This surprising result is important for understanding unconventional superconductors and other materials where electrons band together to act collectively. Long before researchers discovered the electron and its role in generating electrical current, they knew about electricity and were exploring its potential. One thing they learned early on was that metals were great conductors of both electricity and heat. And in 1853, two scientists showed that those two admirable properties of metals were somehow related: At any given temperature, the ratio…

Researchers develop hybrid phase-change memristors that offer fast, low-power, and high-density computing memory.# By strategically straining materials that are as thin as a single layer of atoms, University of Rochester scientists have developed a new form of computing memory that is at once fast, dense, and low-power. The researchers outline their new hybrid resistive switches in a study published in Nature Electronics. Developed in the lab of Stephen M. Wu, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and of physics, the approach marries the best qualities of two…

Kyoto-Hawai’i team reveals results of study from Ryugu samples. Micrometeorites originating from icy celestial bodies in the outer Solar System may be responsible for transporting nitrogen to the near-Earth region in the early days of our solar system. That discovery was published today in Nature Astronomy by an international team of researchers, including University of Hawai’i at Mānoa scientists, led by Kyoto University. Nitrogen compounds, such as ammonium salts, are abundant in material born in regions far from the sun,…

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are compact devices that combine multiple optical components on a single chip. They have a wide range of applications in communications, ranging, sensing, computing, spectroscopy, and quantum technology. PICs are now manufactured using mature semiconductor fabrication technologies. It has reduced costs and improved performance. This makes PICs a promising technology for a variety of applications. Photonic packaging is much more challenging than electronic packaging. PICs require much higher alignment accuracy, typically at the micron or even…

An international team of astronomers has used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to provide the first observation of water and other molecules in the highly irradiated inner, rocky-planet-forming regions of a disk in one of the most extreme environments in our galaxy. These results suggest that the conditions for terrestrial planet formation can occur in a possible broader range of environments than previously thought. These are the first results from the eXtreme Ultraviolet Environments (XUE) James Webb Space Telescope program,…

‘Nature Photonics’ features a study by the Politecnico di Milano in collaboration with Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa. Optical wireless may no longer have any obstacles. A study by Politecnico di Milano, conducted together with Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, the University of Glasgow and Stanford University, and published in the prestigious journal Nature Photonics, has made it possible to create photonic chips that mathematically calculate the optimal shape of light to best pass through any environment, even one that…

Young scientists spearhead breakthrough COVID-19 research in international collaboration. Molecular biophysics study investigates how coronavirus’ variants of concern attachment strength to human cells influences COVID-19’s spread and transmissibility. A recent groundbreaking study, published in Nature Nanotechnology, sheds new light on the coronavirus’s behavior, particularly its ability to remain attached under various mechanical stresses and the implications for person-to-person transmission. The paper, titled “Single-molecule force stability of the SARS-CoV-2–ACE2 interface in variants-of-concern,” is the result of a collaborative effort led by…

Droplets sliding over surfaces are relevant for many applications. The movement of the droplets is determined not only by the mechanical properties of the surface. A team led by Hans-Jürgen Butt at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research has now discovered that electrical charges also have a significant influence on the movement. This could help to optimize processes involving droplets in the future. From precise inkjet printing to clear vision through spectacle lenses – the influence of droplets and…

…using acoustic wave sensors. An inspection design method and procedure by which mobile robots can inspect large pipe structures has been demonstrated with the successful inspection of multiple defects on a three-meter long steel pipe using guided acoustic wave sensors. The University of Bristol team, led by Professor Bruce Drinkwater and Professor Anthony Croxford,  developed approach was used to review a long steel pipe with multiple defects, including circular holes with different sizes, a crack-like defect and pits, through a…

X-ray reveal how lattice and atomic spins jiggle together. Scientists have revealed how lattice vibrations and spins talk to each other in a hybrid excitation known as an electromagnon. To achieve this, they used a unique combination of experiments at the X-ray free electron laser SwissFEL. Understanding this fundamental process at the atomic level opens the door to ultrafast control of magnetism with light. Within the atomic lattice of a solid, particles and their various properties cooperate in wave like…

Particle accelerators hold great potential for semiconductor applications, medical imaging and therapy, and research in materials, energy and medicine. But conventional accelerators require plenty of elbow room — kilometers — making them expensive and limiting their presence to a handful of national labs and universities. Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, several national laboratories, European universities and the Texas-based company TAU Systems Inc. have demonstrated a compact particle accelerator less than 20 meters long that produces an electron…

Adaptive optics (AO) is a technique used for real-time correction of phase aberrations by employing feedback to adjust the optical system. Polarization aberrations represent another significant type of distortion that can impact optical systems. Various factors, such as stressed optical elements, Fresnel effects, and polarizing effects in materials or biological tissues, can induce polarization aberrations. These aberrations affect both system resolution and the accuracy of vector information. Vectorial aberrations result from the combined effects of phase and polarization aberrations. They…

A new platform for quantum information processing. Processing quantum information relies on interacting qubits – the basic building blocks of quantum information – to perform computational tasks. Scientists are searching for the optimal qubit platform that can perform operations more efficiently, accurately and as fast as possible. With the additional goal of interfacing a quantum processing system with a quantum network, a system able to generate entanglement between long-lived matter qubits and photons is the most desirable, allowing for a…

The Lorentz reciprocal theorem can now be applied to fluids with broken symmetries. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) in Göttingen have found a way to accommodate this classical theorem also in fluids with odd viscosities. Their discovery opens a new way to explore systems with broken symmetries. Symmetries are fundamental to physics. Generally, a physical process is considered symmetric if it appears identical when viewed as a mirror image or when time is reversed….

Scientists have simulated conditions that allow hazy skies to form in water-rich exoplanets, a crucial step in determining how haziness muddles observations by ground and space telescopes. The research offers new tools to study the atmospheric chemistry of exoplanets and will help scientists model how water exoplanets form and evolve, findings that could help in the search for life beyond our solar system. “The big picture is whether there is life outside the solar system, but trying to answer that…

…that may provide a link to mysterious sources. An international research team led by Michael Kramer and Kuo Liu from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, have studied a rare species of ultra-dense stars, so called magnetars, to uncover an underlying law that appears to apply universally to a range of objects known as neutron stars. This law gives insight into how these sources produce radio emission and it may provide a link to the mysterious…