/ en-us �鶹��Ժ internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: �鶹��Ժics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. In a landmark achievement for fusion energy, ITER has completed all components for the world's largest, most powerful pulsed superconducting electromagnet system. /news/2025-04-international-collaboration-world-largest-powerful.html Plasma �鶹��Ժics Wed, 30 Apr 2025 11:30:01 EDT news665053898 Using artificial intelligence shortens the time to identify complex quantum phases in materials from months to minutes, finds a new study published in Newton. The breakthrough could significantly speed up research into quantum materials, particularly low-dimensional superconductors. /news/2025-04-ai-tool-quest-advanced-superconductors.html Superconductivity Quantum �鶹��Ժics Thu, 10 Apr 2025 14:12:19 EDT news663513133 In the quest to design the next generation of materials for modern devices—ones that are lightweight, flexible and excellent at dissipating heat—a team of researchers led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst made a discovery: imperfection has its upsides. /news/2025-04-polymers-flawed-fillers-boost-plastics.html Polymers Analytical Chemistry Fri, 04 Apr 2025 11:39:04 EDT news662985541 Superconductivity is a quantum physical state in which a metal is able to conduct electricity perfectly without any resistance. In its most familiar application, it enables powerful magnets in MRI machines to create the magnetic fields that allow doctors to see inside our bodies. Thus far, materials can only achieve superconductivity at extremely low temperatures, near absolute zero (a few tens of Kelvin or colder). /news/2025-03-superconducting-state-cooper-pair-density.html Superconductivity Thu, 27 Mar 2025 17:00:04 EDT news662313602 Professor Ariando and Dr. Stephen Lin Er Chow from the National University of Singapore (NUS) Department of �鶹��Ժics have designed and synthesized a groundbreaking new material—a copper-free superconducting oxide—capable of superconducting at approximately 40 Kelvin (K), or about minus 233°C, under ambient pressure. /news/2025-03-physicists-copper-free-high-temperature.html Superconductivity Thu, 27 Mar 2025 08:57:04 EDT news662284621 In recent years, some large physics experiments worldwide have been trying to gather evidence of a nuclear process known as neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay. This is a rare process that entails the simultaneous decay of two neutrons in a nucleus into two protons, without resulting in the emission of neutrinos, which is instead associated with standard double beta decay. /news/2025-03-amore-limits-neutrinoless-beta-decay.html General �鶹��Ժics Sun, 23 Mar 2025 09:30:02 EDT news661774901 Ice may be present a few centimeters below the moon's surface in more areas of the lunar polar regions than was previously thought due to large, yet highly localized, variations in surface temperatures. The results, published in Communications Earth & Environment, are derived from direct measurements taken at the lunar surface in 2023 by the Indian Chandrayaan-3 mission. /news/2025-03-potential-ice-moon.html Space Exploration Planetary Sciences Thu, 06 Mar 2025 11:00:03 EST news660472502 When atoms collide, their exact structure—for example, the number of electrons they have or even the quantum spin of their nuclei—has a lot to say about how they bounce off each other. This is especially true for atoms cooled to near-zero Kelvin, where quantum mechanical effects give rise to unexpected phenomena. Collisions of these cold atoms can sometimes be caused by incoming laser light, resulting in the colliding atom-pair forming a short-lived molecular state before disassociating and releasing an enormous amount of energy. /news/2025-02-quantum-billiard-balls-deeper-atomic.html General �鶹��Ժics Quantum �鶹��Ժics Tue, 18 Feb 2025 16:35:05 EST news659118901 Water is ubiquitous and seemingly ordinary, possessing no distinct color or odor. Though we often take water for granted, it is by no means a simple substance. As a consequence of its chemical properties, H₂O is one of the most incredible substances, able to form into 20 known separate crystalline ice phases. Now researchers are seeking to expand that number even further. /news/2025-02-frontiers-frozen-simulations-effects-medium.