News

Monday, 28 March 2011

Cool Class: Physics for Smarties

When Plan II Liberal Arts students reach their junior year, they each pass through what many perceive as a trial by fire: Plan II Physics. The class, taught by physics professor Austin Gleeson, has a reputation for scrambling students' brains and shaking the very foundation of everything they think they know. Throughout the semester, Gleeson and...

Wednesday, 09 February 2011

Building Your Own Spin Zone

When Professor Alex de Lozanne was a boy he made things with Tinker Toys, went on to a mechanical version of Tinker Toys and just kept on tinkering. Even as a physicist at The University of Texas at Austin, he’s built instruments used in his laboratory. For his latest project, de Lozanne and members of his lab are building a spin-polarized scanni...

Thursday, 16 September 2010

On the Birth of Magnetism in the Universe

Physicist Swadesh Mahajan may have identified a mechanism that can explain the origin of magnetic fields in the universe. 

Wednesday, 29 April 2009

Solar Cells, Batteries Research Receives $15 Million

AUSTIN, Texas--With a $15 million grant, scientists and engineers aim to revolutionize solar cells and energy storage technologies as one of two Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) established at The University of Texas at Austin by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The White House announced the creation of 46 new EFRCs nationally in conju...

Monday, 25 August 2008

Dedication, Demonstration of World's Most Powerful Laser

Event: U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and University of Texas at Austin President William Powers Jr., will dedicate the Texas Petawatt Laser on Thursday. Scientists will demonstrate aspects of the laser during the event. The Tower will be lit orange during the evening to commemorate this event. When: Thursday, Aug. 28, 11:30 a.m. – 12:...

Monday, 30 June 2008

Invisible Waves Shape Continental Slope

AUSTIN, Texas—A class of powerful, invisible waves hidden beneath the surface of the ocean can shape the underwater edges of continents and contribute to ocean mixing and climate, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin have found. The scientists simulated ocean conditions in a laboratory aquarium and found that “internal waves” generat...

Friday, 30 May 2008

Splitting Light Could Improve Telecommunication Networks

AUSTIN, Texas--A new method for speeding and slowing a pulse of light simultaneously could lead to much faster optical telecommunication networks and more efficient optic-based computers. In a paper published in Physical Review A, University of Texas at Austin physicists Pablo Bianucci, Ken Shih and Gennady Shvets report the first ever demonstrati...

Tuesday, 02 October 2007

Atomic Coilgun Used to Slow and Stop Atoms

AUSTIN, Texas—An atomic coilgun that slows and stops atoms has been developed, report physicists from The University of Texas at Austin in the New Journal of Physics. Dr. Mark Raizen and his colleagues used the new coilgun to slow neon atoms, and Raizen said that the method could be used with a wide variety of atoms. “Our method will be applicabl...

Tuesday, 11 July 2006

Finding about cellular microtubule rigidity could lead to development of new nano-materials

AUSTIN, Texas—Microtubules, essential structural elements in living cells, grow stiffer as they grow longer, an unexpected property that could lead to advances in nano-materials development, an international team of biophysicists has found. The team, from The University of Texas at Austin, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidel...

Tuesday, 11 October 2005

New laser technique measures Brownian motion of a single particle

AUSTIN, Texas—Using a new technique to trap and measure single particles with lasers, an international group of researchers from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, The University of Texas at Austin and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, have demonstrated that Brownian motion of a single pa...