Physics and Astronomy

The scientists at A.F. Ioffe Physical Technical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, decided to restore the production of semi-conductor devices for pulse radiotechniques which was interrupted at the beginning of the 1990s. These devices have recently found wide application in different areas of technology: in ultra broadband apparatuses of communication, geopositioning and following, radars where a signal of high power should be generated for short time intervals. The idea of creating the devices

New views of star birth and the heart of a spiral galaxy have been seen by a state-of-the-art astronomical instrument on its first night. The new UKIRT Imaging Spectrometer (UIST) has a revolutionary ability to ’slice’ any object in the sky into sections, producing a three dimensional view of the conditions throughout entire galaxies in a single observation. UIST has just been installed on the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii.

Project scientist Suzanne Ramsay How

Integral is the International Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory of the European Space Agency. It is a cooperative mission with Russia and is scheduled for launch on 17 October 2002 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on a Russian Proton rocket, the Russian contribution to the programme.

It is the world`s most advanced gamma-ray telescope and will provide first-hand observations of the celestial objects that release some of the most energetic radiation of the Universe. In particular, sc

According to Douglas Adams, in his famous book The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, space is big. However, it seems near-Earth space is not big enough. In December 2001, the Space Shuttle pushed the International Space Station away from a discarded Russian rocket booster that was due to pass uncomfortably close. Space litter is a growing problem but smarter satellite design may help in the future.

From the beginning of the space era, satellites and deep-space probes have populated the Solar

A new Scottish multi-million pound photonics company is geared up for the future of telecommunications after securing a seven figure private investment deal.

The investment has allowed Helia Photonics Ltd, a Heriot-Watt University spin-out to purchase the coatings division of Terahertz Photonics in a technology transfer deal, and say they are already in discussions with a European partner over a major contract.

Helia Photonics CEO, David Hamilton, says they will be concentrating on

Study Suggests Promising New Avenues for Nanotube Research

Superconducting nanotubes may lie on the technology horizon, suggests a theoretical study recently published by researchers from the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the University of Pennsylvania, and Bilkent University in Turkey.

The intriguing possibility is the team’s most recent finding in a spate of studies showing how changing the shape of tiny single-walled