有机纳米导线构成的"自旋阀"中，电子自旋极其稳健。弗吉尼亚联邦大学和西西纳提大学的研究团队发现，这些导线中的电子自旋耗散时间起码比其它任何一个系统中的电子自旋耗散时间长1000倍。该结果意味着这些材料可能是用于自旋电子学――一种在电子线路、计算机或者其他装置里利用电子自旋来对信息进行编码的新兴研究领域――的理想选择。

Spins take their time to relax (Mar 22)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/3/16
Engineers in the US have discovered that the spin of electrons in
organic nanowire "spin valves" is extremely robust. A team of
researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of
Cincinnati have found that the "spin-relaxation time" in these wires is
at least 1000 times longer than that reported in any other system. The
result means that these materials could be ideal for use in spintronics,
an emerging field that exploits the spin of the electron to encode
information in electronic circuits, computers and other devices (Nature
Nanotechnology doi:10.1038/nnano.2007.64).

超级放大镜头让人看到从未见过的细节

美国的两个物理学家团队独立地创造出了第一台使用具有负折射系数的元材料的真正超级放大镜头。与传统镜头不同的是，超级镜头可以提供几乎无限分辨率的图像。这样，也许在某一天，能够通过它来实现蛋白质、病毒、DNA等的光学成像。

Magnifying superlenses show more detail than ever before (Mar 22)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/3/17
Two teams of physicists from the US have independently created the first
truly magnifying "superlenses" using metamaterials with a negative index
of refraction. Unlike conventional lenses, superlenses can provide
images of almost limitless resolution, and could one day enable the
optical imaging of proteins, viruses and DNA.

医用扫描器已经能够控制细胞大小的医疗仪器了

医用扫描器已经能够控制细胞大小的医疗仪器了

加拿大的科学家们应用一种传统的核磁共振成像(MRI)系统来控制血管里微小的金属珠的移动。这个实验对MRI最终用于控制微小"无法拴住"的器件来进行完全非侵入式的外科手术起到了示范性的作用。

Hospital scanners could control cell-sized medical devices (Mar 20)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/3/14
Physicists in Canada have used a conventional magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI) system to control the movement of a small metal bead inside blood
vessels. The experiment demonstrates that MRI systems could eventually
control tiny "untethered" devices that perform truly non-invasive
surgery (App. Phys. Lett. 90 114105).

FT中文网对读者评论进行观点一致性审核

ftchinese经常对中国政府的互联网审核制度发表不满，但ft中文网的读者留言审查制度却也不亚于中国政府。

ftchinese，只允许符合你们意图的留言才能被审核通过，搞得跟共产党一样狠。

之前我对凯雷收购徐工的评论不符合FT中文网“要求中国放宽对外资限制”的意图，并表示之前的福建南孚被外国资本玩弄最终在愚蠢官员的利益驱动配合下丧失，导致优质的国有资产被贱卖给外国资本。而徐工收购案恐怕也会是另一个（但不会是最后一个）南孚。

这样的留言没有通过ft中文网的审核，但这却是一个ftchinese读者实实在在的评论。

作一个让人尊敬、并且值得信赖的媒体，允许读者发表不同意见，这是基本素质。

凭什么中国就该把所有的优质资产都向外国人敞开？美国还不让中国收购一个只排名第七的石油公司呢，收购IBM PC的时候，也是费尽周折。

搞笑的ft中文网。

只能同时给一个电子制冷的电冰箱

只能同时给一个电子制冷的电冰箱

芬兰和意大利的物理学家们正计划建造一种可以将物体冷却到10mK的微型电冰箱。这个已经部分建成的装置，通过允许单独的热电子从金属岛由隧道效应穿过一个绝热的缝隙而到达处于超导状态下的铅上。赫尔辛基技术大学的Jukka Pekola指出，这个装置有比传统隧道节点电冰箱效率高3倍多的潜力，并且，传统的隧道节点电冰箱仅能冷却至100mK。

Refrigerator cools one electron at a time (Jan 24)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/1/20
Physicists in Finland and Italy have unveiled plans for a tiny
refrigerator that might be able to cool objects to temperatures as low
as 10 mK. The device, which has been partially built, works by allowing
single "hot" electrons to tunnel through an insulating gap from a metal
island to a superconducting lead. According to Jukka Pekola of the
Helsinki University of Technology, the device has the potential to be
about three times more efficient than conventional tunnel-junction
refrigerators, which struggle to cool below about 100 mK (Phys. Rev.
Lett. 98 037201).

Hanbury Brown螺旋效应的一种新螺旋体

相互排斥的波色-爱因斯坦和费米-迪拉克统计学首次同时在相同的仪器上发现。荷兰和法国的物理学家宣告了这一消息，他们对两种氦同位素原子的Hanbury Brown 螺旋效应进行了研究。这个发现可能使量子相关性的直接观测成为可能。

Another new twist on the Hanbury Brown-Twiss effect (Jan 24)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/1/21
Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac statistics, which are by definition
mutually exclusive, have been witnessed in the same apparatus for the
first time. This is the claim of physicists in the Netherlands and
France, who investigated the atomic "Hanbury Brown-Twiss effect" for two
isotopes of helium. The discovery could make direct observations of
quantum correlations possible (Nature 445 402).

