/ 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. For many industrial applications one needs synthesis gas, also known as "syngas," a mixture of hydrogen (H2) and carbon monoxide (CO). In addition to the established production method via steam reforming, synthesis gas can alternatively—and even more energy‑efficiently—be produced from methane (CH4) and oxygen. /news/2025-09-catalytic-nanoparticles-metal-oxide-methane.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Mon, 01 Sep 2025 12:20:03 EDT news675948001 Most metals found in nature are actually in their oxide forms. To extract those metals for use in critical applications—ranging from infrastructure such as bridges and buildings to advanced technologies like airplanes, semiconductors or even quantum materials—those oxides must be reduced with gases. /news/2025-08-hydrogen-greener-faster-metal-production.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Wed, 20 Aug 2025 12:55:06 EDT news674913302 Half of the sun's radiant energy falls outside of the visible spectrum. On a cold day, this extra infrared light provides additional warmth to residential and commercial buildings. On a warm day, it leads to unwanted heating that must be dealt with through energy-intensive climate control methods such as air-conditioning. /news/2025-08-carbon-nanotube-smart-windows-energy.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Mon, 18 Aug 2025 14:50:02 EDT news674747401 Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered that the size of catalytic nanoparticles determines how their shape and structure transform during chemical reactions. With insights into the nanoparticles' atomic-scale behavior as they convert carbon dioxide into useful fuel—and a better understanding of how structural changes impact catalytic performance—researchers are newly positioned to design more effective catalysts for industrial applications. /news/2025-08-tiny-catalytic-particles-carbon-dioxide.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 07 Aug 2025 07:46:06 EDT news673771558 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 Cryo-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) allows us to observe samples in a preserved state that is close to their native form, making it a highly effective way to examine biological samples. This technique provides information on the size, shape, and dispersion of samples within a frozen solvent. However, there is another crucial piece of information that has not been accurately visualized in organic samples using this technique yet: elemental composition. /news/2025-08-cool-imaging-method-elemental-nanomaterials.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Fri, 01 Aug 2025 09:15:01 EDT news673258499 Crystallization, a fundamental process in nature, hinges on two distinct stages: nucleation and growth. The latter plays a pivotal role in shaping the morphology, size, and purity of crystalline materials, making it a focus for scientific research and defect engineering. Understanding how crystals grow at the atomic level has long been a key challenge in the field. /news/2025-07-atomic-reveals-gold-nanocrystals-coalescence.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 29 Jul 2025 10:06:03 EDT news673002361 For the first time, spin waves, also known as magnons, have been directly observed at the nanoscale. This breakthrough was made possible by combining a high–energy-resolution electron microscope with a theoretical method developed at Uppsala University. The results open exciting new opportunities for studying and controlling magnetism at the nanoscale. /news/2025-07-nanoscale.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 24 Jul 2025 12:20:01 EDT news672578397 Nanoparticles—the tiniest building blocks of our world—are constantly in motion, bouncing, shifting, and drifting in unpredictable paths shaped by invisible forces and random environmental fluctuations. /news/2025-07-ai-tool-deciphers-mysteries-nanoparticle.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 15 Jul 2025 08:23:31 EDT news671786606 An international research team led by Forschungszentrum Jülich has succeeded in visualizing magnetism inside solids with unprecedented precision. Using a newly developed method, the scientists were able to image the finest building blocks of magnetism directly at the atomic level. They have published their findings in the journal Nature Materials. /news/2025-07-visualization-atomic-scale-magnetism-imaging.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Wed, 09 Jul 2025 12:26:03 EDT news671282762 Two key protein structures in the body are being visualized for the first time, thanks in part to the latest technology in the University of Cincinnati's Center for Advanced Structural Biology—potentially opening the door for better designed therapeutics. /news/2025-06-scientists-visualize-key-protein-linked.html Molecular & Computational biology Sat, 14 Jun 2025 04:06:27 EDT news669092774 A new platform for engineering chiral electron pathways offers potential fresh insights into a quantum phenomenon discovered by chemists—and exemplifies how the second quantum revolution is fostering transdisciplinary collaborations that bridge physics, chemistry, and biology to tackle fundamental questions. /news/2025-06-quantum-spirals-programmable-platform-ways.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Fri, 13 Jun 2025 14:00:03 EDT news668940541 The Apollo astronauts didn't know what they'd find when they explored the surface of the moon, but they certainly didn't expect to see drifts of tiny, bright orange glass beads glistening among the otherwise monochrome piles of rocks and dust. /news/2025-06-moon-shimmers-shiny-glass-beads.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 11 Jun 2025 16:55:03 EDT news668879701 A study nearly 10 years in the making has shed new insight into how oxides can regularly sustain themselves, using the oxygen inherent in their own structures. /news/2025-06-oxide-catalysts-sustain-reactors.html Analytical Chemistry Wed, 11 Jun 2025 15:57:14 EDT news668876222 Charging electric-vehicle batteries in Ithaca's frigid winter can be tough, and freezing temperatures also decrease the driving range. Hot weather can be just as challenging, leading to decomposition of battery materials and, possibly, catastrophic failure. /news/2025-05-pictures-movies-ev-battery-failure.html Materials Science Fri, 23 May 2025 12:50:03 EDT news667223160 Scientists have achieved a major milestone in the quest to understand high-temperature superconductivity in hydrogen-rich materials. Using electron tunneling spectroscopy under high pressure, the international research team led by the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry has measured the superconducting gap of H3S—the material that set the high-pressure superconductivity record in 2015 and serves as the parent compound for subsequent high-temperature superconducting hydrides. /news/2025-04-high-pressure-electron-tunneling-spectroscopy.html Superconductivity Wed, 23 Apr 2025 15:56:00 EDT news664642551 A Northwestern University-led international team of scientists has, for the first time, directly observed catalysis in-action at the atomic level. /news/2025-04-atomic-video-catalytic-reaction-reveals.