Photovoltaic battery runs on nuclear waste
Scientists in the US have developed a new type of photovoltaic battery that runs on the energy given off by nuclear waste. The battery uses a scintillator crystal to transform the intense gamma rays...
View ArticleIsolated pockets of audible sound are created using metasurfaces
A ground-breaking method to create “audible enclaves” – localized zones where sound is perceptible while remaining completely unheard outside – has been unveiled by researchers at Pennsylvania State...
View ArticleSuperfluid phase spotted in molecular hydrogen for the first time
An international team led by chemists at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada, has reported strong experimental evidence for a superfluid phase in molecular hydrogen at 0.4 K. This phase,...
View ArticleSliding droplets generate electrical charge as they stick and unstick
If a water droplet flowing over a surface gets stuck, and then unsticks itself, it generates an electric charge. The discoverers of this so-called depinning phenomenon are researchers at RMIT...
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Hydrogels rapidly switch from soft to hard to create smart medical bandage
Reversible switching Schematic illustrating the hard/soft transition of the hydrogel/NAAC composite. (Courtesy: CC BY 4.0/Int. J. Extrem. Manuf. 10.1088/2631-7990/adbd97) Complex hydrogel structures...
View ArticleSplitting water takes more energy than theory predicts – and now scientists...
Water molecules on the surface of an electrode flip just before they give up electrons to form oxygen – a feat of nanoscale gymnastics that explains why the reaction takes more energy than it...
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New entanglement approach could boost photonic quantum computing
Deterministic entanglement through holonomy: A system of four coupled optical waveguides (A, C, E, W), with three inter-waveguide coupling coefficients (k_A,k_E,k_W) vary in such a way to define a...
View ArticleQuantum interference observed in collisions between methane molecules and...
A team of researchers in Switzerland, Germany and the US has observed clear evidence of quantum mechanical interference behaviour in collisions between a methane molecule and a gold surface. As well as...
View ArticleQuantum computer generates strings of certifiably random numbers
A quantum computer has been used for the first time to generate strings of certifiably random numbers. The protocol for doing this, which was developed by a team that included researchers at...
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Quantum Mpemba effect appears in a real experimental system
Classical vs quantum Mpemba: a) In the classical strong Mpemba effect (sME), the overlap with the slowest decay mode (SDM) drops as the temperature increases until it reaches zero at Ts, the point at...
View ArticleUltrashort electron beam sets new power record
Researchers at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in the US have produced the world’s most powerful ultrashort electron beam to date, concentrating petawatt-level peak powers into...
View ArticlePhoton collisions in dying stars could create neutrons for heavy elements
A model that could help explain how heavy elements are forged within collapsing stars has been unveiled by Matthew Mumpower at Los Alamos National Laboratory and colleagues in the US. The team suggests...
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Bilayer optical lattices could unravel the secret of high-temperature...
A proposed experiment that would involve trapping atoms on a two-layered laser grid could be used to study the mechanism behind high-temperature superconductivity. Developed by physicists in Germany...
View ArticleTwo-dimensional metals make their debut
Researchers from the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have produced the first two-dimensional (2D) sheets of metal. At just angstroms thick, these metal sheets could be an ideal...
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Tiny sensor creates a stable, wearable brain–computer interface
Brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) enable the flow of information between the brain and an external device such as a computer, smartphone or robotic limb. Applications range from use in augmented and...
View ArticleSchrödinger cat states like it hot
Superpositions of quantum states known as Schrödinger cat states can be created in “hot” environments with temperatures up to 1.8 K, say researchers in Austria and Spain. By reducing the restrictions...
View ArticleHelium nanobubble measurements shed light on origins of heavy elements in the...
New measurements by physicists from the University of Surrey in the UK have shed fresh light on where the universe’s heavy elements come from. The measurements, which were made by smashing high-energy...
View ArticleMicrowaves slow down chemical reactions at low temperatures
Through new experiments, researchers in Switzerland have tested models of how microwaves affect low-temperature chemical reactions between ions and atoms. Through their innovative setup, Valentina...
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KATRIN sets tighter limit on neutrino mass
Researchers from the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino experiment (KATRIN) have announced the most precise upper limit yet on the neutrino’s mass. Thanks to new data and upgraded techniques, the new limit –...
View ArticleStrange metals get their strangeness from quantum entanglement
A concept from quantum information theory appears to explain at least some of the peculiar behaviour of so-called “strange” metals. The new approach, which was developed by physicists at Rice...
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Retinal stimulation reveals colour never before seen by the human eye
A new retinal stimulation technique called Oz enabled volunteers to see colours that lie beyond the natural range of human vision. Developed by researchers at UC Berkeley, Oz works by stimulating...
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Abnormal ‘Arnold’s tongue’ patterns appear in a real oscillating system
Synchronization studies: When the experimenters mapped the laser’s breathing frequency intensity in the parameter space of pump current and intracavity loss (left), unusual features appeared. The areas...
View ArticleTop-quark pairs at ATLAS could shed light on the early universe
Physicists working on the ATLAS experiment on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are the first to report the production of top quark–antiquark pairs in collisions involving heavy nuclei. By colliding lead...
View ArticleSupercritical water reveals its secrets
Contrary to some theorists’ expectations, water does not form hydrogen bonds in its supercritical phase. This finding, which is based on terahertz spectroscopy measurements and simulations by...
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Dual-robot radiotherapy system designed to reduce the cost of cancer treatment
Researchers at the University of Victoria in Canada are developing a low-cost radiotherapy system for use in low- and middle-income countries and geographically remote rural regions. Initial...
