/ en-us Â鶹ÒùÔº internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Â鶹ÒùÔºics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Engineered polymers hold promise for use in next generation technologies such as light-harvesting devices and implantable electronics that interact with the nervous system—but creating polymers with the right combination of chemical, physical and electronic properties poses a significant challenge. New research offers insights into how polymers can be engineered to fine-tune their electronic properties in order to meet the demands of such specific applications. /news/2025-10-ai-based-insights-polymers-generation.html Polymers Analytical Chemistry Wed, 08 Oct 2025 11:00:09 EDT news678987001 Researchers have for the first time measured the true properties of individual MXene flakes—an exciting new nanomaterial with potential for better batteries, flexible electronics, and clean energy devices. /news/2025-10-mxenes-technique-gen-nanomaterials.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Mon, 06 Oct 2025 10:23:04 EDT news678964981 Harnessing quantum states that avoid thermalization enables energy harvesters to surpass traditional thermodynamic limits such as Carnot efficiency, report researchers from Japan. The team developed a new approach using a non-thermal Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid to convert waste heat into electricity with higher efficiency than conventional approaches. These findings pave the way for more sustainable low-power electronics and quantum computing. /news/2025-10-energy-harvesters-surpass-carnot-efficiency.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Fri, 03 Oct 2025 12:03:04 EDT news678711781 Atoms in crystalline solids sometimes vibrate in unison, giving rise to emergent phenomena known as phonons. Because these collective vibrations set the pace for how heat and energy move through materials, they play a central role in devices that capture or emit light, like solar cells and LEDs. /news/2025-09-nanoscale-slots-enable-room-temperature.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Tue, 30 Sep 2025 16:46:03 EDT news678469561 Ferrimagnets are a special type of magnet where different atoms' magnetic moments partially cancel each other out, creating a rich internal structure. They are widely used in technologies from magneto-optical devices to spin-based electronics. /news/2025-09-ferrimagnet-bosonic-semiconductors.html Condensed Matter Thu, 25 Sep 2025 09:40:01 EDT news678011590 Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have been hailed as next-generation materials for capturing water from air, powering dehumidifiers, and driving energy-efficient heat pumps. Built from lightweight and organic building blocks, these crystalline and highly porous materials are akin to molecular Lego sets: their geometry and chemistry can be tailored with precision. However, a significant issue remained: in humid air, COFs may collapse. /news/2025-09-molecular-rivets-porous-materials-collapsing.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Tue, 23 Sep 2025 12:50:01 EDT news677846571 Copper selenide (Cuâ‚‚Se) attracts scientific interest for its thermoelectric ability to convert heat into electricity, but a lack of atomic-level understanding has limited its practical applications for decades. /news/2025-09-conquering-disorder-solid-liquid-ion.html Condensed Matter Wed, 17 Sep 2025 12:40:03 EDT news677331192 Inside cells there are tiny particles, known as extracellular vesicles, that store and move molecules. Our cells naturally package beneficial proteins and healing compounds into these tiny bubbles, dispatching them to where they are needed to deliver molecular cargo or to communicate with other cells. /news/2025-09-bioreactors-yield-extracellular-vesicles-medicine.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 16 Sep 2025 13:30:18 EDT news677247964 The continually expanding toolkit from Mohit Verma's laboratory at Purdue University now includes a portable, paper-based biosensor for identifying genetically modified (GM) corn and soybean. The GM crop biosensor, based on a method called loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), offers a fast and less expensive alternative to the point-of-need molecular tools already on the market. /news/2025-09-biosensor-genetically-corn-soybean.html Biotechnology Agriculture Tue, 16 Sep 2025 12:22:03 EDT news677244121 Vibrations are everywhere—from the hum of machinery to the rumble of transport systems. Usually, these random motions are wasted and dissipated without producing any usable work. /news/2025-09-noise-power-symmetric-ratchet-motor.