In principle, a nuclear clock should be more precise and more stable than an optical clock (pictured).Credit: Andrew Brookes, National Physical Laboratory/Science Photo Library Scientists have taken a major leap towards making an entirely new type of clock — one based on tiny shifts in energy in an atomic nucleus. In principle, a nuclear clock … Read more
A judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by superconductivity physicist Ranga Dias against his employer, the University of Rochester in New York. In February, a university investigation found that he had committed scientific misconduct by, among other things, fabricating data to claim the discovery of superconductors — materials with zero electrical resistance — at room … Read more
Observations of the current Universe suggest a faster rate of cosmic expansion than predictions based on early-Universe data.Credit: NASA/ESA/Judy Schmidt Cosmology seems to be heading for a showdown on one of its most basic questions: how fast is the Universe expanding? For more than a decade, two types of measurement have been in disagreement. Observations … Read more
Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here. Electrons in stacked sheets of staggered graphene collectively act as though they have fractional charges at ultralow temperatures.Credit: Ramon Andrade 3DCiencia/Science Photo Library Two teams have observed that electrons, which usually have a charge of −1, … Read more
Electrons in stacked sheets of staggered graphene collectively act as though they have fractional charges at ultra-low temperatures.Credit: Ramon Andrade 3DCiencia/Science Photo Library Minneapolis, Minnesota Last May, a team led by physicists at the University of Washington in Seattle observed something peculiar. When the scientists ran an electrical current across two atom-thin sheets of molybdenum … Read more
Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here. Avi Loeb and his team say that metallic balls found near Papua New Guinea could be of extraterrestrial origin.Credit: Avi Loeb’s photo collection Scientists have clashed over whether a research team has indeed found fragments of … Read more