physicsworld.com Volume 26 No 6 June 2013 Capturing CO2 Removing the climate culprit from the air Made in Manchester Where Niels Bohr developed his model of the atom Pretty cool things Using neutrons to probe nature’s secrets Diamond life A career in industrial product development www.acalbfi.com -FBEJOHUIFXBZJOQIPUPOJDQSPEVDUT )FMQJOHZPVNFFUZPVSUFDIOJDBMBOEDPNNFSDJBMPCKFDUJWFT 0QUJDBM$PNQPOFOUT -BTFST #FBN"OBMZTJT Ë93BZTÈ67 Ë0QUJDT 'JMUFST 4VCBTTFNCMJFT Ë-BTFSEJPEFNPEVMFT Ë1PXFS&OFSHZNFUFS Ë7JTJCMFÈ/FBS*3 Ë$PBUJOHT 4DBOOFST $SZTUBMT Ë*OEVTUSJBM%144 Ë4QFDUSBMBOBMZTJT ËÈsNÈsN Ë4DJFOUJÆD-BTFST Ë#FBNQSPÆMFS Ë8BWFGSPOU 4QFDUSPTDPQZ -JHIUJOH Photometry 4BGFUZ Ë4QFDUSPNFUFST Ë#FBNTIBQJOHEJöVTFST Ë1IPUPNFUSZ Ë&ZFQSPUFDUJPO Ë8BWFMFOHUINFUFST Ë6OJGPSNTPVSDFT Ë*OUFHSBUJOHTQIFSFT Ë4BGFUZXJOEPXT$VSUBJOT Ë1IPUPNFUFST %FMJWFSJOHUFDIOJDBMFYDFMMFODF "TPOFPG&VSPQF¾TMBSHFTUUFBNTPGQIPUPOJDTTQFDJBMJTUT XFPöFSTUBUFPGUIFBSU TZTUFNT DPNQPOFOUT UPPMTBOESFTPVSDFTGPSQIPUPOJDTEFTJHO 8PSLJOHXJUIMFBEJOHQIPUPOJDTNBOVGBDUVSFST PVSDPNCJOBUJPOPGDPNQSFIFOTJWF UFDIOJDBMBOEDPNNFSDJBMTUSFOHUI BMPOHXJUIMPDBMTVQQPSU HJWFTZPVBDDFTTUPUIF MBUFTUEFWFMPQNFOUTJOQIPUPOJDT 'PSTQFDJÆDSFRVJSFNFOUTXFDBOEFWFMPQDVTUPNFOHJOFFSFEMBTFSTPMVUJPOT BOEQSPWJEFTQFDJBMJTUPQUJDBMDPBUJOHTFSWJDFT Get in touch: Email : [email protected] consult. design. integrate. physicsworld.com Contents: June 2013 Quanta 3 Frontiers 4 Pear-shaped nuclei could point towards physics beyond the Standard Model O Does antimatter fall up or down? O Evolution of foam O How nanocrystals squeeze through nanotubes O Nanowire transistor as sensitive as human skin iStockphoto/José Luis Gutiérrez Luis iStockphoto/José News & Analysis 6 UK rejoins FAIR project O US gets new fusion boss O Hawking boycott divides opinion O Los Alamos “quantum internet” revealed O China targets Chilean telescopes O Australian budget kicks up a storm O Mexican astronomers start work with gamma-ray observatory O US scientists attack “awful” peer-review bill O Leo Kouwenhoven: the man behind the particle Comment 15 In a state – R&D budgets in Europe 17–18 Location, location Forum 17 A divided union? Jose Mariano Gago Critical Point 19 The new idols Robert P Crease Feedback 20 Your views on green energy, the uses of mathematics and Maxwell’s demon, plus comments from physicsworld.com about feline thought experiments Sophia Smith Collection,Sophia Smith College Features Mopping up carbon 23 As levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rise, researchers are competing to develop technologies that capture this climate culprit directly from the air, as Fragments – Dorothy Wrinch’s legacy 41-42 David Appell reports Cool things to do with neutrons 28 On the cover Peter Geltenbort explains how researchers are using ultracold neutrons to probe Removing carbon dioxide from the air 23–27 a variety of problems in fundamental physics, including looking for the effects of (iStockphoto/Frank Ramspott) Where Niels Bohr developed his model of the new particles or forces atom 34–38 Using neutrons to probe nature’s secrets Made in Manchester 34 28–32 After a hiccup at Cambridge, the young postdoc Niels Bohr truly flourished once A career in industrial product development he arrived in the positive research environment of the University of Manchester 46–47 where he developed the first quantum model of the atom, explains Brian Clegg Reviews 41 phys ic O sw Structural disputes with Dorothy Wrinch It’s that goddam particle again o r l O Web life: The Giant’s Shoulders d Careers 46 The sixth element Stephanie Liggins O Once a physicist: Janet Guthrie Physics World is published monthly as 12 issues per annual Recruitment 50 volume by IOP Publishing Ltd, Temple Circus, Temple Way, Bristol BS1 6HG, UK Lateral Thoughts 56 United States Postal Identification Statement Physics World (ISSN 0953-8585) is published monthly by Some overlooked basic principles Aaron Leonard IOP Publishing Ltd, Temple Circus, Temple Way, Bristol BS1 6HG, UK. Air freight and mailing in the USA by Sheridan Press. 450 Fame Avenue, Hanover PA 17331. US Postmaster: send address changes to Physics World, IOP Publishing, PO Box 320, Congers, NY 10920-0320, USA. Physics World June 2013 1 physicsworld.com Quanta For the record Seen and heard We are in danger of being left behind Lord John Browne writing in the Daily Telegraph vehicles. Due out later this year, the watch will cost “well into five figures”, according The former physicist and chief executive of oil to Hoptroff’s website. But you are likely to giant BP says that countries such as China and have to jump through a few hoops to get Brazil are doubling or tripling how much they one, as potential buyers will be subject to spend on science, leaving Western countries in security clearances “due to the nature of their wake. the device”. Those who end up with one Richard Strauss, Smithsonian of the 12 watches being produced will be Mrs Thatcher didn’t understand lucky, rich or stupid (or possibly all three). because Mrs