news 2023

Key Takeaways Scientists have gained new insight into why thermal runaway, while rare, could cause a resting battery to overheat and catch fire. In order to better understand how a resting battery might undergo thermal runaway after fast charging, scientists are using a technique called "operando X-ray microtomography" to measure changes in the state of charge at the particle level inside a lithium-ion battery after it's been charged.

Nanoengineers have created a quasicrystal-a scientifically intriguing and technologically promising material structure-from nanoparticles using DNA, the molecule that encodes life. The team, led by researchers at Northwestern University, the University of Michigan and the Center for Cooperative Research in Biomaterials in San Sebastian, Spain, reports the results in Nature Materials.

Planetary scientists including UCL's Professor Steve Miller have detected the infrared aurorae of the ice giant Uranus after searching for more than 30 years, in a new study published in Nature Astronomy. On Earth, the Northern and Southern Lights (aurorae) occur as a result of the interaction between the stream of charged particles known as the solar wind and our magnetic field, which funnels the particles in our atmosphere around the poles.

A research collaboration has uncovered a surprising magnetic property of an exotic material that might lead to computers that need less than one-millionth of the energy required to switch a single bit. The world of materials science is constantly discovering or fabricating materials with exotic properties.

A Canadian-led team of scientists finds triple the number of galaxies visible in the James Webb Space Telescope's "First Deep Field" image whose distances from Earth can be measured. On July 11, 2022, the very first image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was released to the general public.

A newly identified process could explain a variety of natural phenomena and enable new approaches to desalination. Evaporation is happening all around us all the time, from the sweat cooling our bodies to the dew burning off in the morning sun. But science's understanding of this ubiquitous process may have been missing a piece all this time.

Monitoring whether states are complying with disarmament treaties is not an easy task. An international team has been exploring remote monitoring with the help of two antennas and a couple of mirrors. An international research team has proposed a new method for monitoring nuclear disarmament treaties.

In 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope captured an image of a cluster of thousands of galaxies. Astronomers have measured the distance to Earth of 200 of these galaxies. On July 11, 2022, the world saw the very first image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The image is now known as the "Webb Deep Galaxy Field" - a galaxy cluster named SMACS 0723, comprising over 7,000 galaxies! This image has proved an important target for the study of galaxy evolution, as this large number of very distant galaxies tells us a lot about how galaxies formed and evolved in the early Universe.

Data collected by NASA's Juno mission indicates a briny past may be bubbling to the surface on Jupiter's largest moon. NASA's Juno mission has observed mineral salts and organic compounds on the surface of Jupiter's moon Ganymede. Data for this discovery was collected by the Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) spectrometer aboard the spacecraft during a close flyby of the icy moon.

The approach directly converts the greenhouse gas into formate, a solid fuel that can be stored indefinitely and could be used to heat homes or power industries. The search is on worldwide to find ways to extract carbon dioxide from the air or from power plant exhaust and then make it into something useful.

· Scientists will develop a universal code for computer simulations which improve our understanding of the quantum world · This will help researchers across the world collaborate on experiments to make use of quantum effects · Many important new technologies - like quantum computing and generating clean energy - are based on understanding and controlling the dynamics of electrons, atoms and molecules For the first time, scientists will develop a universal software framework for simulations, removing many barriers that exist to achieving a deeper understanding across the quantum world.

In physics, the complex processes in solids are often described in terms of quasiparticles. In ultracold quantum gases, these quasiparticles can be reproduced and studied. Now, for the first time, Innsbruck scientists led by Rudolf Grimm have been able to observe in experiments how Fermi polarons - a special type of quasiparticle - can interact with each other.

For the first time, experimental physicists from the Würzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat have demonstrated a new quantum effect aptly named the "spinaron." In a meticulously controlled environment and using an advanced set of instruments, they managed to prove the unusual state a cobalt atom assumes on a copper surface.

Quantum physicists at Delft University of Technology have shown that it's possible to control and manipulate spin waves on a chip using superconductors for the first time. These tiny waves in magnets may offer an alternative to electronics in the future, interesting for energy-efficient information technology or connecting pieces in a quantum computer, for example.

University of Valencia researchers propose a theoretical model that explains the interior of a blazar, the most powerful source of radiation in the Universe José María Martí and Manel Perucho, researchers at the University of Valencia, are the authors of the theoretical model that has made it possible to interpret the image with the highest resolution and sensitivity ever achieved of a blazar, the jet of matter that emerges from the nucleus of a galaxy, in this case 3C 279, at a speed close to that of light.

In a groundbreaking collaboration, two world-leading research groups, one led by Francesca Ferlaino and one by Markus Greiner, have joined force to develop an advanced quantum gas microscope for magnetic quantum matter. This state-of-the-art instrument reveals intricate dipolar quantum phases shaped by the interactions as reported in Nature .

Using multiple observatories, astronomers directly detect tellurium in two merging neutron stars. An extraordinary burst of high-energy light in the sky has pointed astronomers to a pair of metal-forging neutron stars 900 million light years from Earth. In a study appearing today in Nature , an international team of astronomers, including scientists at MIT, reports the detection of an extremely bright gamma-ray burst (GRB), which is the most powerful type of explosion known in the universe.

Knowing the energy of light absorbed by a molecule enables us to understand its structure, its quantum states, its interaction with other molecules and its potential technological applications. Molecules with a high probability of simultaneously absorbing two low-energy photons of light have a wide range of applications: as molecular probes in high-resolution microscopy, as substrates for data storage in dense three-dimensional structures or as vectors in medicinal treatments.

The Moon is 40 million years older than scientists thought, new research reveals Published: 23 October 2023 New research on crystals brought back from the Moon by Apollo astronauts in 1972 has helped pinpoint the time of the Moon's formation to at least 4.46 billion years ago. More than 4 billion years ago, when the Solar System was still young and the Earth was still growing, a giant object the size of Mars crashed into the Earth.

Researchers find new physical effects in systems consisting of particles with an orientation-dependent propulsion speed Investigating systems consisting of self-propelled particles - so-called active particles - is a rapidly growing area of research. In theoretical models for active particles, it is often assumed that the particles' swimming speed is always the same.