Research Highlights
Fall 2005
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Amazing Molecular Velcro
RNA molecules can perform amazing biological feats, including storing, transporting, and reading genetic blueprints as well as catalyzing chemical reactions inside living cells. To manage the latter feat, RNA molecules must rapidly fold into an exact three-dimensional (3D) shape. [Continue Reading]
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The Great Mouse Race
The race is on! Two mice chase one another around a curvy, roughly elliptical white stripe. But, the goal can't be the finish line - because there isn't one. [Continue Reading]
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Sudden Death: Jets Defeat Stars
Gamma-ray jets produced deep within massive stars can blow apart the star when they emerge, creating a supernova. The jets are very light and travel near the speed of light toward the star's surface. They are created by a complex interaction of a black hole, an accretion disk, and very strong magnetic fields that come into being when a massive star depletes its supply of hydrogen fuel and falls into itself. [Continue Reading]
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Physics Class Rocks!
Imagine high-school or college students so excited about physics they can hardly wait to get to class every day and learn more about how the world works. Fellow Carl Wieman recently offered cogent suggestions to new physics teachers on coming closer to this ideal. [Continue Reading]
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Gone with the Wind
Giant gas planets don't often stay in orbit where they're formed. They often move closer to their star or, occasionally, further away. [Continue Reading]
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Time Traveling
Scientists in Fellow Jun Ye's lab are developing a high-precision optical atomic clock linked to super-narrow optical transitions in ultracold, trapped strontium atoms. However, unless the new clock is portable (it is not) or researchers figure out how to accurately transmit its clock signal over a fiber optic network to NIST, the legendary strontium clock will not be able to help the world keep better time. [Continue Reading]
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Illuminating the Cosmic Web
Understanding dark matter's role in the distribution of galaxies in the Universe is a central question in cosmology. Dark matter pervades the universe. Haloes of dark matter surround galaxies and galaxy clusters. [Continue Reading]
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Splash!
Brad Perkins and his thesis advisor Fellow David Nesbitt recently decided to explore what happens when fast, cold carbon dioxide molecules collide with the surface of an oily liquid (perfluoropolyether). Of course, you can only do these sorts of things in a vacuum chamber, where there are virtually no other gas molecules in the air to get in the way! [Continue Reading]
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Surfing the Cosmic Shock Wave
For nearly 18 years, JILA Fellow Dick McCray has been studying the brightest supernova to light up Earth's night skies since the Renaissance. Known as 1987A because it appeared in the southern sky on February 23, 1987, the supernova occurred when a 10-million-year-old blue supergiant star exploded in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy located 160,000 light years from Earth. [Continue Reading]
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The Great Escape
Have you ever wondered whether a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) could spontaneously escape from the trap in which it was created? After all, physicists have known for a long time that the wave nature of single particles, such as atoms and electrons, makes it possible for such particles to tunnel through all kinds of barriers that are too high to climb (or jump) over. [Continue Reading]
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Measure the Force, Luke
Graduate students Dave Harber and John Obrecht, postdoc Jeff McGuirk, and Fellow Eric Cornell recently devised a clever way to use a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) inside a magnetic trap to probe the quantum behavior of free space. [Continue Reading]
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The Quest for Stability
Fellow Jan Hall has been working on stabilizing the frequency of lasers since the 1960s. Now, he, JILA Research Associate Mark Notcutt, Long-Sheng Ma (currently at BIPM in France), and Fellow Jun Ye have devised an improved, compact, and less expensive method for stabilizing lasers. [Continue Reading]