Category Archives: Science
Atomic-scale spin sensing with a single molecule
Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) is a technique in which a fine conducting probe is held close to the surface of a sample. Electrons tunnel between the sample and the probe, producing an electrical signal. The probe is slowly moved across […]
Quantum physics: our study suggests objective reality doesn’t exist
Authors: Alessandro Fedrizzi is professor of quantum physics and Massimiliano Proietti is a PhD candidate in quantum physics at Heriot-Watt University Gearoid Hayes/Flickr, CC BY-SA
Alternative facts are spreading like a virus across society. Now it seems they […]
A biomarker in hair could help diagnose schizophrenia
One of the hardest things when dealing with psychiatric illness is to come up with a clear diagnosis, but it seems that now it might be possible to diagnose schizophrenia just by analysing a certain biomarker in people’s hair. […]
A theory of spin hall magnetoresistance to study magnetism at interfaces
The interactions between moving charges and magnetic fields can be quite complicated; more if we consider the quantum effects. One example is the collection of Hall effects.
Imagine that we have a conductor or a semiconductor through which a current […]
Spin chains on surfaces, a thriving field of research
A collection of local magnetic moments arranged in a linear fashion that interact via some spin-spin coupling is generally known as a spin chain. This seemingly simple object is one of the most complex and rich physical systems that […]
Why (some) sleepy brains get grumpy
Some people are cool not getting enough sleep. I am, however, not one of those. After almost two years of sleep deprivation I can say I am close to becoming the grumpy dwarf from Snow White.
And up until […]
Recognition of emotions by people with autism
Emotion recognition is the process of identifying human emotions. This is something that humans do automatically but computational methodologies have also been developed. Humans show universal consistency in recognizing emotions but also show a great deal of variability between individuals […]
Inverse-square law interaction at the nanoscale
Any physical law in which the magnitude of a physical quantity is proportional to the reciprocal of the square of the distance (1/r2) from the source of that property is known as an inverse-square law. Newton’s law […]
Female fertility limited by chromosome errors
That female fertility is not stable during a woman’s lifetime is nothing new, but now a new study in the journal Science has found an explanation to its inverted U shape: chromosome errors!
This inverted U shape for female […]
A common formation mechanism for star clusters over all mass scales
A star cluster is a group of stars that are sufficiently close to each other for them to be physically associated. Stars belonging to the cluster are formed together from the same cloud of interstellar gas and have approximately the […]