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Electrodes for the ALPHA Penning trap are inserted into the vacuum chamber and cryostat assembly. Positrons and antiprotons combine in the trap to form antihydrogen

Image: CERN / ALPHA

Issue no. 7, 2012 Published: Mar 09, 2012
Antihydrogen undergoes its first-ever measurement
Physics 'demon' reveals fundamental heat of forgetting
'Nanoforest' turns water to hydrogen fuel
IBM optical chip moves data at 1Tbps
UK scientists to help satellites dodge sun storms
Cheetah robot breaks land speed record
Japanese team invents device that silences the overly-wordy

Antihydrogen undergoes its first-ever measurement
The antimatter version of the hydrogen atom - antihydrogen - could soon finally give up its secrets. Scientists expect that antihydrogen will have exactly the same properties as hydrogen; but after 80 years, the test is only just becoming possible. A report in Nature has shown the first 'spectra' of trapped antihydrogen, showing the energy required to change the spins of its positrons. Further experiments will show whether it is in fact just like hydrogen. Every particle has an antiparticle, which is identical in every respect except that it has opposite charge. The negatively charged electron has the positron, and the proton has the antiproton. Together, an antiproton and a positron form the simplest anti-atom, antihydrogen. Once the anti-atom is formed, it must be kept apart from normal matter. When a particle and its antiparticle meet, they destroy each other, turning into energy in a process called annihilation. That gets to the heart of the biggest mystery about antimatter. When the Universe formed, equal amounts of matter and antimatter should have formed; but if that were the case, they should have annihilated each other since. Recent research suggests there is a subtle difference in the way that antimatter works; and the scientists behind the new research believe their work can help probe what it is. The feat of trapping an antihydrogen atom was first accomplished at the ALPHA experiment at CERN in 2010. Having perfected their methods, the team has now moved on to begin analysing the anti-atoms. The trick was to make use of the 'magnetic moment' of the anti-atoms. By applying pulses of microwave energy, the team were able to make the magnets 'flip'. The measurement gives the team a precise measure of how much energy it takes to accomplish that flip, but that is just the first step in what will become a longer programme of probing antihydrogen with laser light. That will show a fuller picture of the energy levels within antihydrogen.
BBC News Mar 08, 2012	back to top

Physics 'demon' reveals fundamental heat of forgetting
We're used to the waste heat produced by electrical wires and car brakes. Not so familiar is the heat created by erasing a digital memory. Now an experiment inspired by a metaphorical demon has measured this fundamental heat, which will impose a limit on the power of computers. Maxwell's demon, named after physicist James Clerk Maxwell, is a conundrum that seems to break a basic law of physics by creating a perpetual motion machine. Maxwell reasoned that his demon could control a gate dividing a box of gas molecules, some moving fast, others slow. By opening the gate at opportune moments, the demon could fill one side of the box with hot gas, the other with cold, creating a temperature difference. That difference could drive an engine, producing useful work without appearing to expend enough energy. In 1961, Rolf Landauer proposed that the key to the conundrum was the demon's memory. As the creature gathers information on the motion of molecules, it must erase a previous memory. Landauer suggested that the process of erasure dissipates heat. This expended heat could balance out the useful work gained by the demon and ensure it does not get something for nothing. Now researchers at the University of Augsburg in Germany have shown that there is indeed a minimum amount of heat produced per bit of erased data. This so-called Landauer limit is proof that the demon does not get a free lunch. The team use a laser that can set the position of a small glass bead. The laser is focused to give the bead two stable positions, left and right or 0 and 1. The resulting one-bit memory can store a 0 or 1, but memories are always erased by resetting to 0. The team found that the heat generated by erasing the bit is never less than the Landauer limit. That has deep implications for the microchip industry. Right now, chips produce about 1000 times more heat per bit than the limit, due to resistance in their wires. Chipmakers are working on this but there will come a point where it can be reduced no more. Then the ability to squeeze ever more bits on a chip will depend on finding better ways to cool them, as they glow with the fundamental heat of forgetting.
New Scientist Mar 07, 2012	back to top

