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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