news 2023

A collaborative study with EPFL builds a novel theory to explain the puzzling collective behavior of glass-forming liquids at low temperatures, a phenomenon with widespread implications in fields like material science and biology. Glass, despite its apparent transparency and rigidity, is a complex and intriguing material.

Quantum computers of the future hold promise in solving all sorts of problems. For example, they could lead to more sustainable materials, new medicines, and even crack the hardest problems in fundamental physics. But compared to classical computers in use today, rudimentary quantum computers are more prone to errors.

Flexible platform could produce enigmatic materials, lead to new studies of exotic phenomena. In research that could jump-start interest into an enigmatic class of materials known as quasicrystals, MIT scientists and colleagues have discovered a relatively simple, flexible way to create new atomically thin versions that can be tuned for important phenomena.

MIT researchers show how topology can help create magnetism at higher temperatures. Researchers who have been working for years to understand electron arrangement, or topology, and magnetism in certain semimetals have been frustrated by the fact that the materials only display magnetic properties if they are cooled to just a few degrees above absolute zero.

Five high-performance microscopes at the University of Münster Many people are as fascinated by the microworld and the nanoworld as others are by the cosmos or the deep seas. These worlds seem to be inaccessible, apparently hidden from human eyes. However, across a wide range of disciplines, microscopes make it possible to take ever deeper and more precise looks at the smallest of details, and in ever higher resolutions - right down to atomic structures.

MIT scientists find the sounds beneath our feet are fingerprints of rock stability. If you could sink through the Earth's crust, you might hear, with a carefully tuned ear, a cacophany of booms and crackles along the way. The fissures, pores, and defects running through rocks are like strings that resonate when pressed and stressed.

It's well-known that birds and other animals rely on Earth's magnetic field for long-distance navigation during seasonal migrations. But how do periodic disruptions of the planet's magnetic field, caused by solar flares and other energetic outbursts, affect the reliability of those biological navigation systems?

Physicists investigate 2D materials with very special properties Postdoc Dr. Nihit Saigal, a member of Prof. Ursula Wurstbauer's team at Münster University's Institute of Physics, has got everything ready in the laboratory to produce an ultra-thin, two-dimensional material - a silver-coloured crystal of molybdenum disulphide, a viscoelastic polymer film.

A research team under the direction of Felix Deschler at Heidelberg University's Institute for Physical Chemistry has developed a semiconductor that efficiently generates light and simultaneously gives that light a certain spin. According to the researchers, the so-called chiral perovskite material has great technological potential that can be used for applications in optoelectronics, telecommunications, and information processing.

Pulsars, small, very dense dead stars, emit electromagnetic radiation in the form of beams that sweep through space at regular intervals, rather like cosmic lighthouses. Now, recent observations of one of the nearest pulsars to Earth, the Vela pulsar, have caused a major stir in the scientific community: radiation around 200 times more energetic than any previously detected from this source has been detected at the H.E.S.S.

In art, the negative space in a painting can be just as important as the painting itself. Something similar is true in insulating materials, where the empty spaces left behind by missing electrons play a crucial role in determining the material's properties. When a negatively charged electron is excited by light, it leaves behind a positive hole.

Scientists at EPFL have synthesized the first ever metal-organic frameworks membrane with thickness of just one unit cell. The ultrathin film yields record-high separation performance of hydrogen-nitrogen. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of materials that contain nano-sized pores. These pores give MOFs record-breaking internal surface areas, which make them extremely versatile for a number of applications: separating petrochemicals and gases , mimicking DNA , producing hydrogen , and removing heavy metals , fluoride anions , and even gold from water are just a few examples.

Scientists at EPFL have synthesized the first ever metal-organic frameworks membrane with thickness of just one unit cell. The ultrathin film yields record-high separation performance of hydrogen. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of materials that contain nano-sized pores. These pores give MOFs record-breaking internal surface areas, which make them extremely versatile for a number of applications: separating petrochemicals and gases , mimicking DNA , producing hydrogen , and removing heavy metals , fluoride anions , and even gold from water are just a few examples.

An international team of researchers has developed a new theoretical framework that bridges physics and biology to provide a unified approach for understanding how complexity and evolution emerge in nature. An international team of researchers has developed a new theoretical framework that bridges physics and biology to provide a unified approach for understanding how complexity and evolution emerge in nature.

Antimatter is tied up in one of the world's greatest mysteries. Physics predicts that when we create matter, we also create equal amounts of antimatter. Yet there seems to be almost no antimatter in our universe, a fact that has long puzzled physicists. Now, physicists at Simon Fraser University, the University of Calgary, TRIUMF, the University of British Columbia, York University and the British Columbia Institute of Technology and research institutions from around the world have just answered a long-standing question that will lead to a deeper understanding of antimatter: Does it fall down?

Water is a major driving force in the formation of separate reaction compartments within cells. In order to fulfil their function, biological cells need to be divided into separate reaction compartments. This is sometimes done with membranes, and sometimes without them: the spontaneous segregation of certain types of biomolecules leads to the formation of so-called condensates.

Amith Varambally of Vestavia Hills, Alabama, comes to Caltech as a first-year undergraduate student in fall 2023 already a co-author of a journal article related to his work as a high school intern at MIT in summer 2022. It is uncommon for undergraduates to publish in STEM journals. Still less common is to see a high school student appearing as a co-author in the pages of an esteemed physics journal.

Interview with Prof. Robert Wille on quantum computing software Most of us use software applications on a daily basis, for example when writing emails or surfing the internet. But how will future programs look like when new technologies such as quantum computers arrive on the scene? Prof. Robert Wille and his team are already developing the software of tomorrow today.

Scientists have demonstrated the existence of gravity between antimatter and Earth, reaffirming Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. It is thought that Isaac Newton's historic work on gravity was inspired by watching an apple fall to Earth from a tree. But for decades, scientists have wondered what would happen to an "anti-apple" made of antimatter - would it fall in the same way if it existed? Until now, the question has left scientists with an incomplete picture of the Universe's gravitating content.

Key Takeaways Scientists have developed "multielement ink" - the first "high-entropy" semiconductor that can be processed at low temperature or room temperature. Multielement ink could enable cost-effective and energy-efficient semiconductor manufacturing. The new semiconducting material could accelerate the sustainable production of next-gen microelectronics, photovoltaics, solid state lighting, and display devices.