news 2022

Experimental physicists at the University of Toronto are closer to understanding why some icicles form with ripples up and down their outsides, while others form with smooth, slick, even surfaces. By growing icicles from water samples with different contaminants like sodium chloride (salt), dextrose (sugar) and fluorescent dye, the researchers discovered that water impurities become entrapped within icicles as they form and subsequently create chevron patterns that contribute to a ripple effect around their circumferences.

Scientists recreate properties of light in neutral fundamental particles called neutrons For the first time in experimental history, researchers at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) have created a device that generates twisted neutrons with well-defined orbital angular momentum. Previously considered an impossibility, this groundbreaking scientific accomplishment provides a brand new avenue for researchers to study the development of next-generation quantum materials with applications ranging from quantum computing to identifying and solving new problems in fundamental physics.

A Simon Fraser University physicist led an international team of scientists in reconstructing the laws of gravity-to gain a better understanding of how they work in the larger universe. The study, published in Nature Astronomy and featured in The Conversation , explored whether modifying General Relativity could help resolve some of the open problems of cosmology.

A new imaging technique using quantum science may lead to novel drug therapies and treatment options, a recent study has found. Researchers at the University of Waterloo and supported by Transformative Quantum Technologies have demonstrated the feasibility of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance diffraction (NMRd) to investigate the lattice structure of crystalline solids on an atomic scale, a feat that had only been possible for larger-scale imaging applications like Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).

Western scientists have developed a new material that could eventually improve the way drugs are administered to patients, by allowing doctors to "see” exactly whether drugs are reaching the targets and working properly. Lijia Liu By combining a material already used to deliver medication to specific sites in the body with another that glows in the dark (optical probe), chemistry professor Lijia Liu and graduate student Ellie W.T Shiu have created a composite that can be used to track the path of a drug carrier through the human body.

A new research group is paving Western's way into a domain with potentially life-changing implications for our access to brain scanning technology. In 2006, Western neuroscientist Adrian Owen found landmark evidence for the consciousness of a patient in a vegetative state when a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan revealed her brain activity after his team told her to imagine herself playing tennis.

Chemotherapy drugs can be lifesaving - but they don't work for all patients or for all cancers. That's why a team of researchers at the University of Toronto Mississauga is looking at new ways to use special types of light to target cancer cells resistant to current drug therapy - an approach that might be easier on some patients than traditional chemotherapy.

Stand up in a canoe and you'll probably find yourself in the water before too long. Jump up and down on the upper edges of the sides of the canoe, and you'll likely end up in the drink as well. But get the balance right and you'll be able to move yourself along by as much as one metre per second, according to  a study published in  Physical Review Fluids  examining gunwale bobbing.

Researchers at Simon Fraser University have made a crucial breakthrough in the development of quantum technology. Their research, published in Nature today, describes their observations of silicon -T centre- photon-spin qubits, an important milestone that unlocks immediate opportunities to construct massively scalable quantum computers and the quantum internet that will connect them.

Astronomers at McGill University, MIT and elsewhere have detected a strange and persistent radio signal from a far-off galaxy, that appears to be flashing with surprising regularity. Classified as a fast radio burst, or FRB, this new signal persists for up to three seconds, about 1,000 times longer than the average FRB.

The Near InfraRed Planet Searcher instrument, designed in part at Laval University, has successfully made its first observations The Near InfraRed Planet Searcher (NIRPS) instrument, designed in part at the University of Montreal and Laval University, has successfully made its first observations. Installed on the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) 3.6-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, NIRPS' mission is to search for new exoplanets around stars in the solar neighborhood.

Researchers find the physics of frying food far more complex than anticipated By Cooks throughout Asia put moist bamboo chopsticks into oil in a frying pan, watching the bubbles that form and listening to the sizzling sound they make as they burst to gauge the perfect cooking temperature. An international team of researchers used the technique as inspiration to learn about the complex physics behind wet chopsticks hitting hot oil.

May 12, 2022 A new image from Avery Broderick and the Event Horizon Telescope shows the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way By Elizabeth Kleisath Faculty of Science Three years ago, history was made when the first image of a black hole inspired wonder and awe around the world as we glimpsed the shadow of light escaping from the supermassive black hole M87*.

Astronomers have unveiled the first image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy. This result provides overwhelming evidence that the object is indeed a black hole and yields valuable clues about the workings of such giants, which are thought to reside at the centre of most galaxies.

May 9, 2022 Discovery advances understanding of theory of relativity and quantum By A major hurdle for work at the forefront of fundamental physics is the inability to test cutting-edge theories in a laboratory setting. But a recent discovery opens the door for scientists to see ideas in action that were previously only understood in theory or represented in science fiction.

Physicist Andrea Bianchi has observed the "quantum spin liquid" state in a magnetic material created in his lab. It's not every day that someone comes across a new state of matter in quantum physics, the scientific field devoted to describing the behaviour of atomic and subatomic particles in order to elucidate their properties.

UdeM physicist William Witczak-Krempa studies unusual states of matter in the quantum realm. William Witczak-Krempa, a professor in UdeM's Department of Physics since 2016, is a quantum physicist who studies highly entangled quantum states of matter. Quantum entanglement enables the encoding and sharing of information at great distances, a property that is harnessed in quantum computing.

Friday, April 8, 2022 Kingston- Astronomers at Queen's University in Kingston have discovered for the first time that Polaris - more commonly known as the North Star - is host to a remarkable magnetic field. Stellar magnetic fields exert forces on charged particles in their atmospheres, impacting how the star evolves and changes over time.

A team of researchers from the University of Toronto's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering has leveraged quantum mechanics to optimize the active layer within a device known as an inverted perovskite solar cell - a technology that could one day result in mass-market solar cells that a fraction of those currently on the market.

Developed at Université de Montréal, the easy-to-use device promises to help scientists better understand natural and human-designed nanotechnologies - and identify new drugs. Researchers at Université de Montréal have created a nanoantenna to monitor the motions of proteins. Reported this week , the device is a new method to monitor the structural change of proteins over time - and may go a long way to helping scientists better understand natural and human-designed nanotechnologies.