A quadrillionth of a second in slow motion

Observing and controlling ultrafast processes with attosecond resolution

22-Feb-2018 - Many chemical processes run so fast that they are only roughly understood. To clarify these processes, a team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now developed a methodology with a resolution of quintillionths of a second. The new technology stands to help better understand ...

A thermometer for the oceans

Measurement of noble gases in Antarctic ice cores

08-Jan-2018 - The average sea temperature is an essential parameter of the global climate – but it is very difficult to measure. At least until now, because an international team of researchers including Empa scientists have now developed a novel method using the concentration of noble gases in the eternal ...

Neutron-rich nucleus shapeshifts between a rugby ball and a discus

27-Jun-2017 - An international team led by scientists from IPN Orsay (CNRS/Université Paris-Sud), CEA, and RIKEN (Japan) has performed the first spectroscopy of the extremely neutron-rich isotopes krypton 98 and 100. This experiment showed that there are two coexisting, competing quantum shapes at low energy ...

How X-rays in matter create genetoxic low-energy electrons

02-Feb-2017 - Researchers led by Kiyoshi Ueda of Tohoku University have investigated what x-rays in matter really do and identified a new mechanism of producing low-energy free electrons. Since the low-energy electrons cause damage to the matter, the identified process might be important in understanding and ...

Physicists Measure van der Waals Forces of Individual Atoms for the First Time

17-May-2016 - Physicists at the Swiss Nanoscience Institute and the University of Basel have succeeded in measuring the very weak van der Waals forces between individual atoms for the first time. To do this, they fixed individual noble gas atoms within a molecular network and determined the interactions with a ...

Help in the Search for the Needle in the Haystack

Physicists render usable method for detecting extremely rare inert gas isotopes for water dating

17-Oct-2014 - In the earth and environmental sciences, radioactive isotopes, atom variants that decay over time, play a major role in age determination. A radioactive isotope of the inert gas argon (39Ar), for example, is used to determine the age of water or ice. Such isotopes are extremely rare, however – ...

A noble gas cage

New material traps gases from nuclear fuel better and uses less energy than currently available options

29-Jul-2014 - When nuclear fuel gets recycled, the process releases radioactive krypton and xenon gases. Naturally occurring uranium in rock contaminates basements with the related gas radon. A new porous material called CC3 effectively traps these gases, and research appearing in Nature Materials shows how: ...

Noble gas molecule discovered in space

16-Dec-2013 - A molecule containing a noble gas has been discovered in space by a team including astronomers from Cardiff University. The find was made using a Cardiff-led instrument aboard Europe's Herschel Space Observatory. The molecule, argon hydride, was seen in the Crab Nebula, the remains of a star that ...

Messer produces the noble gases krypton and xenon

27-Mar-2012 - Messer began producing the noble gases krypton and xenon at a new production plant in November. These gases are two of the rarest elements found on the earth. They comprise only about 1.2 ppm of the atmosphere, so extracting them is like selecting a group of 100 people out of the total population ...