X-rays

Attosecond X-Ray Pulses Reveal Dancing Electrons

May 28, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

An attosecond is a billionth of a billionth of a second. There are more attoseconds in a second than there are seconds in the current age of the universe. But it is now possible to produce X-ray pulses whose timescales can be measured in attoseconds. Pulses this short give scientists…

11 Jan 24

Sandpaper + Machine Learning = Better X-ray Images

Computer & Information Technology

To build a better battery, you might start by improving the materials inside. Researchers often do that by first inspecting new materials and chemicals with high-powered X-rays from a synchrotron. But that’s a slow and tedious process. A surprising solution to speeding things up has recently emerged—sandpaper. “The major motivation…

09 Jan 24

X-rays Reveal a New Phase of Matter

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Metallurgy & Material Science

In a scientific breakthrough that could reshape our understanding of how light interacts with matter, researchers from the Attoscience and Ultrafast Optics group at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Barcelona, Spain have discovered a new phase of matter, aptly named a “light-matter hybrid”. The findings, published in Nature…

18 Oct 23

Crushing Plutonium for Nuclear Safety

Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

Deep below the Nevada desert, a machine dubbed Scorpius is under construction that will use high explosives to crush plutonium to states that exist just prior to a nuclear explosion. The aim of the $1.8 billion project is to scan this plutonium with X-rays to help check the accuracy of…

11 Oct 23

Impossible Photo Feat Now Possible Via Holography

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

Smartphones and movie cameras might one day do what regular cameras now cannot—change the sharpness of any given object once it has been captured, without sacrificing picture quality. Scientists developed the trick from an exotic form of holography and from techniques developed for X-ray cameras used in outer space.They detailed…

26 Sep 23

The World’s Most Powerful X-ray Laser Lights Up

Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

In the hills above San Francisco Bay, scientists are firing up the world’s most powerful X-ray laser.The laser is the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), shooting through a former particle accelerator tunnel. LCLS itself is more than a decade old, and plenty of scientists have utilized its power to study…

Attosecond X-Ray Pulses Reveal Dancing Electrons

Sandpaper + Machine Learning = Better X-ray Images

X-rays Reveal a New Phase of Matter

Crushing Plutonium for Nuclear Safety

Impossible Photo Feat Now Possible Via Holography

The World’s Most Powerful X-ray Laser Lights Up

Google won two major awards at MWC Barcelona 2025.

Expanding AI Overviews and introducing AI Mode

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