/ 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. Spintronics are promising devices that work utilizing not only the charge of electrons, like conventional electronics, but also their spin (i.e., their intrinsic angular momentum). The development of fast and energy-efficient spintronic devices greatly depends on the identification of materials with a tunable spin-selective conductivity, which essentially means that engineers can control how electrons with different spin orientations move through these materials, ideally using external magnetic or electric fields. /news/2025-07-mechanism-tungsten-diselenide.html Condensed Matter Mon, 14 Jul 2025 06:50:01 EDT news671449167 Research from the University of Adelaide's School of Biological Sciences and Wildlife Crime Research Hub has highlighted evidence of shark products entering both Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand, including clear patterns in flows between the two countries. /news/2025-07-illegal-shark-product-evident-australia.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 02 Jul 2025 05:12:03 EDT news670651922 Recently, a research team led by Prof. Huang Zhulin from the Hefei Institutes of Â鶹ÒùÔºical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences successfully synthesized a flexible nanofiber felt with ultralow thermal conductivity and exceptional electromagnetic wave absorption properties. /news/2025-04-flexible-nanofiber-material-combines-strong.html Nanomaterials Tue, 01 Apr 2025 04:51:53 EDT news662701910 Several hundred bees in rural Pennsylvania and rural New York are sporting tiny QR codes on their backs. More than the latest in apiarian fashion, the little tags serve a scientific purpose: tracking when bees go in and out of their hives to better understand how long honey bees spend foraging for food outside of their hives. /news/2025-01-bees-itty-bitty-qr-codes.html Ecology Biotechnology Wed, 22 Jan 2025 12:48:37 EST news656772505 Urban sprawl is not just unsightly. It could also be impeding intergenerational mobility for low-income residents and reinforcing racial inequality, according to a series of recent studies led by a University of Utah geographer. /news/2025-01-urban-sprawl-hidden-affects-economic.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Sun, 05 Jan 2025 04:38:17 EST news655274287 Bowhead whales are the longest-lived mammals on Earth with some able to live hundreds of years. What's more, Inuit hunters have observed these whales breaking ice over half a meter thick—ice strong enough to support a fully-loaded semi truck. /news/2024-10-commercial-whaling-climate-inhibiting-evolutionary.html Plants & Animals Ecology Tue, 29 Oct 2024 10:00:01 EDT news649414329 A new paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution indicates that while the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has collected annual data on areas of coca cultivation in South America for decades to monitor the establishment of illegal plantations and associated deforestation, scientists can't reliably distinguish among different types of coca plants. /news/2024-07-leaf-size-reliably-distinguish-wild.html Plants & Animals Agriculture Wed, 10 Jul 2024 00:10:01 EDT news639753486 If you are single and looking for a romantic partner, chances are that you have used a dating app. But the likelihood that others will like, or even see, your profile may depend on your race. /news/2024-06-laws-meant-dating-patterns-decades.html Social Sciences Fri, 07 Jun 2024 09:33:08 EDT news636971583 A team led by Prof. Dexin Ye and Prof. Hongsheng Chen from Zhejiang University, and Prof. Yu Luo from Nanyang Technological University conducted research on the practical implementation of full-parameter transformation optical devices. Based on the linear transformation optics and the constitution theory of omnidirectionally matched transparent metamaterials, the research team designed and implemented a full-parameter omnidirectional invisibility cloak capable of concealing large-scale objects in free space. /news/2024-04-ideal-omnidirectional-invisibility-cloak-free.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 22 Apr 2024 13:00:22 EDT news633009620 Recent studies have shown that rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations and consequential warming may compromise the community structure and functioning of the cold tundra ecosystems. However, in addition to carbon uptake, natural vegetation—particularly forests—can physically cool neighboring areas by releasing certain cooling molecules. /news/2024-04-savanna-emerge-cold-high-latitudes.html Ecology Mon, 01 Apr 2024 15:35:03 EDT news631204501 Two-dimensional transition metal carbides (MXene) possess attractive conductivity and abundant surface functional groups, providing immense potential in the field of electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorption. However, high conductivity and spontaneous aggregation of MXene suffer from limited EMW response. Inspired by dielectric–magnetic synergy effect, the strategy of decorating MXene with magnetic elements is expected to solve this challenge. /news/2024-03-dual-heterogeneous-interface-zigzag-mo.html Nanomaterials Tue, 26 Mar 2024 16:23:03 EDT news630688981 Patents and the protection of inventor rights have occupied a key place in American law and policy since the earliest days of the country. When the United States Constitution was ratified in 1788, it included what's now known as the Intellectual Property Clause, and for centuries the ostensible driver of patent law has been to foster innovation. But what happens when inequities in patent law and standard industry practices impede that fundamental purpose? /news/2024-01-qa-experts-discuss-inequity-problem.