Archive by category | Physics & Mathematics

Schön loses last appeal against PhD revocation

 Schön loses last appeal against PhD revocation

The German Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe has confirmed on 1 October that the University of Constance was within its rights to revoke the PhD thesis of physicist Jan Hendrik Schön, who was dismissed in 2002 from Bell laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, for falsifying research results.  Read more

Nobel laureates call for release of Iranian physicist

Nobel laureates call for release of Iranian physicist

Eighteen Physics Nobel laureates have signed an open letter addressed to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, calling for the release of Omid Kokabee, a 32-year-old physicist who has spent the last 3 years and 8 months in a Teheran prison.  Read more

Possible space weather role in downing of US copter

Possible space weather role in downing of US copter

In the predawn hours of 4 March 2002, as the United States and its allies battled Al Qaeda in the mountains of Afghanistan, a US army helicopter was sent to drop reinforcements on Takur Ghar, a mountain peak blanketed by snow — and enemy fire. Attempts to warn the chopper off via satellite radio failed. At the landing zone, it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and crash-landed, stranding its force in a fierce firefight that killed four US soldiers.  Read more

Balzan prizes honour plant ecologist and mathematician

Plant ecologist G. David Tilman from the University of Minnesota in Saint Paul and mathematician Dennis Sullivan from the City University of New York are among the four winners of this year’s prestigious Balzan Prize. The announcement was made on 8 September.  Read more

Higgs particle linked to matter, not just force, particles

Higgs particle linked to matter, not just force, particles

COPENHAGEN — Physicists working at CERN, the European particle accelerator near Geneva, have snared a new first for the Higgs boson. They have watched it decay directly to the particles that make up matter (called fermions) rather than just the particles that convey force (bosons), as they had before.  Read more

Shorter list for gamma-ray telescope sites, but no home yet

Shorter list for gamma-ray telescope sites, but no home yet

Where will host the world’s next generation ground-based γ-ray detector, the Cherenkov Telescope Array? The answer is, still no one knows. But a panel of funders have narrowed the field following a meeting in Munich, Germany, this week.  Read more