170-year-old physical law unexpectedly holds true in high-temperature...
At temperatures within a few degrees of absolute zero, the ratio of a material’s thermal conductivity to its electrical conductivity should be proportional to its temperature. This principle, known as...
View ArticleLong-lived qubits survive as ‘islands’ in a noisy environment
The length of time that quantum bits (qubits) retain their quantum nature is crucial for quantum computing because it determines the number and complexity of computations they can perform. For decades,...
View ArticleSmart glove tracks hand movements with unprecedented accuracy
A smart glove that tracks finger, hand, and wrist movements with unprecedented accuracy has been developed by researchers at Canada’s University of British Columbia (UBC) and Texavie Technologies. The...
View ArticleTreasure trove of gas giants on wide orbits could provide insight into our...
A rare and valuable collection of transiting exoplanets on long-period orbits has been discovered hidden in data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. Because exoplanet...
View ArticleSemiconductor fibres are fracture free and glass clad
Ultralong, fracture-free semiconductor fibres have been produced inside glass cladding by researchers in Singapore and China. By etching off the glass and replacing it with a flexible polymer sheath...
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Single-sided MR sensor provides tissue analysis at the patient bedside
Single-sided MR sensor a, b) Simulated magnetic field profile of the sensor’s array of 12.7 mm3 magnets, red arrows indicate magnet orientation. c) Constructed magnet array with assembled aluminium...
View ArticleShallow defects drive slow recombination, high efficiency in perovskite solar...
The remarkably high efficiency of solar cells made from materials called perovskites has puzzled scientists for nearly 20 years. Now, researchers at Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) in Germany say they...
View ArticleInhalable nanosensors could increase access to lung cancer screening
Low-dose CT, the gold standard technique for diagnosing lung cancer in at-risk groups, has reduced lung cancer deaths by 20–25% in clinical trials. Access to this screening technology, however, can be...
View ArticleHeavy fermions appear in a layered intermetallic crystal
Electrons are normally among the lightest fundamental particles, but in so-called “heavy fermion” materials, they move as if they were hundreds of times more massive. This unusual heaviness occurs...
View ArticleNew positron source could give lepton colliders a boost
Computer simulations and laboratory experiments done in Switzerland have advanced the design of a new type of positron source that could be used in next-generation lepton colliders such as the proposed...
View ArticleCollapsible helix antenna could aid disaster recovery
A lightweight, easily transportable antenna that can communicate reliably with either satellites or terrestrial devices depending on its spatial configuration could prove useful for coordinating...
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Physicists observe false vacuum decay in a ferromagnetic superfluid
Bubbling away: In the quantum gases lab in Trento, the team produced a superfluid spin mixture of sodium atoms in a false vacuum state (blue) and observed and studied its decay to the true vacuum state...
View ArticleQuieter quantum device measures electrical current
The most accurate measurements so far of voltage oscillations at a superconductor junction have been made by Sergey Lotkhov and colleagues at the German Federal Metrology Institute (PTB). The team’s...
View ArticleMetal-free graphene quantum dots show potential for cancer treatment
A team of researchers in China has pioneered the use of novel metal-free graphene quantum dots (GQDs) for chemodynamic therapy, an emerging non-invasive cancer treatment. The breakthrough paves the way...
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Physicists take the temperature of second sound
A new technique for monitoring “second sound” – a bizarre type of heat wave that occurs in superfluids – has been developed by physicists in the US. The work could help model a variety of...
View ArticleNonlinear optical states are imprinted on an electron beam
The interaction between free electrons and nonlinear optical states has been used by scientists in Switzerland and Germany to tailor an electron beam that could be used for new types of microscopy. The...
View ArticleMonocrystalline gold brings electronic devices near the efficiency limit
Gold has long been a popular way of enhancing the photosensitivity of electronic devices such as biosensors, imaging systems, energy harvesters and information processors. So far, the gold used has...
View ArticleUltracold four-atom molecules are bound by electric dipole moments
Weakly bound tetratomic molecules that are more than 3000 times colder than any previous four-atom molecules have been created using a newly developed “electroassociation” technique. The work, which is...
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Wearable device could help predict preterm birth
Preterm birth – when a baby is born before the 37th week of pregnancy – can result in considerable health and development problems. Identifying the risk of premature delivery could enable interventions...
View ArticleKink in cosmic ray spectrum puzzles astrophysicists
Using observations from the GRAPES-3 muon detector, physicists in India and Japan have explored a poorly understood region of the cosmic ray energy spectrum in unprecedented detail. Fahim Varsi at the...
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