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Spectral and phase-contrast CT combine strengths to enhance X-ray imaging
Spectral phase-contrast tomography Three-dimensional rendering of a contrast-perfused mouse sample using three decomposition channels: water (soft tissues, blue), iodine (vasculature, red) and calcium...
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Shrimp-inspired nanoclusters enable multifunctional artificial vision systems
Bioinspired device Left: schematic of the mantis shrimp visual system. Right: artificial photoreceptor based on chiral silver nanoclusters and the organic semiconductor pentacene. (Courtesy: CC BY...
View ArticleExcitation of thorium-229 brings a working nuclear clock closer
A nuclear clock based on thorium-229 is one step closer now that researchers in Germany and Austria have shown that they can put nuclei of the isotope into a low-lying metastable state. The...
View ArticleQuantum Barkhausen noise detected for the first time
Researchers in the US and Canada have detected an effect known as quantum Barkhausen noise for the first time. The effect, which comes about thanks to the cooperative quantum tunnelling of a huge...
View ArticleLocal twist angles in graphene come into view
Stacking layers of two-dimensional materials on top of each other and varying the twist angle between them massively alters their electronic properties. The trick is to get the twist angle just right,...
View ArticleLooking for dark matter differently
Dark matter makes up about 85 percent of the universe’s total matter, and cosmologists believe it played a major role in the formation of galaxies. We know the location of this so-called galactic dark...
View ArticleNanofluidic memristors compute in brain-inspired logic circuits
A memristor that uses changes in ion concentrations and mechanical deformations to store information has been developed by researchers at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland. By connecting two of these...
View ArticleNew photovoltaic 2D material breaks quantum efficiency record
Convention solar cells have a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 100%: for every photon incident on the cell, they generate one photoexcited electron. In recent years, scientists have sought...
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Single-cell nanobiopsy explores how brain cancer cells adapt to resist treatment
The double-barrel nanopipette Infographic showing the nanobiopsy of a single cell and subsequent sample analysis. (Courtesy: University of Leeds. Image designed by Somersault1824) Glioblastoma (GBM) is...
View ArticleMixing water and oil: no surfactants needed
Oil and water famously don’t mix – at least, not without adding a surfactant such as soap to coax them into a stable combination. Now, however, researchers in France and US have turned this...
View ArticleIndividual polyatomic molecules are trapped in optical-tweezer arrays
Individual polyatomic molecules have been trapped in arrays of optical tweezers for the first time. Researchers in the US were able to control individual quantum states of the three-atom molecules and...
View ArticleQuantum mechanical wormholes fill gaps in black hole entropy
A new theoretical model could solve a 50-year-old puzzle on the entropy of black holes. Developed by physicists in the US, Belgium and Argentina, the model uses the concept of quantum-mechanical...
View ArticleNIST researchers develop magnetics-based analyte sensor
In a proof-of-concept study, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) used a smartphone’s built-in magnetometer, combined with hydrogels that change their shape in...
View ArticleSearch for tiny black holes puts tighter constraints on quantum gravity
New observations of the flavour composition of atmospheric neutrinos have revealed no conclusive evidence for the minuscule, short-lived black holes that have been predicted by some theories of quantum...
View ArticleLaser light makes a material magnetic
Pulses of laser light can cause any material – including insulators – to develop a relatively large magnetic moment. This effect, which has been demonstrated for the first time by an international team...
View ArticleBolometer measures state of superconducting qubit
Researchers Finland say they are the first to determine the state of a superconducting qubit using a bolometer – a device that measures radiant heat. While the fidelity and speed of the readout fall...
View ArticleBREAD experiment tracks dark photons to new levels
A novel detector designed to search for so-called “dark” photons has placed unprecedented constraints on where this type of dark matter might be found. The detector uses a coaxial dish antenna to trap...
View ArticleMissing gamma rays cast doubt on cosmic-ray origins
The lack of observed gamma rays from a recent supernova has cast doubt on the generally-accepted idea that exploding stars are a major source of cosmic rays. The observation was made using NASA’s Fermi...
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Schrödinger’s cat makes a better qubit in critical regime
An English proverb states, “A cat has nine lives. For three he plays, for three he strays, and for the last three he stays.” In the quantum world, however, objects can be in a superposition of states...
View ArticleWigner crystal appears in bilayer graphene
Researchers at Princeton University in the US say they have made the first direct observation of a Wigner crystal – a structure consisting solely of electrons arranged in a lattice-like configuration....
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