最新物理进展摘要

CORTO看到第一缕光线

第一个用于寻找太阳系外行星的空间天文台CORTO昨天捕捉到了它的第一缕光线。法国空间机构CNES的工程师们发送了一条打开30厘米望远镜舱盖的指令，将它极为灵敏的CCD阵列处于发光星体的曝光下，以捕捉光线。CORTO是于三个星期前送入地球轨道的，它将在银河系的两个区域大约6万个恒星范围内寻找其它行星。

COROT sees first light (Jan 18)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/1/13
COROT, the first space observatory designed to search for planets beyond
our solar system (exoplanets), captured its "first light" yesterday.
Engineers from France's Space Agency CNES sent a command to open the
hatch protecting the 30-cm telescope, exposing its extremely sensitive
charge-coupled device (CCD) arrays to the stars. Launched into Earth
orbit about three weeks ago, the spacecraft will look for exoplanets
around 60 000 stars in two regions of our galaxy.

紧凑而灵敏的中微子探测器

一种新的p型锗辐射探测器可能将首次测量软中微子-核子散射，它利用一种始创于三十年前的原理。中微子是一种很难捉摸的粒子，因为它极少与其他物质发生相互作用，通常只能在非常巨大的探测器里才能瞥见。但美国物理学家们制成的这个探测器样机却非常小巧，小到可以用于监视非法使用反应堆，比如去除武器级放射性材料等等。

Neutrino detector is compact yet sensitive (Jan 18)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/1/14
A new p-type germanium radiation detector could be the first to measure
"soft neutrino-nucleus scattering", a mechanism that was originally
predicted 30 years ago. Neutrinos are elusive particles that rarely
interact with other matter, and are normally only glimpsed in huge
detectors. This is not so with the prototype detector made by physicists
in the US, which could be small enough to monitor for the illegitimate
use of nuclear reactors, such as the removal of weapons-grade
radioactive material (arXiv.org/physics/0701012).

直而窄的路上――分子运输机

美国物理学家们开发了一种可以沿着晶体表面运输二氧化碳分子的"分子运输机"。分子搭在一种名叫AQ(anthraquinone)的有机化合物上面，这种有机化合物能承载住分子并运送它们至10nm以外，直至按要求将分子卸载。研究者们相信，这种现象可以为显著提高表面催化剂的效率提供动力，或者还可以促进半导体器件的处理。

Molecular carrier is on the straight and narrow (Jan 18)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/1/15
A "molecular carrier" that can transport carbon dioxide molecules in
straight lines across a crystalline surface has been developed by
physicists in the US. The molecules hitch a ride with an organic
compound called anthraquinone (AQ), which grabs hold of them and carries
them over distances of about 10 nm before dropping them on request. The
researchers believe that this phenomenon could be harnessed to boost the
performance of surface catalysts or to improve the processing of
semiconductor devices (Sciencexpress 10.1126/science.1135302).

热带甲壳虫拥有最明亮的白色

隐藏在明亮的一种罕见的热带甲壳虫白色外壳后面的秘密是一种不常见的非周期结构。英国物理学们通过电子显微镜揭示出一种随机的蛋白质丝状网络使得该种甲壳虫的外壳拥有非常高的光线散射效率。这种蛋白质结构拥有比人造相同散射效率的材料薄两个量级的厚度，可以用于改进相关的产品。

Tropical beetle has the brightest whites (Jan 18)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/1/16
The secret behind the brilliant white shell of a peculiar tropical
beetle is an unusual, aperiodic structure, according to physicists from
the UK. Electron microscopy revealed that a random network of protein
filaments allows the shell to scatter light with high efficiency. The
protein structure, which is at least two orders of magnitude thinner
than manmade materials of equivalent whiteness, could be imitated in
future synthetic systems (Science 315 348).


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纳米聚合物登上舞台

纳米聚合物登上舞台

美国研究者们制成了一种新材料――纳米聚合物，一种在纳米尺度下与聚合物等同的材料。MIT的Francesco Stellacci和同行们完成了这项突破。他们向位于球形金属纳米微粒表面上两个相对的区域引入了人为的缺陷，得到的二价粒子进而链接聚合形成了独立的薄膜。

Nanopolymers make their debut (Jan 19)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/11/1/17
Researchers in the US have made a new class of materials called
"nanopolymers" -- the first nanoscale equivalents of polymers. The
breakthrough was made by Francesco Stellacci and colleagues at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and involves introducing defects
onto two opposing areas on the surface of spherical-shaped metallic
nanoparticles. The resulting divalent particles are then chained
together to make freestanding films (Science 315 358).


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