Science News of the Year: 1998
Back to Science News of 1998
Physics
- A shortfall of neutrinos passing through Earth to a Japanese detector
gave the strongest evidence yet of neutrino mass and suggested the need for a broader
model of particle physics (June 13, vol. 153: p. 374).
- Researchers created the first ultracold molecules and a superatom, or
Bose-Einstein condensate, of hydrogen (May 30, vol. 153: p. 342; July 25, vol. 154: p.
54). Condensate atoms stayed in one quantum state even when divided up (Nov. 28, vol. 154:
p. 342).
- Physicists studying a rare type of radioactivity that emits protons
found that certain atomic nuclei are flattened globes rather than spheres (March 7, vol.
153: p. 148).
- Random fluctuations of a chemical's concentration made waves of
another chemical's activity go farther, suggesting that similar noise may assist
long-range signaling in brain tissue (Feb. 21, vol. 153: p.
116*).
- Researchers demonstrated quantum teleportation by transferring a
photon's polarization state instantaneously to a remote photon (Jan. 17, vol. 153: p. 41).
- Particles known as kaons and antikaons provided the first
experimental evidence that time has a discernible direction even in the subatomic realm
(Oct. 31, vol. 154: p. 277).
- Electrons surfed the wake of a laser pulse in the first laboratory
demonstration of a scheme for making tabletop particle accelerators (Sept. 5, vol. 154: p.
157).
- Error correction for quantum computers passed its first real-world
test (Sept. 12, vol. 154: p. 165).
- Tracking atoms in an obstacle course of light indicated that switches
between wave and particle identities hinge on quantum entanglements, not Heisenberg's
uncertainty principle (Sept. 5, vol. 154: p. 149).
- Physicists found surprising similarities and differences between the
electron behavior of artificial atoms made from semiconductor layers, known as quantum
dots, and natural atoms (April 11, vol. 153: p. 236).
- The search for single magnetic charges, or monopoles, at the highest
particle masses explored so far came up empty (July 4, vol. 154: p. 4).
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