/ 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. From solar panels to next-generation medical devices, many emerging technologies rely on materials that can manipulate light with extreme precision. These materials—called plasmonic materials—are typically made from expensive metals like gold or silver. But what if a cheaper, more abundant metal could do the job just as well or better? /news/2025-10-ultra-thin-sodium-alternative-gold.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Fri, 03 Oct 2025 11:52:20 EDT news678711132 Silicides—alloys of silicon and metals long used in microelectronics—are now being explored again for quantum hardware. But their use faces a critical challenge: achieving phase purity, since some silicide phases are superconducting while others are not. /news/2025-10-substrate-principles-scalable-superconducting-quantum.html Superconductivity Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Fri, 03 Oct 2025 11:17:03 EDT news678709022 A research team in Kiel has demonstrated a previously unknown effect in graphene—a single layer of carbon atoms whose discovery earned the 2010 Nobel Prize. For years, graphene has been seen as a promising material for nanoelectronics, thanks to its exceptional conductivity, flexibility, and stability. Now, researchers from the Institute of Theoretical Â鶹ÒùÔºics and Astrophysics at Kiel University have taken this promise a step further. /news/2025-10-laser-pulses-graphene-electrons-lightning.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 01 Oct 2025 13:06:03 EDT news678542761 You probably learned in high school chemistry class that core electrons don't participate in chemical bonding. /news/2025-09-core-electron-bonding-require-extreme.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Tue, 30 Sep 2025 14:52:36 EDT news678462753 Quantum metals are metals where quantum effects—behaviors that normally only matter at atomic scales—become powerful enough to control the metal's macroscopic electrical properties. /news/2025-09-physicists-mystery-loop-current-kagome.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 30 Sep 2025 13:00:02 EDT news678455531 Many properties of the world's most advanced materials are beyond the reach of quantitative modeling. Understanding them also requires a human expert's reasoning and intuition, which can't be replicated by even the most powerful artificial intelligence, mixed with fortuitous accident, according to Eun-Ah Kim, the Hans A. Bethe Professor of physics in the College of Arts and Sciences. /news/2025-09-human-intuition-fuels-ai-driven.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 30 Sep 2025 12:41:04 EDT news678454862 The metamorphosis of butterflies from larvae to pupae to adulthood is a natural wonder. By investigating the developmental processes that occur within the pupa, transforming it into a butterfly, scientists have discovered a new twist in a process that forms an intricate nanostructure responsible for the vibrant green colors of their wings. /news/2025-09-braided-nanostructures-reveal-3d-tapestry.html Bio & Medicine Nanomaterials Tue, 30 Sep 2025 09:53:03 EDT news678444781 The SOAR Telescope, located on Cerro Pachón in Chile, has received a major upgrade with the installation of the SOAR Telescope Echelle Spectrograph (STELES). The long-awaited instrument achieved first light in August with observations of the binary star system Eta Carinae, along with 13 other targets. SOAR is part of U.S. National Science Foundation Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF NOIRLab. /news/2025-09-instrument-soar-remarkable-binary-star.html Astronomy Mon, 29 Sep 2025 12:50:04 EDT news678368907 The terahertz (THz) band of the electromagnetic spectrum holds immense promise for next-generation technologies, including high-speed wireless communication, advanced encryption, and medical imaging. However, manipulating THz waves has long been a technical challenge, since these frequencies interact weakly with most natural materials. /news/2025-09-electrically-tunable-metasurface-real-thz.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 29 Sep 2025 12:21:04 EDT news678367261 Polymer-based conductive nanocomposites, particularly those incorporating carbon nanotubes, are highly promising for the development of flexible electronics, soft robotics and wearable devices. However, CNTs are difficult to work with as they tend to agglomerate, making it hard to obtain a uniform dispersion. Moreover, conventional methods limit control over CNT distribution and shape. /news/2025-09-3d-carbon-nanotube-sensors-potential.html Bio & Medicine Nanomaterials Fri, 26 Sep 2025 11:43:03 EDT news678105781 You'd think there's nothing surprising left to discover about water. After all, researchers have been studying its properties for centuries. /news/2025-09-chilling-discovery-flexibility-ice-nanoscale.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 25 Sep 2025 11:01:09 EDT news678016864 A research team in South Korea has developed a next-generation sensor material capable of integrating the detection of multiple light wavelengths. /news/2025-09-broadband-photodetector-material-visible-infrared.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 24 Sep 2025 15:45:04 EDT news677947501 Rice University researchers used a focused electron beam to pattern device functions with submicron precision directly into an ultrathin crystal. The approach produced traces narrower than the width of a DNA helix that glow with bright blue light and conduct electricity, showing it could be used to manufacture compact on-chip wiring and built-in light sources. /news/2025-09-scientists-electrons-pattern-sources-wiring.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 24 Sep 2025 13:33:40 EDT news677939615 For the more than 242 million years that lizards and snakes appear in the fossil record, they show up mostly as pieces of lizard jaws and snake vertebrae. Exactly why these parts survive as fossils has been a mystery—until now. /news/2025-09-mosasaurs-snakes-lizards-megafilters-reptile.html Evolution Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 24 Sep 2025 07:00:01 EDT news677775181 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 An Australian research team has achieved an advanced materials breakthrough that opens the door to a new generation of nanodrug applications. From drug delivery, to diagnostics, to gene editing and beyond, the breakthrough has the potential to improve outcomes for patients around the world in coming decades. /news/2025-09-lipid-nanoparticles-complex-options-generation.html Bio & Medicine Nanomaterials Tue, 23 Sep 2025 10:35:04 EDT news677842501 The formation of Mercury remains an unsolved mystery. The planet closest to the sun has a disproportionately large metallic core—accounting for about 70% of its mass—and a relatively small rocky mantle. Until now, the most widely accepted explanation was that Mercury lost much of its crust and mantle after colliding catastrophically with a large celestial body. However, dynamic simulations show that this type of impact involving bodies of very different masses is extremely rare. /news/2025-09-collision-bodies-similar-mass-formation.