'Nanoforest' turns water to hydrogen fuel
University of California electrical engineers are building a forest of tiny nanowire trees in order to capture solar energy and harvest it for hydrogen fuel generation. They say their nanoforest - made from abundant materials such as silicon and zinc oxide - offers a cheap way to deliver hydrogen fuel on a mass scale. The team's '3D branched nanowire array' uses photoelectrochemical water-splitting to produce hydrogen gas. And, because the vertical nanotree structure harvests more sunlight than flat versions, it produces more hydrogen fuel, more efficiently. The vertical branch structure also maximizes hydrogen gas output as very small gas bubbles of hydrogen can be extracted much faster. In the long run, the team's aiming for that holy grail of energy production: artificial photosynthesis. In photosynthesis, as plants absorb sunlight they also collect carbon dioxide and water from the atmosphere to create carbohydrates to fuel their own growth. The team hope to mimic this process to also capture CO2 from the atmosphere - reducing carbon emissions - and convert it into hydrocarbon fuel.
TG Daily Mar 08, 2012	back to top

IBM optical chip moves data at 1Tbps
IBM researchers have developed a prototype optical chip that can transfer data at 1 terabit per second (Tbps), the equivalent of downloading 500 high-definition movies, using light pulses. The chip, called Holey Optochip, is a parallel optical transceiver consisting of both a transmitter and a receiver, and is designed to handle the large amount of data created and transmitted over corporate and consumer networks as a result of new applications and services. It is expected to power future supercomputer and data centre applications, an area where IBM already uses optical technology. Optical networking can significantly improve data transfer rates by speeding the flow of data using light pulses, instead of sending electrons over wires. Researchers have been looking for ways to make use of optical signals together with standard low-cost and high-volume chip manufacturing techniques, to ensure the low cost and widespread use of such chips. Scientists at IBM labs developed the Holey by fabricating 48 holes through a standard 90-nanometer silicon CMOS chip. The holes allow optical access through the back of the chip to 24 receiver and 24 transmitter channels. The module is constructed with components that are commercially available, throwing open the possibility of manufacturing it at economies of scale. The transceiver also meets green computing objectives, as it consumes less than 5 watts.
InfoWorld Mar 08, 2012	back to top

UK scientists to help satellites dodge sun storms
British scientists have developed a system to help protect navigation and communications satellites from potentially devastating solar storms. Services spanning everything from mobile phones to sophisticated weaponry increasingly depend on global positioning system, or GPS, technology. However damage by a massive burst of solar energy could knock out GPS satellites and send them veering into the paths of other craft or scramble their communications. Led by a team from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), researchers from six European countries will use satellite data and ground-based measurements of the earth's magnetic field to forecast changes in radiation. That will allow them to alert satellite operators of a sudden increase in dangerous particles and give them time to move the craft out of harm's way, power them down or fold sensitive wings away. GPS satellites are particularly vulnerable because they orbit closer to the earth, passing through the Van Allen belt - a magnetic field that surrounds the planet and a troublesome source of radiation for satellites at all times. The tremendous growth in GPS satellites means that monitoring near-earth space has become increasingly important. The risk of storms is growing. The 11-year activity cycle of the sun is set to begin a peak of stormy activity in 2012-13, making forecasting all the more important.
Reuters Mar 02, 2012	back to top

Cheetah robot breaks land speed record
Imagine being chased by one of these... A robot named Cheetah has broken the speed record for four-legged robots by hitting almost 30 km/h. The previous record of 22 km/h was set in 1989. Cheetah is being developed by Waltham, Massachusetts-based Boston Dynamics, with funding from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), as part of its Maximum Mobility and Manipulation program, which aims to improve the design and mobility of robots. The new robot mimics the movements of fast-moving animals in nature. It uses a short hopping gait at low speeds but increasing its stride and pace by flexing and unflexing its back with each step, much like an actual cheetah. The current version of the robot has only been tested on a laboratory treadmill, where it is held in place to ensure it remains centred, and is powered by a remote hydraulic pump. Boston Dynamics says that it plans to start testing a free-running prototype later this year.
New Scientist Mar 06, 2012	back to top

Japanese team invents device that silences the overly-wordy
For those who don't suffer the talkative gladly, Japanese researchers may have come up with just the thing - a portable device , dubbed the 'SpeechJammer', that can painlessly jam a person's speech from up to 30 metres away. Researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, and Ochanomizu University, explained that their creation works by recording the offending speech with a directional microphone, adding a 0.2-second delay, and firing it right back at the run-on talker with a directional speaker. Our brains need instant feedback to continue governing speech properly. Mess with that synchrony and your jabbering soon stammers to a halt. While the need for such an effective muting device is indisputable, the fact remains that the SpeechJammer is anything but subtle. The latest version looks like a large mutant phaser from Star Trek, so chances are good that many chatterboxes will go silent the moment they see the thing pointed at them, regardless of whether it's turned on.
GizMag / Technology Review Mar 02, 2012	back to top