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Welcome to the Institute of Physics news pages. In this section you will find the latest news from both the Institute itself and also from the national and international physics community.

UK Robotics can lead the world

Britain’s robotics experts visited the House of Commons on Wednesday, 23 April to show MPs how the UK could become a world leader in ‘professional service robotics’.

Institute of Physics responds to launch of innovation strategy

8 May, 2008 sees the launch of the Technology Strategy Board’s (TSB) ‘Connect and Catalyse’ strategy for business innovation in the UK

Searching the Heavens

A new space mission, due to launch this month, is going to shed light on some of the most extreme astrophysical processes in nature - including pulsars, remnants of supernovae, and supermassive black holes

Institute of Physics responds to the publication of the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee Report into Science Budget Allocations

The House of Commons’ Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee has today (Wednesday, 30 April) published a report on its investigation into Science Budget Allocations and, in particular, the financial crisis that has engulfed the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) since their budget for 2008-11 was announced in November 2007

Physics gets top billing at Rio Cinema

The Institute of Physics and Rio Cinema in Dalston, London, have teamed up to highlight the importance of physics with Physics on Film. The cinema is screening a series of five top physics-themed films, like the groundbreaking Sunshine and the retro classic Back to the Future.

UK tabloids contributing to climate complacency

As scientific consensus around human contributions to climate change has grown, it has been misrepresented in our most widely-read UK tabloid newspapers, according to an Institute of Physics Environmental Research Letters’ journal paper, released today, Monday, 28 April.

Editor-in-Chief of Nanotechnology appointed new government chief scientific adviser

The Prime Minister yesterday named Professor Mark Welland FRS FREng as the new Chief Scientific Adviser at the Ministry of Defence.

Testing the link between cosmic rays and cloud cover

Climate change – research suggests it is not a swindle

New research has dealt a blow to the skeptics who argue that climate change is all due to cosmic rays rather than to man-made greenhouse gases.

The bombardier beetle, power venom, and spray technologies

The bombardier beetle is inspiring designers of engines, drug-delivery devices and fire extinguishers to improve spray technologies.

The future of computing – carbon nanotubes and superconductors to replace the silicon chip

The future of computing is under the spotlight at the Institute of Physics’ Condensed Matter and Materials Physics conference at the Royal Holloway College of the University of London on 26-28 March.

Firing photons makes advance in space communication

For the first time, physicists have been able to identify individual returning photons after firing and reflecting them off of a space satellite in orbit almost 1,500 kilometres above the earth. The experiment has proven the possibility of constructing a quantum channel between Space and Earth.

Innovation Nation – Who takes the risk?

The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills published the Innovation Nation White Paper to help the UK prosper in a globalised economy.

Largest physics experiment ever involves Cambridge pupils

Students from Netherhall School, Cambridge, have teamed up with particle physicists at the University of Cambridge for a programme of practical investigations and research to mark the start of the world’s biggest ever physics experiment - the switch-on of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)