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Press Archive 2010
In order to weigh atomic nuclei, Klaus Blaum, director at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, and his coworkers use ingenious tricks and thus help to solve far-reaching problems of physics. For example the nucleosynthesis of the chemical elements in stars or the nature of the dark matter, which is the "glue" that holds the universe together.
Read more about the precise mass measurements in the detailed article in issue 3 of
the scientific magazine "MaxPlanckForschung" of the Max Planck Society (in German):
MaxPlanckForschung 03/2010, 46-53 
The American Physical Society has published a synopsis about the
discovery of highly excited long-lived isomers through direct mass measurements at the
Experimental Storage Ring (ESR)
at GSI, Darmstadt, Germany
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Please see also our news of 21.10.2010.
Comets, also named "dirty snowballs", are largely composed of water. An international
research team around Andreas Wolf, group leader in the research field "Molecular
quantum dynamics and stored ion beams" of the division, recently succeeded
deciphering an important aspect of the way by
which water molecules often form in space. As a surprise, the water molecules produced
under cold, dilute conditions turned out to be produced as particles as hot as 60,000
Kelvin. In their research the physicists, though, did not use a telescope, but a particle
accelerator. Read more about the successful experiments in the press release of the
idw
Members of our division participated in the first mass measurements of 96,97Kr using the
ISOLTRAP Penning-trap spectrometer at ISOLDE ,
CERN, Geneva. (See also our news of 17.07.2010.)
Several online journals are reporting on the successful mass measurements, here a selection:
Division member Jens Ketelaer et al. are designing a precision scale for mass measurements
of artificial isotopes at the Research Reactor TRIGA Mainz.
The double-Penning trap mass spectrometer TRIGA-TRAP
will allow more accurate predictions for the position of the island of stability.
Chemie.DE has published a detailed article about this work
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Members of our division participated in the first direct mass measurements
of the nobelium isotopes 252–254No within an international collaboration
under the leadership of GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung
in Darmstadt, Germany (see our news of 11.02.2010).
Numerous online journals have published detailed articles about this first successful foray into the region of
superheavy elements.
Here's a selection of press releases:
- "Nature": Superheavy atoms weigh in and
Weighing up the superheavies
- Press release of the Max Planck Society: Präzisionswaage für Atomkerne
- Informationsdienst Wissenschaft: Präzisionswaage für Atomkerne
- pro-physik.de - das Physikportal: Präzisionswaage für superschwere Elemente
- Wissenschaft-Online: Masse von Nobelium direkt bestimmt
- New Scientist online: Weight scale for atoms could map "island of stability"
- Scienceticker: Eine Waage für atomare "Brummer"
- Chemistry World: Inching towards the island of stability