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Thu, 06 Feb 2025 10:03:07 EST news658058581 In a new study published in Nature �鶹��Ժics, researchers have developed the first controlled method for exciting and observing Kelvin waves in superfluid helium-4. /news/2025-01-superfluid-spirals-scientists-kelvin.html Soft Matter Quantum �鶹��Ժics Fri, 31 Jan 2025 09:00:01 EST news657471355 Iron is one of the main elements found in the Earth's inner core, which is characterized by extremely high temperatures and pressures. Determining how iron behaves in these extreme conditions could thus help to advance the current understanding of our home planet's structure and geodynamics. /news/2025-01-temperature-phase-stability-iron-core.html Earth Sciences Tue, 21 Jan 2025 13:29:05 EST news656688538 For now, the future of life on Earth is in human hands. But after the anthropocentric era, the situation starts to get dicey. The sun's luminosity is increasing over time, about 1% every 110 million years, so the Earth's surface will gradually get warmer (but at a vastly slower rate than today's global warming). /news/2024-12-future-lifespan.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 31 Dec 2024 09:00:01 EST news654771336 Much of the mass in the universe lies not in stars or galaxies, but in the space between them, known as the intergalactic medium. It is warm and even hot, and is called the "warm-hot intergalactic medium," or WHIM. It holds about 50% of the normal mass (viz. baryonic, not including dark matter) of the universe but with a density of hydrogen ions less than 100 per cubic meter. /news/2024-11-quantification-intergalactic-medium-cosmic-filaments.html Astronomy Wed, 27 Nov 2024 12:20:01 EST news651930701 Diamond rain? Super-ionic water? These are just two proposals that planetary scientists have come up with for what lies beneath the thick, bluish, hydrogen-and-helium atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune, our solar system's unique, but superficially bland, ice giants. /news/2024-11-planetary-scientist-alternative-theory-beneath.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 25 Nov 2024 15:00:01 EST news651746701 Scientists may have finally hit upon the possible mysterious sources that have pumped heat and kept alive the fiery hot gas that has recently been detected surrounding the Milky Way but has so far remained unexplained. /news/2024-11-veil-fiery-gas-revealed-disk.html Astronomy Fri, 22 Nov 2024 09:00:04 EST news651488401 In 1936, astronomers saw a puzzling event in the constellation Orion: the young star FU Orionis (FU Ori) became a hundred times brighter in a matter of months. At its peak, FU Ori was intrinsically 100 times brighter than our sun. Unlike an exploding star, though, it has declined in luminosity only languidly since then. /news/2024-11-hubble-sizzling-young-star-fu.html Astronomy Thu, 21 Nov 2024 16:40:57 EST news651429646 Have you ever wondered how long it took our sun to form in its stellar nursery? An international collaboration of scientists is now closer to an answer. They succeeded in the measurement of the bound-state beta decay of fully-ionized thallium (²⁰⁵Tl⁸¹⁺) ions at the Experimental Storage Ring (ESR) of GSI/FAIR. /news/2024-11-sought-exotic-beta-decay-thallium.html Astronomy Thu, 14 Nov 2024 09:23:08 EST news650798577 Superconductivity is the phenomenon by which, at sufficiently low temperatures, electric current can flow in a metal with no resistance. While certain metals are excellent superconductors, other metals cannot superconduct at all. /news/2024-11-noble-metals-superconductors.html Condensed Matter Superconductivity Thu, 07 Nov 2024 13:30:01 EST news650208198 Graphene is a simple material containing only a single layer of carbon atoms, but when two sheets of it are stacked together and offset at a slight angle, this twisted bilayer material produces numerous intriguing effects, notably superconductivity. /news/2024-11-revealing-superconducting-limit-bilayer-graphene.html Condensed Matter Superconductivity Mon, 04 Nov 2024 12:48:04 EST news649946882 In 2023, almost a year's worth of rain fell over ten days in parts of northwestern Australia, leading to catastrophic flooding in the town of Fitzroy Crossing and surrounds. The rainfall was linked to a tropical cyclone, but there were also lesser-known forces at work: huge, planet-scale oscillations called atmospheric waves which bring heavy rain to northern Australia. /news/2024-10-huge-atmosphere-dump-extreme-northern.html Environment Thu, 10 Oct 2024 11:30:01 EDT news647778427 Deposits of ice in lunar dust and rock (regolith) are more extensive than previously thought, according to a new analysis of data from NASA's LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) mission. Ice would be a valuable resource for future lunar expeditions. Water could be used for radiation protection and supporting human explorers, or broken into its hydrogen and oxygen components to make rocket fuel, energy, and breathable air. /news/2024-10-lunar-mission-analysis-widespread-evidence.