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 11 Sep 2025 09:35:11 EDT news676802108 Polaritons are quasiparticles emerging from strong interactions between light particles (i.e., photons) and matter excitations (e.g., excitons). Over the past few years, researchers have found that these quasiparticles can alter fundamental chemical and physical processes. /news/2025-09-polaritons-enable-tunable-efficient-molecular.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Wed, 03 Sep 2025 07:00:01 EDT news676036386 A study published in Â鶹ÒùÔºical Review Letters (PRL) details a "Gambling Carnot Engine" that researchers report can attain 100% efficiency while also improving power generation. /news/2025-08-surpasses-classical-thermodynamic-limits.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Wed, 27 Aug 2025 12:40:01 EDT news675516081 Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) packs so much chemical energy into a small space that it is powerful enough to fuel rockets. But this same ability to concentrate energy also makes hydrogen peroxide useful for more earthly energy applications, such as powering fuel cells. It also holds promise as a green and sustainable energy source: when hydrogen peroxide releases its stored energy, the main byproduct is simply water. /news/2025-08-sunlight-powered-catalyst-standard-hydrogen.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Tue, 19 Aug 2025 14:24:03 EDT news674832241 Solitonic waves—waves that keep their shape and direction of motion for a long time—have intrigued physicists for almost two centuries. In real-world circumstances, these waves eventually die out due to energy loss. A team of UvA physicists have now discovered how a particular type of interaction can be used to create very stable solitons, even in circumstances where energy is not conserved. /news/2025-08-physicists-stable-solitons-energy.html Condensed Matter Tue, 19 Aug 2025 10:33:04 EDT news674818381 Farmers might be able to get help tending and harvesting crops using a new sensing technology from Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute (RI). Researchers have invented a tool called SonicBoom that can find crops like apples based on the sound they make. The novel technology, still in the early stages of development, may someday be used by farm robots for tasks like pruning vines or locating ripe apples hidden among the leaves. /news/2025-08-agricultural-sensor-crops-vibrations-alternative.html Biotechnology Agriculture Thu, 14 Aug 2025 16:23:04 EDT news674407382 In the selection of specialty coffees, those that score above 80 points in blind tests are free of physical and sensory defects. Greenish-colored beans are known to give the drink an astringent taste, which is described as harsh, pungent, and dry. These beans are therefore discarded, along with broken, black, burnt, pitted, or undersized beans. /news/2025-08-fermentation-unripe-coffee-beans-high.html Biotechnology Agriculture Wed, 13 Aug 2025 16:45:04 EDT news674322301 Just as overlapping ripples on a pond can amplify or cancel each other out, waves of many kinds—including light, sound and atomic vibrations—can interfere with one another. At the quantum level, this kind of interference powers high-precision sensors and could be harnessed for quantum computing. /news/2025-08-powerful-quantum-paves-phonon-based.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Mon, 11 Aug 2025 14:39:04 EDT news674141941 UC Riverside researchers have unveiled a powerful new imaging technique that exposes how cutting-edge materials used in solar panels and light sensors convert light into electricity—offering a path to better, faster, and more efficient devices. /news/2025-07-imaging-method-reveals-generate-electricity.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Optics & Photonics Thu, 31 Jul 2025 06:24:48 EDT news673161883 Could clothing monitor a person's health in real time, because the clothing itself would be a self-powered sensor? A new material created through electrospinning, which is a process that draws out fibers using electricity, brings this possibility one step closer. /news/2025-07-flexible-fiber-material-powered-health.html Condensed Matter Wed, 30 Jul 2025 16:00:19 EDT news673110015 RIKEN physicists have found a magnetic material that converts heat into electricity with high efficiency, making it promising for use in energy-harvesting devices. The work is published in the journal Nature Communications. /news/2025-07-physicists-antiferromagnet-high-electricity-conversion.html Condensed Matter Fri, 