Michael Banks

1 month ago | physicsworld.com | Michael Banks

Roses have been cultivated for thousands of years, admired for their beauty. Despite their use in fragrance, skincare and even in teas and jams, there are some things, however, that we still don’t know about these symbolic flowers. And that includes the physical mechanism behind the shape of rose petals. The curves and curls of leaves and flower petals arise due to the interplay between their natural growth and geometry.

1 month ago | physicsworld.com | Michael Banks

A series of spectacular images of the cosmos has been released to celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope‘s 35 years in space. The images include pictures of Mars, planetary nebulae and a spiral galaxy. Hubble was launched into low-Earth orbit in April 1990, stowed in the payload bay of the space shuttle Discovery.

1 month ago | physicsworld.com | Michael Banks

“Fusion is now within reach” and represents “one of the economic opportunities of the century”. Not the words of an optimistic fusion scientist but from Kerry McCarthy, parliamentary under-secretary of state at the UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. She was speaking on Tuesday at the inaugural Fusion Fest by Economist Impact. Held in London, the day-long event featured 400 attendees and more than 60 speakers from around the world.

2 months ago | physicsworld.com | Michael Banks

The CERN particle-physics lab near Geneva has released plans for the 15bn SwFr (£13bn) Future Circular Collider (FCC) – a huge 91 km circumference machine. The three-volume feasibility study, released yesterday, calls for the giant accelerator to collide electrons with positrons to study the Higgs boson in unprecedented detail. If built, the FCC would replace the 27 km Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which will come to an end in the early 2040s.

2 months ago | physicsworld.com | Michael Banks

Disabled people in science must be recognized and given better support to help reverse the numbers of such people dropping out of science. That is the conclusion of a new report released today by the National Association of Disabled Staff Networks (NADSN). It also calls for funders to stop supporting institutions that have toxic research cultures and for a change in equality law to recognize the impact of discrimination on disabled people including neurodivergent people.