Thatcher liked to find things to be the way she wanted Name your own exoplanet Space company Uwingu is on a mission to them to be Hear my voice rename the hundreds of exoplanets that Former CERN theorist John Ellis speaking to He may have placed the first telephone have been found by astronomers over the the South China Morning Post call, but that wasn’t the only pioneering last couple of years. Uwingu (which means Ellis was talking about the time he met and experiment Alexander Graham Bell did. “sky” in Swahili) has launched an “adopt explained his research to the former UK prime On 15 April 1885 the Edinburgh-born a planet” campaign, giving people the minister Margaret Thatcher, a former chemist, scientist also recorded his voice onto a opportunity to vote for as well as propose who died in April. wax-covered cardboard disc, which turns new names for exoplanets. Proposing a out to be the only known recording of him name will cost $4.99, while voting for one I was a swot, but I was allowed to speaking. The recording remained silent is $0.99, with the proceeds being used to for 128 years, until Carlene Stephens, fund “space exploration, research and be without any ill effects from my curator of the Smithsonian’s National education”. Uwingu has kicked things contemporaries Museum of American History, came off by seeking new names for the closest Edinburgh physicist Peter Higgs quoted on across the work of physicists Carl Haber known exoplanet – Alpha Centauri Bb – the BBC and Earl Cornell at the Lawrence Berkeley which lies some 4.3 light-years from Earth. Higgs says that being a swot was something to National Laboratory in California. The After garnering more than 750 votes, the compensate for not being able to play football, duo previously managed to play – for winning name – proposed by astronomy which he was excused from doing as he suffered the first time – a 1860 recording of an enthusiast Jay Lark – is Albertus Alauda, from asthma. unknown woman singing the French folk which beat off Rakhat and Caleo with song “Au clair de la lune” that was made 684 and 622 votes, respectively. Any using a “phonautograph”, which works name, however, will be unofficial as the This is turning out to be the most by etching sound waves onto paper that is International Astronomical Union is the desired job in history covered in soot. Using the same approach, “single arbiter of the naming process”. Bas Lansdorp, co-founder of Mars One, quoted Haber and Cornell have now made high- in Time resolution digital scans of Bell’s cardboard Chip-powered rocket More than 80 000 people have applied – at a disc and then turned the images into You might think that cost of around $50 per applicant – to become an sounds, unveiling the recording, which the American military astronaut and travel to Mars on a one-way trip to starts with the unerring words “Hear my had better things to do, establish a human colony on the red planet. voice – Alexander Graham Bell”. but Michael Courtney CC BY-SA 3.0 Spedona from the US Air Force Atomic timepiece Academy in Colorado and I’m fascinated with quantum physics. In what could be a quantum leap in luxury Elya Courtney from BTG Research have That’s the reason why I’m going back timepieces, Hoptroff, a London-based been studying how to fire potatoes out of to school this September to learn watchmaker, has teamed up with the US canons. The pair tested a range of fuels computer science firm Symmetricom to make “the world’s including ethanol, butane and propane first atomic-powered pocket watch”. and used a high-speed camera to measure Pop star Will.i.am in the Irish Examiner Called simply “No 10”, Hoptroff says the the position of the potato in the barrel The 38-year-old star of the Black Eyed Peas hints watch is the most accurate ever, losing just against time to calculate its velocity. at a possible interest in quantum computing. one and a half seconds every thousand Acetylene came out on top, producing a years. The watch is no joke – it features muzzle velocity of 138 ms–1 – much higher Nobody wants to take physics, but at a small chip that contains a caesium-gas than its nearest competitor methanol, least when he sings, it makes it fun chamber inside a temperature-controlled which shot the tuber out at around 40 ms–1. oven. A laser is shone into the chamber “Potatoes launched with acetylene were Elias Borne, a chemistry student at Haverford to excite the caesium atoms, causing also destructive to wooden boards and College quoted on philly.com electrons to oscillate – or tick – between plastic objects initially employed as Borne was commenting on the lectures of different energy levels. Symmetricom backstops before transitioning to 6 mm physicist Walter Smith who brings his ukulele originally developed the chip-sized thick steel plate,” the authors warn, before into class and sings physics-based songs to help atomic-clock system in collaboration with adding that “adult supervision and due explain difficult topics.