Latest science news in Physics & Chemistry
Graphene-adsorbate van der Waals bonding memory inspires 'smart' graphene sensors
Monolayer graphene, an atomic-layer thick sheet of carbon, has found immense applications in diverse fields including chemical sensors and detecting single molecule adsorption events electronically. Therefore, monitoring physisorbed molecule induced...
Streamlining quantum information transmission
The quantum realm holds the key to the next revolution in communication technology as we know it. With the promise of unprecedented performance and impenetrable security, quantum technology is taking...
Researchers create liquid-repelling substance that works on all surfaces
Acting like an invisible force field, a new liquid coating being developed by UBC Okanagan researchers may provide an extra layer of protection for front-line workers.
New cobalt-free lithium-ion battery reduces costs without sacrificing performance
Researchers say they've cracked the code to a cobalt-free high-energy lithium-ion battery, eliminating the cobalt and opening the door to reducing the costs of producing batteries while boosting performance in...
How to teach gold to tell left from right
Nanometer-sized gold particles consisting of only a few atoms can be used as catalysts for important chemical reactions. Noelia Barrabés from the Institute of Materials Chemistry at TU Wien has...
Charm Quarks Offer Clues to Confinement
Nuclear physicists are trying to understand how particles called quarks and gluons combine to form hadrons – composite particles made of two or three quarks that are essential in the...
Light shaken and stirred to help autonomous vehicles better scan for nearby fast-moving objects
A self-driving car has a hard time recognizing the difference between a toddler and a brown bag that suddenly appears into view because of limitations in how it senses objects...
Light and nanoparticles against cancer
Leiden Ph.D. student Xuequan Zhou has designed a new promising molecule that efficiently kills cancer cells, but does not harm healthy tissue. The trick: the drug is only active when...
Novel partial isovalent anion substitution induction strategy to design infrared nonlinear optical materials
Infrared nonlinear optical (IR–NLO) materials are crucial for a broad range of applications, such as signal communication, microscopy and data processing. Yet, the challenge is how to obtain a strictly...
Nanocomposites with rich oxygen vacancies promote sensitive electroanalysis of Hg(II)
Recently, Yang Meng and his colleagues from the Institute of Solid State Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science reported a sensitive electrochemical sensing performance of Ru-loaded single-crystalline (100) CeO2 nanocomposites...
Silane regulates thermal conductivity of composites on molecular level
A research team from the Institute of Solid State Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science has conducted a study on thermal conductivity of composites. They found that thermal conductivity (TC)...
E-waste-eating protein creates rare earth elements
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers, in collaboration with Pennsylvania State University (PSU) and Idaho National Laboratory (INL), have designed a new process, based on a naturally occurring protein, that...
How Rwanda extracts methane from Lake Kivu for electricity
Lake Kivu lies on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. It's almost the size of Mauritius and has a maximum depth of 480 meters. Lake...
Predicting X-ray absorption spectra from graphs
X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is a popular characterization technique for probing the local atomic structure and electronic properties of materials and molecules. Because atoms of each element absorb X-rays at...
Physicists engineer an optical mirror made of only a few hundred atoms
Physicists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) have engineered the lightest optical mirror imaginable. The novel metamaterial is made of a single structured layer that consists only...
Researchers find technique for 3-D printing on nanoscale that can correct mistakes
University of Dayton physics and electro-optics researchers Md Shah Alam, Qiwen Zhan and Chenglong Zhao have created a less expensive 3-D printing method on a nanoscale, or a thousand times...
3D printed batteries handle the squeeze
While flexible and stretchable electronics technologies have progressed in leaps and bounds over the past 10 years, batteries to power them have some catching up to do. Researchers in Singapore...
Unusual nanoparticles could benefit the quest to build a quantum computer
Imagine tiny crystals that "blink" like fireflies and can convert carbon dioxide, a key cause of climate change, into fuels.
New technology promises to revolutionize nanomedicine
Researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and their colleagues from Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry and Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences have...
Devices can reduce fibers produced in laundry cycle by up to 80%
Using fiber-catching devices as part of the laundry process can dramatically reduce the amount of microscopic particles potentially entering the marine environment, according to new research.
On This Day, July 16: U.S. tests first atom bomb
On July 16, 1945, the first test of the atom bomb was conducted at a base near Alamogordo, N.M.
Designing DNA from scratch: Engineering the functions of micrometer-sized DNA droplets
Scientists have constructed ''DNA droplets'' comprising designed DNA nanostructures. The droplets exhibit dynamic functions such as fusion, fission, Janus-shape formation, and protein capture. Their technique is expected to be applicable...
Scientists build high-performing hybrid solar energy converter
Scientists have developed a hybrid solar energy converter that generates electricity and steam with high efficiency and low cost.
Low-cost catalyst helps turn seawater into fuel at scale
The Navy's quest to power its ships by converting seawater into fuel is one step nearer fruition. Chemical engineers have demonstrated that a potassium-promoted molybdenum carbide catalyst efficiently and reliably...
Twisting magnetic fields for extreme plasma compression
A new spin on the magnetic compression of plasmas could improve materials science, nuclear fusion research, X-ray generation and laboratory astrophysics.
Higher-order topology found in 2D crystal
The research team took a new approach by using the Josephson junctions to spatially resolve the supercurrent flow and to show that WTe2 does indeed appear to have hinge states...
Tech to help autonomous vehicles better scan for nearby fast-moving objects
Researchers have built a way that lidar could achieve higher-resolution detection of nearby fast-moving objects through mechanical control and modulation of light on a silicon chip.
Four MIT faculty members receive U.S. Department of Energy early career awards
The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) recently announced the names of 76 scientists who have been selected for their 2020 Early Career Research Program. The list includes four faculty members from MIT: Ronald...