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Wed, 17 Jan 2024 09:58:06 EST news624707881 The ocean is the world's largest habitat, yet much of its biodiversity is still unknown. A study published in Frontiers in Science marks a significant breakthrough, reporting the largest and most comprehensive database of marine microbes to date—matched with biological function, location, and habitat type. /news/2024-01-largest-ocean-dna-comprehensive-marine.html Ecology Cell & Microbiology Tue, 16 Jan 2024 05:00:01 EST news624544783 With increasing demand for exploration and utilization of marine resources, achieving direct and efficient communication between water and air has been an urgent need. Sound waves, as the only propagation way with low attenuation in both water and air, has been considered the most practical way to achieve water-air communication. /news/2023-11-water-air-acoustic-communication-based-broadband.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Soft Matter Wed, 08 Nov 2023 14:47:19 EST news618677237 A research team led by Prof. Wang Junfeng from the Hefei Institutes of Â鶹ÒùÔºical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a bio-inspired metal-organic framework (Bio-MOF) to achieve efficient absorption of electromagnetic waves. /news/2023-10-framework-efficient-electromagnetic-absorption.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 10 Oct 2023 13:24:03 EDT news616163041 Microcombs can help us discover planets outside our solar system and track new diseases in our bodies. But current microcombs are inefficient and unable to reach their full potential. Now, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have scored a world first with their solution to make microcombs 10 times more efficient. Their breakthrough opens the way to new discoveries in space and health care and paves the way for high-performance lasers in a range of other technologies. /news/2023-09-method-microcombs-efficient.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 20 Sep 2023 10:23:09 EDT news614424187 Scientists from Chinese Academy of Sciences Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, National Â鶹ÒùÔºical Laboratory (U.K.), The University of Manchester (U.K.) and National University of Singapore have developed a new approach, published in International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing, to fabricate a specifically designed wideband microwave absorption metamaterial with well-controlled electrical and magnetic characteristics on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate using ultraviolet (UV) laser irradiation. /news/2023-07-scientists-one-step-laser-synthesis-method.html Nanomaterials Thu, 13 Jul 2023 15:59:03 EDT news608482741 Materials with superior mechanical strengths are crucial to many areas of modern industries and the scientific enterprise by providing cutting and drilling tools, structural components, protective coatings, and abrasives that find wide applications. Solid solution strengthening is a well-established method to enhance hardness of metals by introducing solute atoms to create local distortions in the crystal lattice, which impedes dislocation motion and plastic deformation, leading to increased strength but reduced ductility and toughness. /news/2023-06-strength-toughness-dilemma-superhard-ceramics-chemically.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Mon, 26 Jun 2023 17:00:02 EDT news607017601 There are stark differences between metals, through which electrons flow freely, and electrical insulators, in which electrons are essentially immobile. And despite the obvious difficulties in finding a way to switch back and forth from a metal to an insulator within one material, physicists are trying to figure out how. /news/2023-02-elusive-transition-universal-quantum-signatures.html Superconductivity Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 14 Feb 2023 11:14:04 EST news595595641 Twitter was blocked in Turkey on Feb. 8, 2023, according to internet monitoring service NetBlocks. The outage came amid the massive rescue operation and humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of the earthquakes in southern Turkey and northern Syria two days earlier. Access to Twitter appeared to be restored about 12 hours after it was first blocked. /news/2023-02-twitter-turkey-earthquake-danger-disaster.html Social Sciences Political science Thu, 09 Feb 2023 10:27:03 EST news595160821 A research paper in Estuaries and Coasts provides the first step in improving coastal flood risk by analyzing in detail, how long different UK rivers take to discharge to the coast following heavy storm rainfall. /news/2022-11-extreme-river-sea-early.