Category archives: Physics

The gravitational wave detector revisited: a new approach using atomic clocks

The gravitational wave detector revisited: a new approach using atomic clocks

Physics

By Víctor Marín Felip

In September 2015 a new scientific field was born. Two colossal experiment confirmed the existence of gravitational waves, measuring the ripple of space-time induced by two very distant black holes merging in a cataclysmic display of gravity waves and radiation . Gravitational wave astronomy was born then, much like neutrino astronomy was born with the […]

How to measure the viscosity of the liquid inside a living cell using upconverting particles

How to measure the viscosity of the liquid inside a living cell using upconverting particles

Condensed matterNanotechnologyPhysics

By DIPC

How would you measure the dynamic viscosity of cytosol, the liquid inside the cells, without destroying the cell? It seems not an easy task. However, a team of researchers that includes Nuno de Sousa (DIPC & IFIMAC), has just provided a way of achieving this and other similar feats using upconverting particles. An optical trap […]

Plasmons galore for myriad applications

Plasmons galore for myriad applications

ChemistryCondensed matterMaterialsNanotechnologyPhysicsQuantum physics

By DIPC

Worldwide research efforts on plasmons and metamaterials have been growing exponentially for the past ten years. Now, Antonio I. Fernández-Domínguez (IFIMAC), Francisco J. García-Vidal (IFIMAC & DIPC), and Luis Martín-Moreno (ICMA) discuss new directions for the future, such as the use of 2D materials and strong coupling phenomena, which are likely to shape the field […]

Pulsed radiotherapy

Pulsed radiotherapy

MedicinePhysics

By Invited Researcher

Can radiotherapy with laser-produced ionizing radiation be an alternative to conventional radiotherapy? Can we deep our understanding of the basic mechanisms of radiation damage? Can we study the very early biological response of the living matter and use this knowledge to design more efficient radiotherapy treatments? Contrary to popular belief, when tumoral tissue is irradiated […]

Quantifying the screening of electrons in graphene heterostructures

Quantifying the screening of electrons in graphene heterostructures

Condensed matterMaterialsPhysicsQuantum physics

By DIPC

Beginning in 1928, Felix Bloch, an assistant to Werner Heisenberg in Leipzig, began to make some realistic assumptions in an attempt to formulate a more complete quantum mechanics of electrical conductivity. First, because he wanted to assign a definite momentum and energy to each of the electrons, but not a definite position or a time […]

A new source of X-ray fluorescence for art

A new source of X-ray fluorescence for art

ChemistryPhysics

By Invited Researcher

A lthough unfortunately it takes place in rare situations, the synergies between scientific and artistic disciplines offer a vast number of possible applications. The benefits are clear: on one hand artists, conservators and restorers profit from the detailed knowledge about matter and its natural transformation processes that Science provides, and on the other hand, scientists […]