Exploiting this connection, Fred Driscoll and his colleagues at the University of California, San Diego have recently built an apparatus that for the first time allows a full spatial imaging of the flow of electrons trapped in a magnetic field. The density of electric charge in such flows is directly analogous to the density of vortices, the whirlpool-like eddies that can exist in a fluid. Eberhardt Bodenschatz of Cornell University reported on another new method that enables physicists to track in detail for the first time the accelerations of a particle moving through flows with atmospheric-level turbulence. He described how a light-sensitive diode measured the movements of a particle jiggling through a fluid at up to 200 times the acceleration of gravity. Weird Behavior in Quantum Dots.
Interesting things happen when particles are confined in a tiny box.
On top of this sandwich sits a metal gate electrode which feeds electrons into the dot and controls the arrival or departure of electrons one at a time. The pairing has not yet been explained but might have something to do with the electrons' spins. The goal now is to understand how small puddles coalesce into larger puddles and how the pairing comes about. Carl Zimm of Astronautics Corporation in Wisconsin described a Gd-based magnetic refrigerator, built in collaboration with the Ames DOE Laboratory, that has efficiency rivaling that of a conventional unit and has been operating for more than a year. Other physicists at the same session discussed similar approaches.