View ArticleSuperconducting device delivers ultrafast changes in magnetic field
Precise control over the generation of intense, ultrafast changes in magnetic fields called “magnetic steps” has been achieved by researchers in Hamburg, Germany. Using ultrashort laser pulses, Andrea...
View ArticleSpeedy worms behave like active polymers in disordered mazes
Worms move faster in an environment riddled with randomly-placed obstacles than they do in an empty space. This surprising observation by physicists at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands...
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Light-activated pacemaker is smaller than a grain of rice
The world’s smallest pacemaker to date is smaller than a single grain of rice, optically controlled and dissolves after it’s no longer needed. According to researchers involved in the work, the...
View ArticleSolar wind burst caused a heatwave on Jupiter
A burst of solar wind triggered a planet-wide heatwave in Jupiter’s upper atmosphere, say astronomers at the University in Reading, UK. The hot region, which had a temperature of over 750 K, propagated...
View ArticleCould an extra time dimension reconcile quantum entanglement with local...
Nonlocal correlations that define quantum entanglement could be reconciled with Einstein’s theory of relativity if space–time had two temporal dimensions. That is the implication of new theoretical...
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Quantum transducer enables optical control of a superconducting qubit
Quantum transducer A niobium microwave LC resonator (silver) is capacitively coupled to two hybridized lithium niobate racetrack resonators in a paperclip geometry (black) to exchange energy between...
View ArticleNew research suggests gravity might emerge from quantum information theory
A new theoretical framework proposes that gravity may arise from entropy, offering a fresh perspective on the deep connections between geometry, quantum mechanics and statistical physics. Developed by...
View ArticleLayer-spintronics makes its debut
A new all-electrical way of controlling spin-polarized currents has been developed by researchers at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). By using bilayers of recently-discovered...
View ArticleBrain region used for speech decoding also supports BCI cursor control
Sending an email, typing a text message, streaming a movie. Many of us do these activities every day. But what if you couldn’t move your muscles and navigate the digital world? This is where...
View ArticlePhotonic computer chips perform as well as purely electronic counterparts,...
Researchers in Singapore and the US have independently developed two new types of photonic computer chips that match existing purely electronic chips in terms of their raw performance. The chips, which...
View ArticleExoplanet could be in a perpendicular orbit around two brown dwarfs
The first strong evidence for an exoplanet with an orbit perpendicular to that of the binary system it orbits has been observed by astronomers in the UK and Portugal. Based on observations from the...
View ArticleFluid electrodes make soft, stretchable batteries
Researchers at Linköping University in Sweden have developed a new fluid electrode and used it to make a soft, malleable battery that can recharge and discharge over 500 cycles while maintaining its...
View ArticleAxion quasiparticle appears in a topological antiferromagnet
Physicists have observed axion quasiparticles for the first time in a two-dimensional quantum material. As well as having applications in materials science, the discovery could aid the search for...
View ArticleQuantum twisting microscope measures phasons in cryogenic graphene
By adapting their quantum twisting microscope to operate at cryogenic temperatures, researchers have made the first observations of a type of phonon that occurs in twisted bilayer graphene. These...
View ArticleGeophysicists pinpoint location of Yellowstone magma reservoir
The first clear images of Yellowstone’s shallowest magma reservoir have revealed its depth with unprecedented precision, providing information that could help scientists determine how dangerous it is....
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Neutrons differentiate between real and fake antique coins
Finding fakes Illustration of how neutrons can pass easily through the metallic regions of an old coin, but are blocked by hydrogen-bearing compounds formed by corrosion. (Courtesy: S Kelley/NIST) The...
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Loop quantum cosmology may explain smoothness of cosmic microwave background
First light: The cosmic microwave background, as imaged by the European Space Agency’s Planck mission. (Courtesy: ESA and the Planck Collaboration) In classical physics, gravity is universally...
View ArticleNeutron Airy beams make their debut
Physicists have succeeded in making neutrons travel in a curved parabolic waveform known as an Airy beam. This behaviour, which had previously been observed in photons and electrons but never in a...
View ArticleSmartphone sensors and antihydrogen could soon put relativity to the test
Researchers on the AEgIS collaboration at CERN have designed an experiment that could soon boost our understanding of how antimatter falls under gravity. Created by a team led by Francesco Guatieri at...
View ArticleEvidence for a superconducting gap emerges in hydrogen sulphides
Researchers in Germany report that they have directly measured a superconducting gap in a hydride sulphide material for the first time. The new finding represents “smoking gun” evidence for...
View ArticleQuantum effect could tame noisy nanoparticles by rendering them invisible
In the quantum world, observing a particle is not a passive act. If you shine light on a quantum object to measure its position, photons scatter off it and disturb its motion. This disturbance is known...
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Plasma physics sets upper limit on the strength of ‘dark electromagnetism’
Physicists have set a new upper bound on the interaction strength of dark matter by simulating the collision of two clouds of interstellar plasma. The result, from researchers at Ruhr University Bochum...
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This is what an aurora looks like on Mars
The Mars rover Perseverance has captured the first image of an aurora as seen from the surface of another planet. The visible-light image, which was taken during a solar storm on 18 March 2024, is not...
View ArticleFive-body recombination could cause significant loss from atom traps
Five-body recombination, in which five identical atoms form a tetramer molecule and a single free atom, could be the largest contributor to loss from ultracold atom traps at specific “Efimov...
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Protons take to the road
Physicists at CERN have completed a “test run” for taking antimatter out of the laboratory and transporting it across the site of the European particle-physics facility. Although the test was carried...
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