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 22 Sep 2025 16:53:04 EDT news677778781 The collision and merger of two neutron stars—the incredibly dense remnants of collapsed stars—are some of the most energetic events in the universe, producing a variety of signals that can be observed on Earth. /news/2025-09-neutrinos-colliding-neutron-stars-merger.html Astronomy Sun, 21 Sep 2025 13:40:02 EDT news677507921 An international research team led by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel has discovered a globally unique system on the seabed off the coast of Papua New Guinea. During their expedition aboard the research vessel SONNE, they came across the "Karambusel" field, where hydrothermal vents and methane seeps occur immediately adjacent to one another. /news/2025-09-hydrothermal-links-seabed-phenomena.html Earth Sciences Fri, 19 Sep 2025 11:21:29 EDT news677499685 Dark matter is an elusive type of matter that does not emit, reflect or absorb light, yet is predicted to account for most of the universe's mass. As it cannot be detected and studied using conventional experimental techniques, the nature and composition of dark matter have not yet been uncovered. /news/2025-09-plasmon-effects-neutron-star-magnetospheres.html Astronomy Fri, 19 Sep 2025 10:10:32 EDT news677495428 A team of scientists at Simon Fraser University's Quantum Technology Lab and leading Canada-based quantum company Photonic Inc. have created a new type of silicon-based quantum device controlled both optically and electrically, marking the latest breakthrough in the global quantum computing race. /news/2025-09-physicists-electrically-silicon-based-quantum.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 18 Sep 2025 12:51:04 EDT news677418661 When Ph.D. student Kshitiz Parihar began combing through dozens of research papers on two seemingly different topics—tumor mechanics and extracellular vesicles, tiny packages of proteins and genetic material secreted by cells—he noticed something surprising: the two fields were speaking to each other. /news/2025-09-bioengineers-explore-tumor-mechanics-tiny.html Bio & Medicine Thu, 18 Sep 2025 11:31:05 EDT news677413861 Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Humboldt University in Berlin have developed a way to capture nearly all the light emitted from tiny diamond defects known as color centers. By placing nanodiamonds into specially designed hybrid nanoantennas with extreme precision, the team achieved record photon collection at room temperature—a necessary step for quantum technologies such as quantum sensors, and quantum-secured communications. /news/2025-09-hybrid-nanoantennas-enable-capture-diamond.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 18 Sep 2025 11:03:03 EDT news677412182 New environmental DNA (eDNA) tools can accurately and inexpensively quantify kelp-derived biomass in sediments below commercial kelp farms, according to research published in PLOS One. /news/2025-09-edna-kelp-derived-carbon-ocean.html Ecology Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 18 Sep 2025 10:33:37 EDT news677410411 A nanoscale optical device has been developed that allows independent control over the intensity and phase of light. By applying voltage, this innovative device can freely manipulate the phase and magnitude of second-harmonic (SH) light, opening new avenues for advanced quantum communication and information processing technologies. The research is published in Science Advances. /news/2025-09-nanoscale-optical-device-enables-independent.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 17 Sep 2025 11:42:02 EDT news677328121 The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) has revealed an unexpected difference between the powerful winds launching from a disk around a neutron star and those from material circling supermassive black holes. /news/2025-09-xrism-reveals-sluggish-neutron-star.html Astronomy Wed, 17 Sep 2025 11:00:12 EDT news677231281 Scientists from Taiwan have developed a new material that can stretch up to 4,600% of its original length before breaking. Even if it does break, gently pressing the pieces together at room temperature allows it to heal, fully restoring its shape and stretchability within 10 minutes. /news/2025-09-organogel-size.html Polymers Materials Science Wed, 17 Sep 2025 06:50:01 EDT news677245863 Catalysts play an indispensable role in modern manufacturing. More than 80% of all manufactured products, from pharmaceuticals to plastics, rely on catalytic processes at some stage of production. Transition metals, in particular, stand out as highly effective catalysts because their partially filled d-orbitals allow them to easily exchange electrons with other molecules. This very property, however, makes them challenging to model accurately, requiring precise descriptions of their electronic structure. /news/2025-09-machine-quantum-chemistry-simulate-catalyst.html Analytical Chemistry Tue, 16 Sep 2025 16:30:01 EDT news677258570 Researchers at Michigan State University have figured out how to use a fast laser to wiggle atoms in a way that temporarily changes the behavior of their host material. Their novel approach could lead to smaller and more efficient electronics—like smartphones—in the future. /news/2025-09-wiggling-atoms-smaller-efficient-electronics.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 16 Sep 2025 11:45:04 EDT news677241902 Researchers at the University of Maine are theorizing that human beings may be in the midst of a major evolutionary shift—driven not by genes, but by culture. /news/2025-09-culture-genetics-human-evolution.html Evolution Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 15 Sep 2025 16:10:07 EDT news677170974