/ 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. Polymeric membranes are widely used in separation technologies due to their low cost and easily scalable fabrication. However, unlike inorganic nanoporous materials such as metal-organic frameworks and covalent organic frameworks, which feature periodic and ordered channels, polymeric membranes produced through traditional methods—such as phase separation—typically have irregular and disordered pore structures. /news/2025-06-ultra-thin-polymer-membranes-enable.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Fri, 20 Jun 2025 05:00:04 EDT news669557317 Using various ground-based and space telescopes, an international team of astronomers has observed a highly variable young star known as DR Tauri. Results of the observational campaign, published May 12 on the arXiv preprint server, provide crucial information regarding the short- and long-term variability of this star. /news/2025-05-multiwavelength-variability-young-star-dr.html Astronomy Tue, 20 May 2025 08:00:01 EDT news666885121 By analyzing multiwavelength data from various space telescopes and astronomical surveys, Chinese astronomers have explored the long-term variability of a blazar known as PKS 0727-11. Results of the new study, published in The Astrophysical Journal, deliver more insights into the nature and behavior of this blazar. /news/2025-03-multiwavelength-variability-blazar-pks.html Astronomy Tue, 04 Mar 2025 08:00:02 EST news660284515 Researchers at Imperial College London, supported by colleagues at a range of other institutions, have published a study in Nature that will help fine-tune a new class of ion exchange membranes. The results should make it possible to build longer lasting and more cost- and energy-efficient devices such as flow batteries, a promising technology for long-duration grid-scale energy storage. /news/2024-11-fine-tuning-ion-exchange-membranes.html Polymers Materials Science Wed, 13 Nov 2024 11:21:22 EST news650719276 Only a few weeks ago, massive precipitation produced by the storm "Boris" led to chaos and flooding in Central and Eastern Europe. An analysis conducted by the Alfred Wegener Institute shows that in a world without the current level of global warming, Boris would have deposited roughly 9% less rain. /news/2024-11-storyline-simulations-gauge-role-global.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 08 Nov 2024 10:36:05 EST news650284561 A team of physicists from The University of Hong Kong (HKU), Texas Tech University (TTH), and the University of Michigan (UMich), has made an important discovery in the study of van der Waals (vdW) magnetic materials, a special class of materials with unique electronic and magnetic properties that make them attractive for use in various applications. /news/2024-09-physicists-capture-thickness-transitions-dimensional.html Condensed Matter Thu, 05 Sep 2024 09:24:04 EDT news644747042 Special features of the Arctic climate, such as the strong reflection of the sun's rays off the light snow or the low position of the sun, amplify global warming in the Arctic. However, researchers are often faced with the challenge of modeling the underlying climatic processes in order to be able to provide reliable weather forecasts. /news/2024-09-cloud-movement-arctic-climate-region.html Environment Wed, 04 Sep 2024 15:09:03 EDT news644681341 Scientists all over the world use modeling approaches to understand complex natural systems such as climate systems or neuronal or biochemical networks. A team of researchers has now developed a new mathematical framework that explains, for the first time, a mechanism behind long transient behaviors in complex systems. /news/2024-07-instability-robustness-mathematical-framework-dynamics.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Fri, 26 Jul 2024 09:49:05 EDT news641206141 Two recent studies published in The Astrophysical Journal discuss findings regarding solar flare properties and a new classification index and the sun's magnetic field, specifically what's called solar magnetic reconnection. /news/2024-07-solar-flares-magnetic-reconnection-spotlight.html Astronomy Mon, 15 Jul 2024 11:54:06 EDT news640263241 Charge density waves are quantum phenomena occurring in some materials, which involve a static modulation of conduction electrons and the periodic distortion of the lattice. These waves have been observed in numerous condensed matter materials, including high-temperature superconductors and quantum Hall systems. /news/2024-07-visualizing-boundary-modes-density-topological.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Wed, 10 Jul 2024 07:30:02 EDT news639672807 From ominous and unsettling to daunting and dire, meteorologists have no shortage of adjectives to describe what the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season has in store. /news/2024-05-atlantic-hurricane-season-breaker.html Environment Thu, 30 May 2024 16:30:01 EDT news636304993 Using single photons as qubits has become a prominent strategy in quantum information technology. Accurately determining the number of photons is crucial in various quantum systems, including quantum computation, quantum communication, and quantum metrology. /news/2024-02-quantum-precision-superconducting-photon-accuracy.