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 11 Nov 2022 11:56:03 EST news587390161 Developing low-cost and stable metal electrodes is crucial for mass production of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). As an earth-abundant element, Cu becomes an alternative candidate to replace noble metal electrodes such as Au and Ag, due to its comparable physiochemical properties with simultaneously good stability and low cost. However, the undesirable band alignment associated with the device architecture impedes the exploration of efficient Cu-based n-i-p PSCs. To solve this problem, researchers in China investigated the energy-level difference at different interfaces and offered a potential path forward to achieve more efficient n-i-p PSCs with a Cu electrode. /news/2022-10-optimizing-efficient-perovskite-photovoltaics.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Mon, 03 Oct 2022 09:12:03 EDT news584007121 Recently, Professor Jiurong Liu and Professor Zhihui Zeng of Shandong University published a review paper about three-dimensional porous carbon-based electromagnetic wave absorbing materials in Science China Materials. /news/2022-09-advance-three-dimensional-porous-carbon-materials.html Materials Science Thu, 22 Sep 2022 13:49:52 EDT news583073390 Professors Hu Weida and Peng Hailin, two of researchers at Shanghai Institute of Technical Â鶹ÒùÔºics and Peking University, recently proposed momentum-matching and band-alignment van der Waals heterostructures to solve the low QE of 2D materials infrared photodetectors. The results were published in Science Advances, titled "Momentum-matching and band-alignment van der Waals heterostructures for high-efficiency infrared photodetection." /news/2022-08-van-der-waals-heterostructures-high-efficiency.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Fri, 12 Aug 2022 09:34:19 EDT news579515648 Chinese investments in research and development (R&D) have burgeoned since the turn of the century, increasing more than tenfold in absolute terms since 2000 and reaching a high of 2.4 percent of GDP in 2020. As the world's second biggest spender on R&D after the United States, China is certainly a force to be reckoned with on the global innovation landscape. Its fresh push toward innovation-led growth and stated ambition of becoming a technological innovation powerhouse by 2050 have prompted questions: is China on course to attain its goals, and will greater investments in R&D—as promised by Premier Li Keqiang—get it there? /news/2022-08-china-funding-firms.html Economics & Business Wed, 03 Aug 2022 17:02:00 EDT news578764909 Traditional acousto-optic (AO) devices based on bulk crystal materials have weak energy confinement abilities for both photons and phonons, leading to a low AO interaction strength. Compared with bulk materials, photonic integrated circuits (PICs) allow surface acoustic waves (SAWs) to be well confined within the thin film used to disturb the guided light waves, exhibiting a high energy overlap within the wavelength scale. /news/2022-05-highly-efficient-acousto-optic-modulation-non-suspended.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 25 May 2022 16:59:02 EDT news572716741 Think about people you know, and how you could tell they were around even if you couldn't see them: perhaps their voice, or a favored perfume. /news/2022-05-pee-pals-dolphins-urine-friends.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 18 May 2022 15:36:58 EDT news572107009 When I first became a mother in 2013, I realized my experiences of motherhood did not match the kinds of messages circulating around me. /news/2022-01-maternal-metamorphosis-mothering-australia-world.html Social Sciences Mon, 17 Jan 2022 08:10:04 EST news561629183 Most scientists would blanch at being labeled a spin doctor. But when it comes to Evgeny Tsymbal, Ding-Fu Shao and their colleagues, the lab coat fits. /news/2021-12-data-decoding-approach-faster-smaller-digital.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 28 Dec 2021 10:37:10 EST news559910225 Topological insulators are materials whose structure forces photons and electrons to move only along the material's boundary and only in one direction. These particles experience little resistance and travel freely past obstacles such as impurities, fabrication defects, a change of signal's trajectory within a circuit, or objects placed intentionally in the particles' path. That's because these particles, instead of being reflected by the obstacle, go around it "like river-water flowing past a rock," says Prof. Romain Fleury, head of EPFL's Laboratory of Wave Engineering, within the School of Engineering. /news/2021-10-photons.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 13 Oct 2021 11:00:01 EDT news553333940