Latest science news in Physics & Chemistry
How to have a blast like a black hole
Scientists have created magnetized-plasma conditions similar to those near a black hole using very intense laser pulses. This work may help show how X-rays can be produced by astronomical objects.
Producing technicolor through brain-like electronic devices
Structural coloration promises to be the display technology of the future as there is no fading—it does not use dyes—and enables low-power displays without a strong external light source. However,...
New structural unit simplifies the process of custom-designing proteins
A pair of researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, has developed a new protein structure that allows for simplifying the process of custom-designing proteins. In their paper published...
Producing leather-like materials from fungi
Leather is used as a durable and flexible material in many aspects of everyday life including furniture and clothing. Leather substitutes derived from fungi are considered to be an ethical...
Imagine clothing that stretches or shrinks to fit you
As everyone who has painstakingly straightened their hair knows, water is the enemy. Hair carefully straightened by heat will bounce back into curls the minute it touches water. Why? Because...
Lightweight Green Supercapacitors Could Quickly Charge Devices
Texas A&M University researchers have created a novel plant-based energy storage device that in the near future could charge devices — even electric cars — within a few minutes. Furthermore,...
Lockdown did not reduce 'most harmful' type of air pollution in Scotland
The significant reduction in vehicle journeys during the COVID-19 lockdown did not reduce the level of toxic fine particles in Scotland's air, according to experts at the University of Stirling.
The new composite prevents malfunctions of electronic devices
Scientists from South Ural State University, in collaboration with colleagues from Belarus, India and China, have created a composite material for nanoelectronics. The material can be used as a dielectric...
Terahertz receiver for 6G wireless communications
Future wireless networks of the 6th generation (6G) will consist of a multitude of small radio cells that need to be connected by broadband communication links. In this context, wireless...
Kondo physics in antiferromagnetic Weyl semimetal films
Emerging quantum materials can be defined by topology and strong electron correlations, although their applications in experimental systems are relatively limited. Weyl semimetals incorporating magnetism offer a unique and fertile...
New electrode configuration improves volumetric performance of supercapacitors
A new design with an alternately stacked electrode configuration helped to enhance the volumetric performance of supercapacitors and attain high energy density without sacrificing power performance.
Paving the way for tunable graphene plasmonic THz amplifiers
Tohoku University Professor Taiichi Otsuji has led a team of international researchers in successfully demonstrating a room-temperature coherent amplification of terahertz (THz) radiation in graphene, electrically driven by a dry...
Predictions of magnetic field response in 2-D valleytronics materials
NUS researchers have developed a parameter-free approach to quantitatively predict the response of two-dimensional (2-D) valleytronics materials to an external magnetic field. These predictions are important because they provide insights...
Devitrification demystified
Glass is amorphous in nature—its atomic structure does not involve the repetitive arrangement seen in crystalline materials. But occasionally, it undergoes a process called devitrification, which is the transformation of...
'Giving back some freedom': Inside Germany's COVID-19 testing centre at Frankfurt Airport
Passengers at Frankfurt's airport have the option of visiting the COVID-19 testing centre, one of the few in Europe. Canadian airlines believe opening these facilities at airports here will encourage...
Democrats call for probe into Postmaster General Louis DeJoy employee campaign contributions
Congressional Democrats have called for an probe into the legality of U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's employee campaign contributions during his oversight of a North Carolina-based logistical company.
Do fall's big film festivals still matter?
COVID-19 has canceled or diminished the annual run of fall film festivals, from Venice to Toronto, that typically tee up most Oscar nominees. What will that mean for awards season?
Producing leather-like materials from fungi
Traditional leather and its alternatives are typically obtained from animals and synthetic polymers. Leather can be considered a co-product of meat production with both livestock farming and the leather production...
An environmentally friendly way to transform silicon into nanoparticles
Skoltech scientists and their colleagues from Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU) have developed a new method of silicon recycling. Their research was published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.
A tiny instrument to measure the faintest magnetic fields
Physicists at the University of Basel have developed a minuscule instrument able to detect extremely faint magnetic fields. At the heart of the superconducting quantum interference device are two atomically...
Efficient removal of steroid hormones from water
Micropollutants contaminate the water worldwide. Among them are steroid hormones that cannot be eliminated efficiently by conventional processes. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now developed an innovative...
Time for a new contender in energy conversion and storage
Evolutionary search has helped scientists predict the lowest energy structure of a two-dimensional (2-D) material, B2P6, with some remarkable features, including structural anisotropy and Janus geometry.
Study identifies limits on the efficiency of techniques for reducing noise in quantum resources
Quantum technologies, such as quantum computers, quantum sensing devices and quantum memory, have often been found to outperform traditional electronics in speed and performance, and could thus soon help humans...
Reconfiguring microwave photonic filters without an external device
Researchers from EPFL's Photonics Systems Lab have come up with a way of reconfiguring microwave photonic filters without the need for an external device. This paves the way for more...
Scientists synthesize lead-free zirconium-based vacancy-ordered double perovskite nanocrystals
In recent years, all-inorganic CsPbX3 (X = Cl, Br, I) perovskite nanocrystals have attracted extensive research attention due to their excellent photoelectric properties. However, the problems of Pb toxicity and...
The mystery of the neutron lifetime
Nine seconds. An eternity in some scientific experiments; an unimaginably small amount in the grand scheme of the universe. And just long enough to confound nuclear physicists studying the lifetime...
Inertial confinement fusion implosions have significant 3-D asymmetries
Data correlating two factors that lead to implosion asymmetries have brought Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists a step closer to understanding the gap between simulations and performance of inertial...
Scientists predict new, hard, and superhard ternary compounds
Scientists from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), Institute of Solid State Chemistry and Mechanochemistry (ISSC SB RAS), Pirogov Medical University and Yerevan State University have predicted new...