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NPL, Imperial College create room-temperature maser, promise more sensitive beams
Masers, or microwave lasers, have rarely been as viable as their regular counterparts; they need temperatures near absolute zero, exotic vacuum chambers or strong magnets just to run at all, which safely rules out carrying a maser as a pocket pointer. The National Physical Laboratory and Imperial College London might put that gap in practicality to bed after developing a maser that can run at room temperatures. Instead of using ruby to boost the microwave strength, the scientists rely on a less pronounceable p-terphenyl crystal treated with pentacene that can handle ordinary amounts of heat. There's still much work left in refining the technology: it has yet to stay active for sustained periods, only works in a narrow bandwidth and chews through an ample amount of power. Once it's given the appropriate polish, however, the extra sensitivity of the improved maser could be a boon for medical scanning, bomb disposal or even future space communication that could punch through the atmosphere.
New developments in atomic clock technology beat accuracy records, may inspire Ke$ha's next hit
According to a recent Penn State study that uses a new way to calculate time-telling precision, the CsF2 cesium-based atomic clock at the UK's National Physical Laboratory is almost twice as accurate as originally thought -- meaning it will only gain or lose one single second over the course of 138 million years. This atomic clock isn't the only competitor for best-in-show, as researchers at the University of Tokyo have also announced a new record, claiming their optical lattice atomic clock observes atoms a million times faster than a traditional atomic clock -- achieving accuracy up to 18 digits in a one second measurement. Although researchers say the technology would gain or lose a second significantly faster than the cesium-based variety (31.7 million years), it could change the way scientists perceive time and space, giving us new insights into fundamental constants of physics. "Until now, clocks have been thought of as tools for sharing common time. But with clocks like this, conversely, we can understand that time passes at different speeds, depending on the time and place a clock is at," said Hidetoshi Katori of the University of Tokyo. Of course, both atomic clocks can help us stay timely, but they also have practical applications for everything from deep-space networking, to predicting earthquakes and GPS navigation. With this type of accuracy, looks like none of us will be getting away with showing up late to work anymore. Check out a video about the optical lattice clock after the break.
Researchers develop infrared vegetable harvesting robot, to the disgust of children everywhere
Researchers at England's National Physical Laboratory are working on a device that uses a modified microwave measurement system, terahertz and far-infrared radio frequencies, and a clever cauliflower detection algorithm to let robots "see" beneath -- and harvest -- crops that current technology cannot. So far, the imaging system has been successfully demonstrated in the lab, sparking the interest of at least one UK lettuce grower, and it looks like a product could be commercially available as early as next year. According to Dr. Richard Dudley, Project Lead at NPL, the team began by focusing on cauliflower crops because they're both "one of the hardest" to measure, and totally gross.
