Las Vegas has its share of celebrities, including one who works at the UNLV Physics Department.

Gov. Steve Sisolak on Friday toured a University of Nevada, Las Vegas lab researching technology that could allow for the transmission of electricity over long distances, something the Democratic governor said could potentially grow Nevada’s energy industry.

Gov. Steve Sisolak on Friday toured a UNLV lab researching technology that could allow for the transmission of electricity over long distances, something the Democratic governor said could potentially grow Nevada’s energy industry.

Gov. Steve Sisolak on Friday toured a University of Nevada, Las Vegas lab researching technology that could allow for the transmission of electricity over long distances, something the Democratic governor said could potentially grow Nevada’s energy industry.

The Physics World 2020 Breakthrough of the Year goes to Elham Fadaly, Alain Dijkstra and Erik Bakkers at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, Jens Renè Suckert at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena in Germany and an international team for creating a silicon-based material with a direct band gap that emits light at wavelengths used for optical telecommunications.

In March, when cases of COVID-19 began to overwhelm hospitals in the United States, I told my 90-year-old mother that she had to shelter in place. She lives alone in Los Angeles, and to keep her company, I FaceTimed her every night. In the role reversal that happens with time, I became the forever-worried, nagging parent, and she was the ever-doubting, defiant child.

One of the highlights in the Physics World calendar is the announcement of our Breakthrough of the Year, which will be made this year on Thursday 17 December.

From ultra-fast bullet trains to new-age medical equipment, superconductors could fundamentally change society. In the U.S. alone, about six percent of electricity passing through a typical power grid in a year is lost and becomes heat, which costs billions of dollars.