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Astrophysics in Burkina Faso, Africa The International Academic Research Journal Share     On the African continent, most of the activities in astronomy are found in South Africa where full training in astrophysics is given in a few universities and where most of the professional astronomers and research instruments can be found. In 2007, a full program (undergraduate and graduate) in astrophysics was started at the University of Ouagadougou. An observatory for teaching purposes was also built. In October 2009, the 1m Marly telescope from La Silla, Chile, was moved to Mount Djaogari in Burkina Faso, Africa, where it will be a full research telescope. First light will be in early 2012. More
Space Science Observatory and Research Center in Ethiopia Capital Ethiopia Share
Apart from South Africa, the field of astronomy has been largely neglected on the African continent. Now however, two well-known Ethiopian natural locations Entoto and Lalibela will have the honor of hosting the best astronomical observatories and research centers in Sub-Saharan Africa. More
New images of starburst galaxy M 82 reveal multiple sources of its superwind National Astronomical Observatory of Japan Share
Like human beings, galaxies and the stars within them have a life cycle: They are born, grow and mature, and eventually die. Starburst galaxies are real "baby boomers," creating new, young stars at a rate faster than the combined speed of many Milky Way-like galaxies that are in a later phase of development. The Subaru Telescope has produced a new image of the interior of the famous starburst galaxy Messier 82 that reveals young star clusters in spectacular detail. The ultra-sharp image contributes to our understanding of this complex, young galaxy by showing that M 82's galactic windstorms emanate from many sites rather than from any single cluster of stars. More
Japanese high-energy physics facilities hit by the earthquake The Guardian Share
Two major particle physics labs are a couple of hundred kilometers south of Sendai, Japan. The earthquake struck just before a seminar to announce the first T2K neutrino results. The T2K project focuses on long baseline neutrino oscillation, and attempts to measure the third type of neutrino oscillation. In the future, upgrades to T2K could lead to measuring the CP violation and could aid the search for an explanation as to why we don't see equal amounts of matter and antimatter. The Canadian T2K collaboration has post-quake pictures of the lab. Of course our thoughts are with all affected by this disaster. More Understanding tsunami physics Andrew Zimmerman Jones Share
The science of the Japan earthquake is at once straight-forward and complex. One great resource for learning how a tsunami works is the NOAA Center for Tsunami Research, which has a lot of detailed information on the subject (including this graphic of the energy levels associated with the earthquake and how they spread out from the quake's epicenter). The NOAA Center for Tsunami Research has a page specifically dedicated to the Honshu event, which features a link to a great (and terrifying) animated video showing the movement of the waves throughout the Pacific Ocean. More
NIF achieves important step towards generating fusion energy using ultra-powerful lasers Physics World Share
By focusing NIF's 192 laser beams onto hollow gold cylinders that contain beryllium spheres that contain hydrogen isotopes, researchers have achieved the temperature and compression conditions that are needed for a self-sustaining fusion reaction. The laser beams generate X-rays that cause the beryllium spheres to explode and, due to momentum conservation, the deuterium and tritium to rapidly compress. Due to the shock wave the hydrogen isotopes eventually overcome their mutual repulsion and fuse, releasing about 17 Mev. More Doppler shift is seen in reverse Physics World Share
Researchers in China and Australia have seen the more exotic inverse Doppler effect in light passing through a material made from tiny silicon rods. They say the result could enhance the use of the Doppler effect in all sorts of applications, from astronomy to medicine. The work is described in Nature Photonics. More
Prospects for accurate distance measurements of pulsars with the Square Kilometer Array: Enabling fundamental physics Astronomy & Astrophysics Share
Pulsar timing is a powerful method that can be used to test general relativity by detecting gravitational waves, to determine the mass of planets, to study fundamental nuclear processes in neutron stars, and to accurately determine astronomical distances. The Square Kilometer Array (SKA) telescope, having both a dense core of dishes and long baselines (dishes located across a broad physical extent) allows the telescope to both find radio pulsars and to perform accurate astrometry on them. Researchers in Europe report predictions of SKA's capabilities to find pulsars by simulating the population of pulsars that can be expected to be found in a survey, and compare precision in distance measurements using timing parallax versus imaging parallax. More
Africa making R&D progress despite snags The Citizen Share
A growing number of African countries have realized that without investment in science and technology, the continent will remain on the sidelines of the global economy and will find it difficult to bring an end to extreme poverty. There has been significant progress in terms of institutions and policy; Africa contributes to the global research and development effort and this contribution is growing. These are some of the findings of the UNESCO Science Report, launched late last year at the organization's headquarters, to coincide with the World Science Day. More Looking for new problems to solve? Consider the climate American Physical Society Share
Climate is not weather. "Climate is what we expect; weather is what we get." Climate is a problem of out-of-equilibrium statistical physics. Climate modeling tries to go from the first principle equations, integrating them in space and time until reliable statistics are achieved. But there is a pressing need for improved theoretical frameworks and tools to better describe nonequilibrium statistical physics. More
Planetary core does affect climate, just not much Planet Save Share
In a paper published in the Journal of Climate, American and French researchers explore the role of the Earth's rotation and movements in Earth's core affect global surface air temperatures. They combined data from a model of fluid movement within our planet's core and data on yearly averaged length-of-day observations together with two time series of observed annual global average surface temperatures. They found that up to 1930 the surface air temperature matches on movements of Earth's core and the length of day. But after 1930 the data on Earth core movements, length of day and surface air temperature diverge. More What's next for NASA: A new space shuttle? A mission to Mars? Salon Share
Discovery landed safely on Earth for the last time March 8 with NSBP member Alvin Drew on board. What will be the next frontier for the American space agency? More
National Society of Black Physicists jobs board postings NSBP Share
HBCU STEM Fellowship Program Dean of Science and Health Careers REU Program in Chemistry Student APS Scholarship Program for Minority Undergraduate Physics Majors Research Experience for Undergraduates REU Program and University of Houston Internship Research Experience for Undergraduates Fellowship in PHYSICS Research Experience for Undergraduates Fellowship in PHYSICS Undergraduate Researchers Lehigh University REU Program in Physics REU Participant Student Researcher REU Astronomy Intern REU Student Summer Student Researcher Gulf of Maine and the World Ocean REU Bard College Summer Research in Mathematics & Computation NSF-REU on Smart UAVs at Auburn University Summer REU Intern
Latest research from IOP Science journal IOP Science journal Share
  Silicon nanowires prepared by thermal evaporation and their photoluminescence properties measured at low temperatures Voltage-controllable magnetic behavior in PZT/NiFe/CoFe nanocomposites Micro- and nanoporous materials produced using accelerated heavy ion beams A micro-extractor for concentration and determination of lead in water Exciton hybridization states in organic–semiconductor heterostructures containing quantum dots More Latest research from AIP Advances AIP Advances Share
 Announcement: A new journal from the American Institute of Physics—AIP AdvancesEquivalent dynamical complexity in a many-body quantum and collective human system A comparison of two methods for modeling large-scale data from time series as complex networks Convection-enhanced water evaporation A midsize tokamak as a fast track to burning plasmas More |
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