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Fri, 11 Apr 2025 11:05:48 EDT news663588340 Newly achieved precise control over light emitted from incredibly tiny sources, a few nanometers in size, embedded in two-dimensional (2D) materials could lead to remarkably high-resolution monitors and advances in ultra-fast quantum computing, according to an international team led by researchers at Penn State and Université Paris-Saclay. /news/2025-03-nanodot-fine-tune-sharper-displays.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Fri, 07 Mar 2025 09:45:01 EST news660563087 A research team from Seoul National University College of Engineering has developed a technology to observe atomic structural changes of nanoparticles in three dimensions. Their study, which resolves a long-standing challenge even past Nobel laureates could not solve, was published online in Nature Communications on January 29. /news/2025-03-3d-imaging-technique-captures-dynamic.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 04 Mar 2025 13:12:46 EST news660316363 Scientists have found that an increase in water salinity in the cells of the marine diatom Nitzschia weakens the connections between the components of the photosynthetic apparatus and disrupts the formation of the cell shell. /news/2025-02-salinity-affects-diatom-metabolism.html Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 21 Feb 2025 09:52:05 EST news659353921 When superconductors were discovered in 1911, they astounded researchers with their ability to conduct electricity with no resistance. However, they could only do so at temperatures close to absolute zero. But in 1986, scientists discovered that cuprates (a class of copper oxides) were superconductive at a relatively warm -225°F (above liquid nitrogen)—a step toward the ultimate goal of a superconductor that could operate at close to room temperature. /news/2025-02-secrets-superconductors-insights-key-property.html Superconductivity Wed, 19 Feb 2025 09:37:04 EST news659180221 One major category of the next generation of energy-efficient microelectronic devices and information processing technologies will likely be based on "spintronics," which leverage both an electron's charge and its spin—the tiny "up" or "down" magnetic moment carried by every electron. Now, a relatively new subset of spintronics has sprung up, known as magnonics, which harnesses the collective behaviors of spins, known as spin waves or magnons. /news/2025-02-imaging-method-captures-dynamics.html Condensed Matter Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:40:06 EST news658586139 It took two years for NASA's OSIRIS-REx space probe to return from asteroid Bennu before dropping off a small capsule as it flew past Earth, which was then recovered in the desert of the U.S. state of Utah on September 24, 2023. Its contents: 122 grams of dust and rock from asteroid Bennu. /news/2025-01-asteroid-bennu-solar-potential-life.html Astrobiology Planetary Sciences Wed, 29 Jan 2025 13:07:23 EST news657378436 The Stach Group in Penn Engineering has led a collaborative team identifying how chemical catalysts drive the creation of liquid fuels from sunlight, paving the way for more efficient removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. /news/2024-12-molecular-pave-catalytic.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Tue, 10 Dec 2024 12:23:05 EST news653055781 Photosynthesis, the process by which plants, algae and certain kinds of bacteria convert solar radiation into chemical energy, must adjust itself to changes in the intensity of sunlight, so as to ensure its efficient use. /news/2024-12-scientists-explore-photosynthesis-growth-artificial.html Plants & Animals Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 09 Dec 2024 16:56:09 EST news652985764 Scientists have discovered a faster, more sustainable method for making metal-encapsulated covalent organic frameworks (COFs), materials that have the potential to play a crucial role in catalysis, energy storage, and chemical sensing. /news/2024-11-days-hours-faster-catalyst.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Tue, 26 Nov 2024 14:11:38 EST news651852695 Metallic nanoparticles, consisting of a few to several thousand atoms or simple molecules, are attracting significant interest. Electrodes coated with layers of nanoparticles (nanolayers) are particularly useful in areas such as energy production, serving as catalysts. /news/2024-11-nanostructures-imaging-techniques-unveil-secrets.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 13 Nov 2024 11:11:05 EST news650718662 Kory Burns, a professor at the University of Virginia School (UVA) of Engineering and Applied Science, is a materials science researcher who is using artificial intelligence to improve materials characterization. He and his collaborators, representing multiple universities and national labs, detailed their innovative new technique studying how to better determine the nanoscale effects of radiation on materials in a paper in APL Machine Learning. /news/2024-10-ai-technique-illuminates-materials-reactions.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 24 Oct 2024 09:50:04 EDT news648982201 For the first time ever, researchers have witnessed—in real time and at the molecular-scale—hydrogen and oxygen atoms merge to form tiny, nano-sized bubbles of water. /news/2024-09-witness-nanoscale-formation-real.html Nanomaterials Mon, 30 Sep 2024 14:56:05 EDT news646926962 In collaboration with the University of Minnesota and Cornell University, Martin Obr and Florian Schur from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) provide new details into the architecture of HTLV-1 (Human T-cell Leukemia Virus Type 1) using Cryo-Electron Tomography (Cryo-ET)—a method to analyze the structures of biomolecules in high resolution. /news/2024-09-cryo-viral-htlv-overlooked-cousin.html Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 25 Sep 2024 10:10:14 EDT news646477802