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Fri, 09 Feb 2024 12:48:02 EST news626705279 By analyzing the data from the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), astronomers from the Â鶹ÒùÔºical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad, India and elsewhere, have performed a detailed X-ray timing and spectral study of an ultraluminous X-ray pulsar designated Swift J0243.6+6124. Results of the study, presented January 26 on the pre-print server arXiv, deliver important insights into the behavior of this pulsar. /news/2024-02-astronomers-behavior-ray-pulsar-swift.html Astronomy Tue, 06 Feb 2024 09:10:01 EST news626432997 Second order surface-specific nonlinear optical spectroscopy, e.g. sum-frequency spectroscopy, has made significant and continuous success in revealing the microscopic structures at surfaces/interfaces since the 1990s. /news/2023-11-surface-specific-nonlinear-optical-spectroscopy-terahertz.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 03 Nov 2023 11:04:02 EDT news618228241 Layered hybrid perovskites show diverse physical properties and exceptional functionality; however, from a materials science viewpoint, the co-existence of lattice order and structural disorder can hinder the understanding of such materials. Lattice dynamics can be affected by dimensional engineering of inorganic frameworks and interactions with molecular moieties in a process that remains unknown. /news/2023-08-lattice-dynamics-single-layered-hybrid-perovskite.html Condensed Matter Thu, 31 Aug 2023 09:42:11 EDT news612693724 Second-order optical nonlinear effects have received widespread attention from researchers since its first discovery in the 1960s. /news/2023-06-broadband-second-harmonic-generation-microfiber-coated.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 26 Jun 2023 17:05:59 EDT news607017957 Using the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) onboard the International Space Station (ISS), an international team of astronomers has detected millihertz quasi-periodic oscillations from a low-mass X-ray binary known as 4U 1730–22. The finding was reported in a paper published March 29 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. /news/2023-04-nicer-quasi-periodic-oscillations-x-ray-binary.html Astronomy Thu, 27 Apr 2023 11:40:01 EDT news601811663 Aerosols transported to the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UTLS) region potentially reduce average global surface temperatures and alter atmospheric circulation. Although large volcanic eruptions are rare in recent decades, small and medium volcanic eruptions have continuously increased stratospheric aerosol levels. /news/2023-02-scientists-reveal-asian-summer-monsoon.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 23 Feb 2023 15:56:25 EST news596390184 Using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), Chinese astronomers have detected quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) in the light curve of HS 2325+8205—a long-period eclipsing dwarf nova. The discovery was detailed in the January 2023 issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. /news/2023-02-quasi-periodic-oscillations-long-period-eclipsing-dwarf.html Astronomy Tue, 21 Feb 2023 09:31:38 EST news596194294 Luttinger liquids are usually paramagnetic materials exhibiting non-Fermi liquid behavior, such as molybdenum oxides. These "liquids" and their fascinating properties had so far been only observed in 1D and quasi-1D compounds, such as blue bronze A0.3MoO3 (A= K, Rb, Tl) and purple bronze Li0.9Mo6O17. /news/2022-12-luttinger-liquid-behavior-quasi-2d.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Fri, 16 Dec 2022 11:30:05 EST news590405931 Theoretical scientists have used topological mathematics and machine learning to identify a hidden relationship between nano-scale structures and thermal conductivity in amorphous silicon, a glassy form of the material with no repeating crystalline order. /news/2022-06-topology-machine-reveal-hidden-relationship.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Fri, 24 Jun 2022 13:26:03 EDT news575295962 Imagine a road with two lanes in each direction. One lane is for slow cars, and the other is for fast ones. For electrons moving along a quantum wire, researchers in Cambridge and Frankfurt have discovered that there are also two "lanes," but electrons can take both at the same time! /news/2022-06-electrons-fast-lanes.