New Monte Carlo method accelerates simulations of densely entangled polymer melts
Long polymer chains are everywhere: in synthetic materials, soft matter, biological systems such as chromosomes, and mathematical models of filaments and knots. When many such cha…
Realistic solid-state model brings fractons in quantum spin liquids closer to detection
Quasiparticles arise from the complex interaction of many particles in solids; for example, we describe lattice vibrations in crystals as phonons. Fractons are exotic quasiparticl…
LHC collisions reveal oxygen and neon's shifting nuclear geometry
Many people are aware that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN smashes tiny subatomic particles together at nearly the speed of light to test foundational laws of physics and …
'Rainbow-on-a-chip' could help unlock 6G networks and precision timing for quantum technologies
Loughborough University physicists and an international team have demonstrated that a grain-of-rice-sized microchip can be used to produce a spectrum of precisely spaced frequenci…
AI-driven literature mining speeds discovery of heat-stable lead-free dielectric materials
Artificial intelligence has analyzed data scattered across hundreds of research papers to discover new lead-free dielectric materials that maintain stable performance even at high…
Century-old physics idea explains why cubic fluid equations work
The Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT) has developed a new cubic equation of state (EOS) that provides a physical justification for a mathematical…
Fibrinogen discovery reshapes understanding of how wounds heal
Scientists have redefined how the key blood-clotting protein fibrinogen behaves when it contacts air, overturning two decades of scientific consensus on wound healing. It is the c…
Intense light bent out of shape—ultrafast lenses made from gas
Researchers from the MPIK in Heidelberg used an atomic gas as a time-dependent lens to shape and spectrally manipulate intense high-frequency laser pulses. This gas-based optical …
Magnetically levitated quantum bit could address design flaws
Researchers at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, headquartered at Florida State University, have designed a new quantum computin…
AI boosts sensitivity to double-Higgs signatures occurring about once per trillion collisions
Is the universe as stable as we think it is? That's one of the big questions that particle physicists worldwide are preparing to answer with the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC—the …
New measurements explain how silicon and diamond achieve extreme reversible stretching
A research team led by Yang Lu from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering, The University of Hong Kong (HKU), has uncovered the microscopic physic…
Hypersonic impact rapidly transforms diamond into graphite, revealing energy-absorbing mechanism
Rice University researchers have developed a way to stabilize diamond during high-temperature and low-pressure processing, creating a strong bulk composite and discovering that hi…
A new kind of polymer with two faces and a twist control electron spin
Researchers from the University of Osaka have developed a new class of chiral semiconducting polymers that can generate highly spin-polarized electrical currents. The team's uniqu…
Blocc chemistry could automate molecular discovery and democratize access to new materials
A paper published in the journal Science lays out a roadmap for broadening access to the process of discovering molecular tools that can benefit society, including medicines, mate…
Newton's momentum principles could help design safer offshore facilities in extreme waves
Researchers have developed a novel model to accurately and efficiently predict the impact of "green water"—water washing onto the deck of an offshore facility during extreme wave …
Oxygen vacancies unlock fast lithium-ion transport in battery material
Lithium titanate (LTO, Li4Ti5O12) is a well-established battery material that in its pristine state is a poor conductor of lithium ions. It develops high ionic conductivity only d…
A little Big Bang: Bowling-pin-shaped nuclei shed new light on the universe's first moments
What happened in the first moments of the universe—before the building blocks of life and the world we know today came into existence? Physicists at the CERN research facility in …
International review standardizes selenosugar nomenclature and selenium metabolism
Selenosugars are the major urinary metabolites responsible for the physiological excretion of selenium. Understanding selenium metabolism relies on accurately detecting and identi…
Illuminating the limits of the international unit of light, the candela
The candela, the international unit of light in use for almost a century, forms the basis of photometry. According to a new study, measurements derived from it systematically misj…
Dark energy and quantum gravity may be deeply intertwined
For close to a century, physicists have pursued a way to unite gravity with quantum mechanics. Known as quantum gravity, this goal has remained frustratingly out of reach so far. …
Levitating molten metal on ISS could refine ultra-strong metallic glass
The research team led by materials scientist Ralf Busch from Saarland University is preparing for its first science-in-space mission. If everything goes to plan, from 31 August th…
Perovskite-based sensor detects ammonia leaks at concentrations as low as 1 ppm
A team led by principal researcher Myungkwan Song of the Energy & Environment Materials Research Division at the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) has developed an ultra…
Changing bacterial feedstock unlocks flexible biopolymers with stronger antibacterial effects
Changing the carbon source used during bacterial fermentation—essentially, what bacteria are fed—can significantly influence the properties of the sugar polymers they produce, kno…
3D-printed ceramic waveguide lasers could surpass the power of glass fiber lasers by 10 times
At the bottom of the ocean, optical fibers transmit telecommunications and internet data around the world. Waveguides make that feat possible by channeling and amplifying the ligh…