SciGlow | All Science News In One Place
SciGlow is a newsletter of science stories from the major research labs. Headlines link to in-depth articles and editorials. SciGlow keeps scientists and others up-to-date on current research.
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden, Princeton University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have spotted a famously elusive particle: The axion – first predicted 42 years ago as an elementary particle in extensions of the standard model of … Read more
Researchers, led by Delft University of Technology, have made two steps in the conversion of quantum states between signals in the microwave and optical domains. This is of great interest for connecting future superconducting quantum computers into a global quantum network. This week they report on their findings in Nature Physics and in Physical Review … Read more
Los Alamos scientists have demonstrated that using chemically synthesized, magnetically doped quantum dots a few nanometers (billionths of a meter) across allows them to capture the kinetic energy of electrons created by ultraviolet light before it’s wasted as heat. “This discovery can potentially enable novel, highly-efficient solar cells, light detectors, photocathodes and light-driven chemical reactions,” … Read more
Researchers led by MIT Department of Physics Professor Pablo Jarillo-Herrero last year showed that rotating layers of hexagonally structured graphene at a particular “magic angle” could change the material’s electronic properties from an insulating state to a superconducting state. Now researchers in the same group and their collaborators have demonstrated that in a different ultra-thin material that … Read more
A team led by scientists at the University of Washington has designed and tested a 3D-printed metamaterial that can manipulate light with nanoscale precision. As they report in a paper published Oct. 4 in the journal Science Advances, their designed optical element focuses light to discrete points in a 3D helical pattern. The team’s design principles … Read more
Albert Einstein received the Nobel Prize for explaining the photoelectric effect: in its most intuitive form, a single atom is irradiated with light. According to Einstein, light consists of particles (photons) that transfer only quantised energy to the electron of the atom. If the photon’s energy is sufficient, it knocks the electrons out of the … Read more
University of Tokyo researchers have announced a new approach for electrical cooling without the need for moving parts. By applying a bias voltage to quantum wells made of the semiconductor aluminum gallium arsenide, electrons can be made to shed some of their heat in a process called “evaporative cooling.” Devices based on this principle may … Read more
Researchers from the U.S., Russia, and China have bent the rules of classical chemistry and synthesized a “forbidden” compound of cerium and hydrogen – CeH9 – which exhibits superconductivity at a relatively low pressure of 1 million atmospheres. The paper came out in Nature Communications. Superconductors are materials capable of conducting an electric current with no resistance … Read more
Scientists have challenged one of the great mysteries of physics – by undertaking an experiment in space proposed by The University of Queensland a decade ago. The School of Mathematics and Physics’ Professor Timothy Ralph collaborated on the study, which he said could bring quantum technologies, such as a global quantum internet, closer to being … Read more
The ultra-relativistic nature of electrons in graphene relates to a topological property of their wave-functions. An international team of physicist, propose a new scanning tunneling microscope approach to measure this topological property in the electronic density near an hydrogen atom grafted on the surface. This method which is published in Nature magazine on September 30th … Read more