25 Jul 2025 07:30:03 EDT news672645173 In every living cell, there are membranes, and in every membrane there are proteins, each of which acts as a chemical gatekeeper. /news/2025-07-mimic-cell-membranes-tune-ion.html Bio & Medicine Mon, 21 Jul 2025 15:40:01 EDT news672330755 The generation of electricity from heat, also known as thermoelectric energy conversion, has proved to be advantageous for various real-world applications. For instance, it proved useful for the generation of energy during space expeditions and military missions in difficult environments, as well as for the recovery of waste heat produced from industrial plants, power stations or even vehicles. /news/2025-07-giant-nonlinear-nernst-effect-trilayer.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Fri, 18 Jul 2025 06:30:01 EDT news671959548 In a new Nature Â鶹ÒùÔºics paper, researchers report the first experimental observation of the transverse Thomson effect, a key thermoelectric phenomenon that has eluded scientists since it was predicted over a century ago. /news/2025-07-scientists-experimental-transverse-thomson-effect.html Condensed Matter Wed, 16 Jul 2025 10:50:09 EDT news671878634 A set of breakthroughs from scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is offering a new understanding of how energy flows through one of nature's most important molecular machines: the photosystem II supercomplex (PSII). /news/2025-07-insights-nature-oxygen-machinery.html Plants & Animals Molecular & Computational biology Tue, 08 Jul 2025 13:25:05 EDT news671199901 As we witness the detrimental effects of climate change, the need for a rapid shift to renewable energy is only becoming more urgent. One of the most efficient forms of renewable energy, solar power, is generated by solar cells, which are the building blocks of solar panels. These electronic devices use semiconductors to convert the energy of light into electricity, a process called the photovoltaic effect. /news/2025-06-artificial-heterostructure-tunable-photovoltaic-effect.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Tue, 24 Jun 2025 16:00:02 EDT news669999536 Researchers at Boise State University have developed a novel, environmentally friendly triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) that is fully printed and capable of harvesting biomechanical and environmental energy while also functioning as a real-time motion sensor. The innovation leverages a composite of Poly (vinyl butyral-co-vinyl alcohol-co-vinyl acetate) (PVBVA) and MXene (Ti3C2Tx) nanosheets, offering a sustainable alternative to conventional TENGs that often rely on fluorinated polymers and complex fabrication. /news/2025-06-mxene-polymer-composite-enables-eco.html Nanomaterials Mon, 16 Jun 2025 17:10:06 EDT news669312601 Researchers at Boise State University have developed a stable, high-performance Ti3C2Tx MXene ink formulation optimized for aerosol jet printing—paving the way for scalable manufacturing of micro-supercapacitors, sensors, and other energy storage and harvesting devices. /news/2025-06-energy-storage-future-mxene-inks.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Mon, 16 Jun 2025 15:51:00 EDT news669307850 In a world increasingly driven by high-speed communication and low-power electronics, a team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) has proposed a fundamentally new way of manipulating light using the geometry of matter itself. /news/2025-05-ballistic-electrons-gen-terahertz-devices.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 29 May 2025 10:15:03 EDT news667732501 A serendipitous observation in a Chemical Engineering lab at Penn Engineering has led to a surprising discovery: a new class of nanostructured materials that can pull water from the air, collect it in pores and release it onto surfaces without the need for any external energy. /news/2025-05-accidentally-class-nanostructured-materials-passively.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 21 May 2025 16:10:06 EDT news667062601 A research team led by Dr. Lim Sang-kyu in DGIST's Department of Energy and Environmental Technology has developed a smart fiber sensor that can detect natural disasters such as landslides in real time. The new fiber is based on piezoelectric technology, which converts pressure into electricity. Its three-dimensional (3D) structure dramatically improves performance, facilitating the implementation of a self-powered sensor system that can operate without an external power source. /news/2025-05-high-piezoelectric-fiber-sensor-real.html Nanomaterials Mon, 19 May 2025 11:50:10 EDT news666874206