Latest

News

NASA launches Mars Perseverance rover

Mission will explore the Martian geology and climate, look for signs of past microbial life as well as launch a small helicopter

China successfully launches Tianwen-1 Mars probe

Craft will study Mars’ magnetosphere and atmosphere as well as surface and subsurface geological structures

Photo of Samson Rogers holding a pipetting device next to the Highway1 cell sorter

Therapeutics firms share inaugural prize for health physics

The Institute of Physics’ first Lee Lucas Award honours two start-ups, Nebu~Flow and Cellular Highways, for applying physics to healthcare and medicine

United Arab Emirates launches Hope mission to Mars

The Hope craft – the first Arab mission to Mars – will study the Martian atmosphere including daily and seasonal changes in the climate

First winners of Bell Burnell fellowships announced by the Institute of Physics

Four female PhD students awarded grants from fund to encourage diversity in physics

Men and women go separate ways: why inquiry-based labs exacerbate gender imbalance

Male students in inquiry-based labs handle equipment more, while women spend twice as long on laptops

Science in a digital world

To celebrate 30 years since Tim Berners-Lee first proposed the idea of a World Wide Web, this special collection explores how scientists are exploiting digital technologies to understand online behaviour and drive research progress

Research updates

Did a supernova trigger the late Devonian extinction?

Isotopic evidence could be lurking in the fossil record

Web-based tool estimates foetal radiation dose from CT scans

A user-friendly web-based tool calculates the radiation dose absorbed by the foetus when a pregnant woman undergoes a CT exam

A photo of a droplet of liquid metal and a second image of the same metal flowing in a smooth stream after a voltage is applied

Liquid metal flows smoothly at room temperatures

Applied voltage and oxide "skin" overcome droplet-forming tendencies driven by high surface tension

Acoustical tweezers trap microbubbles

Contactless manipulation technique holds promise for biomedical applications

Could proton FLASH prove optimal for clinical application?

Speakers at the 2020 Joint AAPM|COMP Virtual Meeting shared the latest developments in proton-based FLASH radiotherapy

2D Fermi gas hosts ideal Josephson junction

System could help researchers better understand strongly interacting superfluids

Features

Fighting flat-Earth theory

Rachel Brazil explores ways in which the physics community can best combat unscientific thinking, such as the belief the Earth is flat

Finding a consistent constant

Keith Cooper investigates the discrepancies in values of the Hubble constant and asks what this might mean for cosmology

UHV analytical stages: positioning for success in surface science studies

UHV Design continues to push the boundaries when it comes to sample manipulation, positioning and preparation in ultrahigh-vacuum environments

hovering 3D image at the University of Bristol

Making images with sound

Floating visual displays created using acoustically levitated particles could lead to galleries of singing heads. Michael Allen investigates

Why ultrafast detection is ultra-good

Charalampos Tsoumpas explains why our ability to track gamma rays emitted just picoseconds apart could lead to new medical-imaging devices

The potential of far-ultraviolet light for the next pandemic

Recent research suggests that a small range of light at far-ultraviolet wavelengths could be safe for humans but deadly to viruses. Jon Cartwright investigates

Physics World Jobs

Whether you’re still working out your career pathway or have a specific role in mind, we’re here to help. Bringing a diverse range of opportunities for jobseekers at all career stages, we’ll help you take the next step in your career and find the perfect job.

From the blog

Medical physics
Blog
SPONSORED

Test your knowledge of medical physics in this trivia quiz

So you think you know all about medical physics trivia? Test yourself with this fun quiz – answers next week

COVID-19 hits Nobel banquet, Plato was right, incubator noise

Excerpts from the Red Folder

Human hair soaks up oil spills, shortlist for astronomy photography contest, what if the Trinity test had failed?

Excerpts from the Red Folder

The virtual conference: thoughts from a first time ‘attendee’

This year’s AAPM Annual Meeting, held jointly with the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists, was a completely virtual event

Physics in the pandemic: ‘Surviving the virus really aligns your perspective’

For astronomer Karina Voggel, COVID-19 meant lost observing time, cancelled conferences and squeezing round a kitchen table to work. Then she got sick