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Fri, 17 Jun 2022 17:35:17 EDT news574705910 Researchers from PSI's Spectroscopy of Quantum Materials group together with scientists from Beijing Normal University have solved a puzzle at the forefront of research into iron-based superconductors: the origin of FeSe's electronic nematicity. Using Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) at the Swiss Light Source (SLS), they discovered that, surprisingly, this electronic phenomenon is primarily spin driven. Electronic nematicity is believed to be an important ingredient in high-temperature superconductivity, but whether it helps or hinders it is still unknown. Their findings are published in Nature Â鶹ÒùÔºics. /news/2022-05-electrons-line-iron-based-superconductor.html Superconductivity Thu, 19 May 2022 11:57:41 EDT news572180256 One popular example of chaotic behavior is the butterfly effect—a butterfly may flap its wings in somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean and cause a tornado in Colorado. This remarkable fable illustrates how the extreme sensitivity of the dynamics of chaotic systems can yield dramatically different results despite slight differences in initial conditions. The fundamental laws of nature governing the dynamics of physical systems are inherently nonlinear, often leading to chaos and subsequent thermalization. /news/2022-04-framework-chaos-thermalization.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 05 Apr 2022 09:09:09 EDT news568368546 Using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), Chinese astronomers have investigated a peculiar emission phenomena exhibited by a pulsar known as PSR B1859+07. Results of the study, published January 18 on the arXiv pre-print repository, could shed light on abnormal emission modes observed in some pulsars. /news/2022-01-unusual-emission-pulsar-psr-b185907.html Astronomy Tue, 25 Jan 2022 10:30:02 EST news562328186 Technology is increasingly moving towards miniaturization and energy efficiency. This also applies to electronic chips. Light, and optics more broadly, are functional in making compact and portable chips. Researchers from the Photonic Systems Laboratory, headed by Professor Camille Brès, have successfully applied a novel principle for introducing second-order optical nonlinearity into silicon nitride chips. A first reported in the journal Nature Photonics. /news/2022-01-optical-chip.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 07 Jan 2022 07:29:52 EST news560762990 Using a D-Wave quantum-annealing computer as a testbed, scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have shown that it is possible to isolate so-called emergent magnetic monopoles, a class of quasiparticles, creating a new approach to developing "materials by design." /news/2021-07-emergent-magnetic-monopoles-isolated-quantum-annealing.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Fri, 16 Jul 2021 09:33:06 EDT news545646781 In 2013, François Englert and Peter Higgs won the Nobel Prize in Â鶹ÒùÔºics for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, which was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle by the A Toroidal LHC Apparatus (ATLAS) and the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiments at The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)'s Large Hadron Collider in 2012. The Higgs mode or the Anderson-Higgs mechanism (named after another Nobel Laureate Philip W Anderson), has widespread influence in our current understanding of the physical law for mass ranging from particle physics—the elusive "God particle" Higgs boson discovered in 2012 to the more familiar and important phenomena of superconductors and magnets in condensed matter physics and quantum material research. /news/2021-06-phd-student-higgs-mode-dimensional.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Mon, 21 Jun 2021 09:34:25 EDT news543486861 In a classical second-order phase transition, condensed matter systems acquire long-range order upon cooling below the transition temperature, and the properties near the transition are driven by thermal fluctuations. These behaviors have been long explained by the Landau theory of phase transitions, which leads to the notion of universality, whereby systems with very different microscopic constituents exhibit certain universal macroscopic behaviors close to a phase transition. /news/2021-06-electrons-quantum-critical-ferromagnets.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Mon, 14 Jun 2021 11:13:24 EDT news542888000 Solar physicists around the world have long been searching for satisfactory explanations for the sun's many cyclical, overlapping activity fluctuations. In addition to the most famous, approximately 11-year "Schwabe cycle", the sun also exhibits longer fluctuations, ranging from hundreds to thousands of years. It follows, for example, the "Gleissberg cycle" (about 85 years), the "Suess-de Vries cycle" (about 200 years) and the quasi-cycle of "Bond events" (about 1500 years), each named after their discoverers. It is undisputed that the solar magnetic field controls these activity fluctuations. /news/2021-06-sun-clock-planetary-hypothesis.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Mon, 14 Jun 2021 11:11:45 EDT news542887903