Science

Helping hand Students supported in 2023 by the Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Fund include (clockwise from top left) Raymond Isichei, Alix Freckelton, Karolina Szewczyk, Rojita Buddhacharya, Sinéad Mannion and Xinran Yang. A total of 10 physics PhD students from across the UK have been unveiled as the 2023 awardees of the Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship

LOS ANGELES – The UK Space Agency has a direct message on space sustainability. “We’re going to stop making it worse. And we’re going to start making it better,” Julie Black, UK Space Agency director of missions and capability for discovery and sustainability, said June 13 at the Secure World Foundation’s Space Sustainability Summit. Toward

WASHINGTON — NASA partnerships announced June 15 would support development of new commercial capabilities that include a Blue Origin crewed spacecraft and a Starship-derived space station from SpaceX. NASA announced the selection of seven companies for unfunded Space Act Agreements as part of its Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities-2 (CCSC-2) initiative. NASA will provide the

Engaging with the public is often part of the job description for academic physicists and many undertake outreach activities such as writing popular science books, podcasting or even making music videos. In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast I meet a condensed matter physicist who has done all three and more. Philip Moriarty

WASHINGTON — Arianespace has postponed the final launch of the Ariane 5, potentially for several weeks, after discovering a potential problem with pyrotechnical systems on the rocket. Arianespace announced June 15 it was postponing the 117th and final launch of the Ariane 5, which had been scheduled for June 16 from Kourou, French Guiana. A

NEW YORK — Despite an overwhelming vote of support by the United Nations General Assembly six months ago, advocates of a moratorium on one type of anti-satellite tests say they are still working to get more countries to adopt it. The U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution in December 2022 encouraging countries not to conduct

Fit for purpose: The new wearable wireless ultrasound system mounted on the chest for measuring cardiac activity. (Courtesy: Muyang Lin) Researchers in the US have designed an ultrasound transducer that transmits information wirelessly and can be worn comfortably on the skin, overcoming two major shortcomings of previous devices. Developed by Muyang Lin, Sheng Xu and

WASHINGTON — Amid the growing pains that come with being a new military branch, the U.S. Space Force is trying to establish its brand and build an identity. “The amount of work that we’ve done in three years is absolutely eye-watering to me, but we’re still trying to figure out how to navigate” within the

HELSINKI — China has broken ground on a new launch pad dedicated to commercial solid rockets to help boost access to launch facilities. The new pad for solid rockets and its related infrastructure to provide power, test, and other facilities is expected to be finished within 180 days, China Space News, an official space sector

Left to right: Steve Furber, Chaoran Huang, Bhavin Shastri, Renbao Liu Last week I had the pleasure of moderating a webinar panel session that looked at the future of computer technology beyond the current era of ever shrinking silicon transistors as defined by Moore’s law. Called “More than Moore”, the webinar featured three panellists working

TAMPA, Fla. — A lack of data and collaboration continues to hold back efforts to ensure a sustainable orbital environment, satellite operator executives said June 13. “We’re trying our best to advance the science and the awareness so that prudent policy decisions could be made by regulators and other influencers,” John Janka, Viasat’s chief officer

WASHINGTON — House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) on June 12 released his proposed bill for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024, known as the chairman’s mark. The full committee will consider Rogers’ mark on June 21. Rogers in the bill adds another twist in the contentious battle over

Join the audience for a live webinar at 6 p.m BST/1 p.m. EDT on 28 June 2023 exploring efforts to enable a future paradigm involving sustainable chemical processes for producing fuels and chemicals based on renewable resources Want to take part in this webinar? Modern society relies on large-scale chemical processes for producing fuels and

NEW YORK — A bill introduced in the House to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration includes a provision directing the agency to get involved in space traffic management, potentially duplicating ongoing work at the Commerce Department. The bipartisan leadership of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee introduced the FAA reauthorization bill June 9. The committee

TAMPA, Fla. — Iridium Communications is redoubling efforts to reverse U.S. regulatory approval for Ligado’s terrestrial wireless plans after Canada rejected the network following GPS interference concerns. Ligado had sought similar approval from Canada that it secured from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in 2020 to deploy a 5G network using satellite L-band spectrum, including

Both sides now: artist’s impression of bilayer graphene with an electron-hole symmetric double quantum dot, where the electron and the hole are in different layers. (Courtesy: Sebastian Staacks) Several unique phenomena that could benefit quantum computing have been observed in quantum dots made from bilayer graphene. The research was done by Christoph Stampfer at RWTH

WASHINGTON — A new State Department space policy framework is intended to align and guide ongoing work on space diplomacy by the department, including its work to support the Artemis Accords. The State Department published May 30 the Strategic Framework for Space Policy, a first-of-its-kind document that outlines the efforts by the department to use