news 2023

Decades after the Chernobyl nuclear accident, wild boar meat is still surprisingly radioactive. The solution to the riddle: an important other cause had been overlooked. The Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 had a major impact on the forest ecosystem in Central Europe. After the accident, the consumption of mushrooms was discouraged because of the high radioactive contamination, and the meat of wild animals was also severely affected for several years.

Key Takeaways U.S. researchers achieved a major milestone in the HL-LHC Accelerator Upgrade Project by completing 111 high-tech superconducting cables The cables will be used to make the strongest focusing magnets installed in any accelerator; they'll condense particle beams right before they collide in detectors These niobium-tin magnets are one of many improvements for the High-Luminosity LHC, which will increase the LHC experime

The carbon material graphene has excellent electronic properties. But are they also stable enough to be useful in practice? Calculations from TU Wien say: Yes. Nothing in the world is perfect. This is also true in materials research. In computer simulations, one often represents a system in a highly idealized way; for example, one calculates the properties that an absolutely perfect crystal would have.

Researchers from Delft established a way to address many quantum dots with only a few control lines using a chessboard-like method. This enabled the operation of the largest gate-defined quantum dot system ever. Their result is an important step in the development of scalable quantum systems for practical quantum technology.

New research - and a world-first experimental result - display the potential for using quantum technology to explore new designs in material science, drugs or solar energy harvesting. Scientists at the University of Sydney have, for the first time, used a quantum computer to engineer and directly observe a process critical in chemical reactions by slowing it down by a factor of 100 billion times.

Chemical on-surface synthesis under extremely clean conditions permits controlled synthesis of N'heterocyclic ballbot-type polymers N'heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) are small, reactive ring molecules which bond well with metallic surfaces and which, over the past few years, have attracted a great deal of interest in the field of the stable chemical modification of metallic surfaces.

Scientists at EPFL and Charles University have developed a new method to analyze the dynamical, out-of-equilibrium properties of complex disordered systems, such as gold with magnetic impurities or opinions spreading on social media. In physics, a "disordered system" refers to a physical system whose components - e.g. its atoms - are not organized in any discernible way.

The findings point to faster way to detect bacteria in food, water, and clinical samples. Getting results from a blood test can take anywhere from one day to a week, depending on what a test is targeting. The same goes for tests of water pollution and food contamination. And in most cases, the wait time has to do with time-consuming steps in sample processing and analysis.

Research team led by physicist from Freie Universität Berlin develops quality tests for quantum computers Quantum technologies, and especially quantum computers, are considered a promising technology for the future. It is hoped that they will solve problems that even the fastest supercomputers are currently practically unable to handle.

A research team led by a physicist at Freie Universität Berlin has developed a series of quality control tests for quantum computers and published a study in Nature Communications on the topic Quantum technologies - and quantum computers in particular - have the potential to shape the development of technology in the future.

Astronomers from the Universitat de València captured the detailed image of the first radiation belt detected around a brown dwarf outside our solar system. The image, taken last January and now published in the Science journal, evokes the well-known belts of Earth and Jupiter, reveals a magnetic field ten times greater than that of the largest planet in the solar system, and unlocks new secrets of these ultracool substellar objects of very low mass and very powerful radiation.

Researchers make theoretical breakthrough in thermoelectric material to better harness waste heat for sustainable energy. Around 70% of the energy we use in everyday life is wasted in the form of heat, produced by engines, factories, and electrical devices. However, researchers from EPFL's School of Engineering have made a significant theoretical step forward that could boost sustainable energy generation.

Quantum-derived findings could make mid-infrared light sensing much easier at room temperatures. Scientists from the University of Birmingham and the University of Cambridge have developed a new method for detecting mid-infrared (MIR) light at room temperature using quantum systems. The research, published today (28th August) in Nature Photonics, was conducted at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge and marks a significant breakthrough in the ability for scientists to gain insight into the working of chemical and biological molecules.

Researchers from Austria and USA have designed a new type of quantum computer that uses fermionic atoms to simulate complex physical systems. The processor uses programmable neutral atom arrays and is capable of simulating fermionic models in a hardware-efficient manner using fermionic gates. The team led by Peter Zoller demonstrated how the new quantum processor can efficiently simulate fermionic models from quantum chemistry and particle physics.

Researchers from The University of Manchester and the University of Warwick finally solved the long-standing puzzle of why graphene is so much more permeable to protons than expected by theory. A decade ago, scientists at The University of Manchester demonstrated that graphene is permeable to protons, nuclei of hydrogen atoms.

The prospect of a quantum internet, connecting quantum computers and capable of highly secure data transmission, is enticing, but making it poses a formidable challenge. Transporting quantum information requires working with individual photons rather than the light sources used in conventional fiber optic networks.

A University of Michigan astronomer has made a thorough forensic study of a star that was torn apart when it ventured too close to a giant black hole and then had its insides tossed out into space. The research team used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton to study the amount of nitrogen and carbon near a black hole known to have torn apart a star.

Organogels: New cleaning agent for artworks investigated with neutrons at the FRM II The restoration of artworks often involves solvents which have toxic properties. Now researchers have succeeded for the first time in creating a non-toxic and sustainable cleaning agent for paintings. Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) Research Neutron Source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II) investigated the structure of the agent, referred to as an organogel.

Researchers from the Department of Physics at Universität Hamburg, observed a quantum state that was theoretically predicted more than 50 years ago by Japanese theoreticians but so far eluded detection. By tailoring an artificial atom on the surface of a superconductor, the researchers succeeded in pairing the electrons of the so-called quantum dot, thereby inducing the smallest possible version of a superconductor.

Researchers have found a way to control the interaction of light and quantum -spin- in organic semiconductors, that works even at room temperature. These new materials hold great promise for completely new applications, since we've been able to remove the need for ultra-cold temperatures Sebastian Gorgon Spin is the term for the intrinsic angular momentum of electrons, which is referred to as up or down.