Dr Andrea Morello reported on the progress of a team led by University of New South Wales engineers and physicists which has developed a “single electron reader”, one of the key building blocks needed to make a quantum computer using silicon. Quantum computers promise exponential increases in processing speed over today’s computers through their use…

CSIRO researchers reported that metallic nanoparticles can be used as components of computers powered by light rather than electric currents. The nanoparticles can control and manipulate the flow of light in photonic circuits in computers that should be much more powerful than their electronic counterparts.

The major protein in silkworm silk is being used by Peter Domachuk and his colleagues at the University of Sydney as a platform for sophisticated new health tests. The protein, fibroin, is extremely strong and so bio-friendly that it allows long-term studies of the interactions of molecules which, until now, have been too sensitive to…

Adding to chaos underground could help manage polluted water, according to CSIRO physicist Guy Metcalfe. His team has been working on “chaotic advection”, which describes the motion of particles carried in a flow—from smoke drifting in the air, to the mixing of the milk into your morning coffee. The same principle can be used to…

UK researcher Anthony Brown reported on the IceCube neutrino telescope under construction at the South Pole. The first stages are up and running, looking for high energy neutrinos from a variety of astrophysical sources, including dark matter.

David Karoly will rebut the common arguments and misinformation that question the role of human activity, particularly increasing concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases, as the main cause of recently observed global warming. He says, “Recent increases in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are due to human activity. The pattern and magnitude of observed global-scale…

By Vivien Lee Anyone can discover a neutron star in their own home, says the director of the Einstein@Home Project, Prof Bruce Allen. You don’t even have to be awake—your computer screensaver does it for you. In fact, it’s already been done. In August, a couple in Iowa, USA and a man in Mainz, Germany…

Melbourne physicists are trying to detect the undetectable – by searching for signs of its demise. Nicole Bell and her colleagues at the University of Melbourne are analysing data on neutrinos, gamma and cosmic rays for evidence of the decay or annihilation of dark matter. This mysterious material is suspected to exist because of the…