Matter & Energy: Science news of the year, 2008

The year's best stories on research aiming to understand the fundamentals of matter.

ATLAS is one of the massive laboratories surrounding the huge underground tunnel of the Large Hadron Collider. Protons speeding through the tunnel will collide here, and ATLAS will detect what happens.
ATLAS is one of the massive laboratories surrounding the huge underground tunnel of the Large Hadron Collider. Protons speeding through the tunnel will collide here, and ATLAS will detect what happens.

On and off for the LHC
Protons take trip around the accelerator

One short trip for a proton, one not-so-giant step for mankind. On September 10, scientists at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, near Geneva, successfully steered the first beam of protons around the accelerator’s 27-kilometer track. But just nine days after the initial success, a faulty electrical connection led to a helium leak (SN Online: 9/23/08). The setback, combined with the LHC’s scheduled winter shutdown to save fuel costs, means that scientists won’t attempt the first proton collisions until summer 2009 (SN Online: 12/5/08)

The accelerator’s early hibernation, however, hasn’t dampened expectations for how it could drastically alter physicists’ understanding of the universe. When the accelerator runs at full capacity, its twin beams will each carry seven times more energy and have about 30 times the intensity of the best beam at any other accelerator. Moreover, the most energetic collisions will generate the temperatures and densities that existed a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang.

Physicists hope that the LHC will lead them beyond the standard model of particle physics (SN: 7/19/08, p. 16) to signs of extra dimensions, new types of elementary particles and, perhaps, rapidly evaporating microscopic black holes that the accelerator may forge. Depending on what’s detected, physicists may find out if they understand the fundamental building blocks of nature, or if “everything that physicists have been talking about for 45 years is wrong,” says John Ellis, a theoretical physicist at CERN.


Scientists have revealed two new materials that bend light the way a good invisibility cloak should. This one, shown at left as an artist’s impression and at right under an electron microscope, is made of alternating layers of silver and an electrical insulator.
Scientists have revealed two new materials that bend light the way a good invisibility cloak should. This one, shown at left as an artist’s impression and at right under an electron microscope, is made of alternating layers of silver and an electrical insulator.

Invisibility within sight  Researchers take steps toward developing materials that can bend light in a way that renders objects invisible (SN: 8/30/08, p. 15).

Much larger than carbon nanotubes, the newly discovered colossal carbon tubes are visible to the naked eye and have an unusual structure, shown here in a sketch.
Much larger than carbon nanotubes, the newly discovered colossal carbon tubes are visible to the naked eye and have an unusual structure, shown here in a sketch.

Non-nanotubes  Researchers discover a new type of carbon filament, colossal carbon tubes (shown below). The tubes are tens of thousands of times thicker than nanotubes (SN: 8/30/08, p. 9).

A combination of two laser beams lets atoms pass through in one direction but not the other, as if a demon were opening or closing a microscopic gate. The barrier beam repels atoms only when they are in an excited state. Atoms approaching from the left are in their lowest-energy state so they go through, but those coming from the right get kicked into an excited state by the pumping beam, and then bounce back after reaching the barrier.
A combination of two laser beams lets atoms pass through in one direction but not the other, as if a demon were opening or closing a microscopic gate. The barrier beam repels atoms only when they are in an excited state. Atoms approaching from the left are in their lowest-energy state so they go through, but those coming from the right get kicked into an excited state by the pumping beam, and then bounce back after reaching the barrier.

Maxwell’s cool demon  An optical barrier that lets atoms cross in only one direction realizes a 19th century thought experiment that pushes thermodynamics to its limits (SN: 7/19/08, p. 7).

While a mighty new particle accelerator is starting up in Europe, Fermilab’s Tevatron, outside Chicago, still has a few cards up its sleeve. Physicists working at the DZero detector (hosted in the facility on the top right, along the accelerator’s 6.3-kilometer ring in the background) announced the discovery of a new particle called the omega-b-minus.
While a mighty new particle accelerator is starting up in Europe, Fermilab’s Tevatron, outside Chicago, still has a few cards up its sleeve. Physicists working at the DZero detector (hosted in the facility on the top right, along the accelerator’s 6.3-kilometer ring in the background) announced the discovery of a new particle called the omega-b-minus.

Proton’s cousin  Physicists discover omega-b-minus, a particle made of two strange quarks and a bottom quark (SN: 9/27/08, p. 9).

Building ‘the Matrix’  Physicists build the first rudimentary machine that simulates quantum phenomena using quantum physics. The vacuum chamber (shown) traps ions for laser manipulation (SN: 8/30/08, p. 5).

Resistance with a twist  Researchers show that twisting fluctuations among electrons in a particular material could explain the material’s superconductivity  (SN: 12/20/08, p. 13).

Chemists can now watch as molecules such as cyclopropane carboxaldehyde (shown here) switch back and forth between two configurations.
Chemists can now watch as molecules such as cyclopropane carboxaldehyde (shown here) switch back and forth between two configurations.Pate/Univ. of Virginia

Phlegmatic molecules  Time-lapse snapshots of certain molecules show that they switch between different shapes less often than theory predicted (SN: 6/7/08, p. 7).

Einstein’s invisible hand  Controversial data suggest that effects from Einstein’s theory of relativity might make element 114 behave like a noble gas rather than a metal (SN: 4/12/08, p. 230).