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 03 Oct 2024 12:52:03 EDT news647178721 A new study led by the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), and with contributions from Radboud University's Marijke Haverkorn, has unveiled significant insights into the Milky Way: a magnetized galactic halo. /news/2024-09-magnetic-halo-milky-discoveries-galactic.html Astronomy Mon, 23 Sep 2024 10:28:26 EDT news646306095 �鶹��Ժicists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have achieved controlled conformational arrangements in nanostructures using a flexible precursor and selenium doping, enhancing material properties and structural homogeneity. Their method advances on-surface synthesis for the design and development of engineered nanomaterials. /news/2024-09-physicists-high-nanostructures-selenium-doping.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Mon, 16 Sep 2024 09:27:04 EDT news645697622 Most atoms are made from positively charged protons, neutral neutrons and negatively charged electrons. Positronium is an exotic atom composed of a single negative electron and a positively charged antimatter positron. It is naturally very short-lived, but researchers including those from the University of Tokyo successfully cooled and slowed down samples of positronium using carefully tuned lasers. /news/2024-09-scientists-cool-positronium-absolute-antimatter.html General �鶹��Ժics Wed, 11 Sep 2024 11:00:01 EDT news645264542 A 3D quantum spin liquid has been discovered in the vicinity of a member of the langbeinite family. The material's specific crystalline structure and the resulting magnetic interactions induce an unusual behavior that can be traced back to an island of liquidity. An international team has made this discovery with experiments at the ISIS neutron source and theoretical modeling on a nickel-langbeinite sample. /news/2024-08-langbeinites-talents-3d-quantum-liquids.html Soft Matter Quantum �鶹��Ժics Fri, 23 Aug 2024 12:01:04 EDT news643633262 Using a combination of machine learning and powerful X-rays, Cornell researchers have solved a mystery behind the unusual behavior seen in a class of materials with potential for thermoelectric energy conversion and other applications. /news/2024-08-machine-material-unexpected-thermal.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Thu, 22 Aug 2024 13:26:57 EDT news643552013 Mayonnaise continues to help researchers better understand the physics behind nuclear fusion. /news/2024-08-deeper-stability-nuclear-fusion-mayonnaise.html General �鶹��Ժics Plasma �鶹��Ժics Tue, 06 Aug 2024 11:53:03 EDT news642163976 The surface of Uranus' moon Ariel is coated with a significant amount of carbon dioxide ice, especially on its "trailing hemisphere" that always faces away from the moon's direction of orbital motion. This fact presents a surprise because even at the frigid reaches of the Uranian system—20 times farther from the sun than Earth—carbon dioxide readily turns to gas and is lost to space. /news/2024-07-carbon-oxides-uranus-moon-ariel.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 25 Jul 2024 10:26:04 EDT news641121962 Hot Jupiters are some of the most extreme planets in the galaxy. These scorching worlds are as massive as Jupiter, and they swing wildly close to their star, whirling around in a few days compared to our own gas giant's leisurely 4,000-day orbit around the sun. /news/2024-07-astronomers-highly-eccentric-planet-hot.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 17 Jul 2024 11:00:01 EDT news640423561 A recent study in Nature Communications by scientists from China and Belgium suggests that Mercury's core-mantle boundary (CMB) includes a diamond layer, potentially up to 18 kilometers thick, deep within the planet's interior. /news/2024-07-diamond-layer-core-mantle-boundary.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 10 Jul 2024 09:00:01 EDT news639804179