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NSF Funded Research News

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 19-Aug-2025 07:10 ET (19-Aug-2025 11:10 GMT/UTC)

Scientists find new quantum behavior in unusual superconducting material

Rice University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at Rice University and collaborating institutions have discovered direct evidence of active flat electronic bands in a kagome superconductor. This breakthrough could pave the way for new methods to design quantum materials — including superconductors, topological insulators and spin-based electronics — that could power future electronics and computing technologies. The study, published in Nature Communications Aug. 14, centers on the chromium-based kagome metal CsCr₃Sb₅, which becomes superconducting under pressure.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: U.S. Department of Energy, Welch Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, U.S. National Science Foundation

Sibling and friend game time key to keeping children safe in online video games

Penn State
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Older siblings and friends may play important, and sometimes overlooked, roles in helping parents keep their children safe on online gaming platforms like Roblox and Minecraft, according to new research led by Penn State.

Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

Conversations remotely detected from cellphone vibrations, researchers report

Penn State
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An emerging form of surveillance, “wireless-tapping,” explores the possibility of remotely deciphering conversations from the tiny vibrations produced by a cellphone’s earpiece. With the goal of protecting users’ privacy from potential bad actors, a team of computer science researchers at Penn State demonstrated that transcriptions of phone calls can be generated from radar measurements taken up to three meters, or about 10 feet, from a phone. While accuracy remains limited — around 60% for a vocabulary of up to 10,000 — the findings raise important questions about future privacy risks.

Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

Solved: 90-year-old mystery in quantum physics

University of Vermont
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A University of Vermont physicist and his student wondered if there are systems in the atomic scale that behave like the vibrating motion of a guitar string in the Newtonian world. They found that the answer is yes—and solved Lamb's Model at the atomic scale—a 90-year-old problem in quantum physics.

Journal: Physical Review Research
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, NASA Headquarters

Thin films, big science: FSU chemists expand imaging possibilities with new X-ray material

Florida State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team led by Florida State University Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Biwu Ma has developed a new form for X-ray materials that can meet the needs of large-area applications, changing out complex crystal structures for an adaptable and scalable thin-film detector.

Journal: Angewandte Chemie
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, Florida State University

As the atmosphere changes, so will its response to geomagnetic storms

National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Rising concentrations of carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere will change the way geomagnetic storms impact Earth, with potential implications for thousands of orbiting satellites, according to new research led by NSF NCAR. The upper atmosphere's density will be lower compared with present-day geomagnetic storms, although the temporary rise from baseline to peak during a multiday storm will be more pronounced.

Journal: Geophysical Research Letters
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

Paper: Decarbonize agriculture by expanding policies aimed at low-carbon biofuels

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a new paper in the journal Science, researchers propose policies that would reward farmers for adopting “climate-smart” practices when growing biofuel crops and remove the hurdles that currently thwart such efforts. This could aid efforts to decarbonize agricultural as a whole, the scientists say.

Journal: Science
Funder: • U.S. Department of Energy Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, U.S. National Science Foundation, USDA/NIFA

Texas A&M researchers map America’s power outage hot spots using AI

Texas A&M University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers from the Urban Resilience AI Lab at Texas A&M University have used machine learning to create a nationwide Power System Vulnerability Index (PSVI) that identifies areas at increased risk of power outages.

Journal: Applied Energy
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

Brain-computer interface could decode inner speech in real time

Cell Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists have pinpointed brain activity related to inner speech—the silent monologue in people’s heads—and successfully decoded it on command with up to 74% accuracy. Publishing August 14 in the Cell Press journal Cell, their findings could help people who are unable to audibly speak communicate more easily using brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies that begin translating inner thoughts when a participant says a password inside their head.

Journal: Cell
Funder: Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, National Institutes of Health, Simons Collaboration for the Global Brain, A.P. Giannini Foundation, Department of Veterans' Affairs, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Larry and Pamela Garlick, NIH/National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH/Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Blavatnik Family Foundation, U.S. National Science Foundation

Ancient cephalopod, new insight: Nautilus reveals unexpected sex chromosome system

Harvard University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a new study published in Current Biology, an international team of researchers discover the first evidence of an XX/XY sex determination system in chambered nautiluses and challenge the previously believed system of ZZ/Z0.

Journal: Current Biology
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

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