/ 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. Caltech scientists have developed a method to create metallic objects of a precisely specified shape and composition, giving them unprecedented control of the metallic mixtures, or alloys, they create and the enhanced properties those creations will display. Want a stent that is biocompatible and mechanically robust? How about strong but lightweight satellite components that can operate in space for decades? /news/2025-08-metallurgy-21st-century-precisely-metal.html Nanomaterials Fri, 01 Aug 2025 11:39:04 EDT news673267142 School of Â鶹ÒùÔºics Associate Professor Elisabetta Matsumoto is unearthing the secrets of the centuries-old practice of knitting through experiments, models, and simulations. Her goal? Leveraging knitting for breakthroughs in advanced manufacturing—including more sustainable textiles, wearable electronics, and soft robotics. /news/2025-07-strength-physics-stiff-fabrics.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Soft Matter Wed, 30 Jul 2025 11:46:04 EDT news673094761 Used as a versatile material in industry and health care, magnesium oxide may also be a good candidate for quantum technologies. Research led by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and published in npj Computational Materials reveals a defect in the mineral that could be useful for quantum applications. /news/2025-07-thousands-defects-magnesium-oxide-qubit.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 29 Jul 2025 09:26:17 EDT news672999972 Topological materials are a class of materials that exhibit unique electronic properties at their boundary (surface in 3D materials; edge in 2D materials) that are robust against imperfections or disturbances and are markedly different from their bulk properties. In other words, these materials could be insulators (i.e., resisting the flow of electrons or heat), and yet be conducting at their boundary (i.e., allowing electrons or heat to easily flow through them). /news/2025-07-uncover-topological-excitonic-insulator-tunable.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Fri, 25 Jul 2025 07:30:01 EDT news672571742 Every year, thousands of new materials are created, yet many never reach their full potential because their applications aren't immediately obvious—a challenge University of Toronto researchers aim to address using artificial intelligence. /news/2025-07-ai-applications-newly-materials.html Materials Science Thu, 24 Jul 2025 08:26:13 EDT news672564367 The secret to how steel hardens and shape-memory alloys snap into place lies in rapid, atomic-scale shifts that scientists have struggled to observe in materials. Now, Cornell researchers are revealing how these transformations unfold, particle by particle, through advanced modeling techniques. /news/2025-07-visualize-crystal-phase-particle-simulations.html Materials Science Wed, 23 Jul 2025 16:11:58 EDT news672505912 It is the ultimate mystery of biology: How did life begin? /news/2025-07-central-mystery-life-earth.html Evolution Cell & Microbiology Wed, 23 Jul 2025 09:40:02 EDT news672482178 When a reporter with the Sierra Club magazine asked Graham Peaslee, a physicist at the University of Notre Dame, to test several different samples of unused menstrual underwear for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in 2019, the results fueled concern over chemical exposure in feminine hygiene products—which ultimately ended up in a $5 million lawsuit against the period and incontinence underwear brand Thinx. /news/2025-07-ion-analysis-reveals-chemicals-reusable.html Analytical Chemistry Tue, 22 Jul 2025 08:00:01 EDT news672299790 Researchers from the University of Greifswald and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg (both in Germany) have developed a prototype experimental setup that simulates flow properties using a water tornado to investigate key physical processes in protoplanetary disks. The setup is inexpensive and easy to construct. /news/2025-07-tornado-laboratory-simple-simulates-planet.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Mon, 21 Jul 2025 09:18:55 EDT news672308327 Synthetic antiferromagnets are carefully engineered magnetic materials made up of alternating ferromagnetic layers with oppositely aligned magnetic moments, separated by a non-magnetic spacer. These materials can display interesting magnetization patterns, characterized by swift changes in the behavior of magnetic moments in response to external forces, such as radio frequency (RF) currents. /news/2025-07-rabi-nonlinear-interactions-magnons-synthetic.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Sun, 20 Jul 2025 09:00:01 EDT news672051455 Research from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities gives new insight into a material that could make computer memory faster and more energy-efficient. /news/2025-07-currents-device-magnetization-materials.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Condensed Matter Fri, 18 Jul 2025 10:20:03 EDT news672050657 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 The ability to switch magnetism, or, in other words, to change the orientation of a material's magnetic moments, using only electricity, could open new opportunities for the efficient storage of data in hard drives and other magnetic memory devices. While the electrical switching of magnetism has been a long-sought-after research goal, it has so far proved to be difficult to realize. /news/2025-07-pathway-electrical-altermagnetism.html Condensed Matter Tue, 15 Jul 2025 07:30:06 EDT news671702864 Chirality: like a right hand and a left hand, two molecules can have the same composition, but a different shape and arrangement in space. And this difference can change everything. Understanding and controlling this phenomenon is crucial to drug design. /news/2025-07-stable-chiral-molecules-stereogenic-centers.html Biochemistry Materials Science Tue, 15 Jul 2025 07:15:25 EDT news671782519 Imagine going through a surgery where the doctor proposes the use of a temporary implant that dissolves by itself with time in the human body, thereby avoiding a painful second surgery. As great as that would sound, the challenges are plenty when it comes to designing an implant that has mechanical properties close to that of the human bone, is biocompatible and degrades at an appreciable rate till the bone heals. /news/2025-07-retarding-corrosion-magnesium-alloy-polymer.html Polymers Materials Science Fri, 11 Jul 2025 09:07:42 EDT news671443656 Scientists have shed new light on the rhino family tree after recovering a protein sequence from a fossilized tooth from more than 20 million years ago. The recovered protein sequences allowed researchers to determine that this ancient rhino diverged from other rhinocerotids during the Middle Eocene-Oligocene epoch, around 