Issues

More than 30 years after the discovery of the Kondo effect, which is caused by magnetic impurities in metals, researchers may now be able to study the phenomenon more precisely because a quantum dot with an odd number of electrons seems to mimic the behavior of an individual magnetic atom.

By stretching, amplifying and then compressing laser pulses, one can reach petawatt powers, gigagauss magnetic fields, terabar light pressures and 10²² m/s² electron accelerations.

What in the cosmos can possibly be accelerating protons to 10²⁰ electron volts and beyond? And how can they preserve such extreme energies while plowing through the cosmic microwave background on their way to us?

Once just a scientific curiosity, noncoalescence now offers intriguing applications—and the prospect of more to come.