41–25 million years ago. /news/2025-07-ancient-rhino-tooth-protein-recovery.html Evolution Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 09 Jul 2025 12:47:56 EDT news671284073 New research into the anatomy of blue sharks (Prionace glauca) reveals a unique nanostructure in their skin that produces their iconic blue coloration, but intriguingly, also suggests a potential capacity for color change. /news/2025-07-nanostructures-blue-sharks-reveal-remarkable.html Bio & Medicine Nanomaterials Wed, 09 Jul 2025 08:50:01 EDT news671267534 When the Empire State Building was constructed, its 102 stories rose above midtown one piece at a time, with each individual element combining to become, for 40 years, the world's tallest building. Uptown at Columbia, Oleg Gang and his chemical engineering lab aren't building Art Deco architecture; their landmarks are incredibly small devices built from nanoscopic building blocks that arrange themselves. /news/2025-07-3d-material-dna.html Bio & Medicine Nanomaterials Wed, 09 Jul 2025 06:48:05 EDT news671262482 In a hunt for more sustainable technologies, researchers are looking further into enabling two-dimensional materials in renewable energy that could lead to sustainable production of chemicals such as ammonia, which is used in fertilizer. /news/2025-07-mxenes-sustainable-ammonia-production.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Tue, 08 Jul 2025 16:18:04 EDT news671210281 Terahertz radiation (THz), electromagnetic radiation with frequencies ranging between 0.1 and 10 THz, could be leveraged to develop various new technologies, including imaging and communication systems. So far, however, a lack of fast and sensitive detectors that can detect radiation across a wide range of frequencies has limited the development of these THz-sensing technologies. /news/2025-07-tairte-photodetectors-highly-sensitive-room.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Thu, 03 Jul 2025 07:50:07 EDT news670648980 Angular momentum is a fundamental quantity in physics that describes the rotational motion of objects. In quantum physics, it encompasses both the intrinsic spin of particles and their orbital motion around a point. These properties are essential for understanding a wide range of systems, from atoms and molecules to complex materials and high-energy particle interactions. /news/2025-07-strong-magnetic-fields-flip-angular.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Wed, 02 Jul 2025 10:08:03 EDT news670669681 Using nuclear magnetic resonance, researchers at ETH Zurich have studied the atomic environments of single platinum atoms in solid supports as well as their spatial orientation. In the future, this method can be used to optimize the production of single-atom catalysts. /news/2025-07-resonant-frequencies-reveal-optimizing-atom.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Wed, 02 Jul 2025 08:44:04 EDT news670664642 A new study details the development of a nanoparticle-based system that delivers concentrated chemotherapy specifically to cancer cells and not normal cells, potentially allowing clinicians to administer higher, more effective doses of anti-cancer drugs while avoiding some of the well-known toxic side effects. /news/2025-07-nanoparticle-based-delivery-unleashes-full.html Bio & Medicine Tue, 01 Jul 2025 09:58:05 EDT news670582681 Devices taking advantage of the collective quantum behavior of spin excitations in magnetic materials—known as magnons—have the potential to improve quantum computing devices. However, using magnons in quantum devices requires an in-depth understanding of their nature and limitations. A new experimental technique uses superconducting qubits to sensitively characterize magnon behavior in previously unexplored regimes. /news/2025-06-quantum-exploring-magnons-superconducting-qubits.html Superconductivity Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Mon, 30 Jun 2025 11:12:04 EDT news670500721 Superconductivity is an advantageous physical phenomenon observed in some materials, which entails an electrical resistance of zero below specific critical temperatures. This phenomenon is known to arise following the formation of so-called Cooper pairs (i.e., pairs of electrons). /news/2025-06-trilayer-graphene-high-kinetic-inductance.html Condensed Matter Superconductivity Fri, 27 Jun 2025 07:00:01 EDT news670148101 Scientists at the University of Oxford have unveiled a pioneering method for capturing the full structure of ultra-intense laser pulses in a single measurement. The breakthrough, published in close collaboration with Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, could revolutionize our ability to control light-matter interactions. /news/2025-06-scientists-technique-capturing-ultra-intense.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 26 Jun 2025 05:00:02 EDT news670068479 It can be found inside gas giants such as Jupiter and is briefly created during meteorite impacts or in laser fusion experiments: warm dense matter. This exotic state of matter combines features of solid, liquid and gaseous phases. Until now, simulating warm dense matter accurately has been considered a major challenge. /news/2025-06-enables-exotic-state.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Plasma Â鶹ÒùÔºics Wed, 25 Jun 2025 15:21:38 EDT news670083690 Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are characterized by high porosity and structural versatility. They have enormous potential, for example, for applications in electronics. However, their low electrical conductivity has so far greatly restricted their adoption. /news/2025-06-metal-frameworks-metallic-pave-paths.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 24 Jun 2025 15:49:04 EDT news669998942 In an article published in npj Science of Food, scientists led by the Food Packaging Forum show that the normal and intended use of plastic food packaging and other food contact articles (FCAs), such as opening a plastic bottle or chopping on a plastic cutting board, can contaminate foodstuffs with micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs). /news/2025-06-evidence-plastic-packaging-contaminates-food.html Environment Tue, 24 Jun 2025 05:00:05 EDT news669907982 Gao Peng's research group at the International Center for Quantum Materials, School of Â鶹ÒùÔºics, Peking University, has developed a breakthrough method for visualizing interfacial phonon transport with sub-nanometer resolution. Leveraging fast electron inelastic scattering in electron microscopy, the team directly measured temperature fields and thermal resistance across interfaces, unveiling the microscopic mechanism of phonon-mediated heat transport at the nanoscale. /news/2025-06-phonon-materials-visualized-atomic.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Fri, 20 Jun 2025 10:46:49 EDT news669635206