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Chemistry & Physics

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 27-Aug-2025 18:11 ET (27-Aug-2025 22:11 GMT/UTC)

Advanced microelectronics: Why a next-gen semiconductor doesn't fall to pieces

University of Michigan
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new class of semiconductors that can store information in electric fields could enable computers that run on less power, sensors with quantum precision, and the conversion of signals between electrical, optical and acoustic forms—but how they maintained two opposite electric polarizations in the same material was a mystery.

Journal: Nature
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, Army Research Office, U-M College of Engineering

‘Cosmic radio’ could find dark matter in 15 years

King's College London
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists have designed a ‘cosmic radio’ detector which could discover dark matter in 15 years.

Journal: Nature

A compact, mid-infrared pulse generator

Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Physicists in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have created a compact laser that emits extremely bright, short pulses of light in a useful but difficult-to-achieve wavelength range, packing the performance of larger photonic devices onto a single chip.

Journal: Nature

Pushing the limits of brain imaging: A new tool for targeted delivery of imaging agents and drugs

SPIE--International Society for Optics and Photonics
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Repeated administration of imaging agents to the mouse brain during live multiphoton microscopy is enabled by a newly developed delivery system. This low-profile cannula, implanted at a shallow angle, preserves optical access for high-resolution imaging while allowing direct infusion of compounds. The new approach was validated through experiments tracking fluorescent markers, degenerating neurons in Alzheimer's disease mice, and measuring brain tissue oxygen levels over time. This advancement promises to enhance longitudinal brain imaging studies, providing valuable insights into brain function and disease progression.

Journal: Neurophotonics

Novel machine learning model can predict material failure before it happens

Lehigh University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team of Lehigh University researchers has successfully predicted abnormal grain growth in simulated polycrystalline materials for the first time—a development that could lead to the creation of stronger, more reliable materials for high-stress environments, such as combustion engines. A paper describing their novel machine learning method was recently published in Nature Computational Materials.

Journal: npj Computational Materials
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, Army Research Office, Army Research Laboratory

A step toward harnessing clean energy from falling rainwater

American Chemical Society
Peer-Reviewed Publication

When two materials come into contact, charged entities on their surfaces get a little nudge. This is how rubbing a balloon on the skin creates static electricity. Likewise, water flowing over some surfaces can gain or lose charge. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have harnessed the phenomenon to generate electricity from rain-like droplets moving through a tube. They demonstrate a new kind of flow that makes enough power to light 12 LEDs.

Journal: ACS Central Science

A little bit of space on Earth

Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

There is a large diversity in the chemical composition of astronomical objects such as planets, comets, circumstellar envelopes, or galactic gas clouds. One great challenge in astrochemistry is to understand in detail how this diversity arises from the cosmic backdrop of the cycling of matter between star birth and destruction, with molecules forming, reacting and coalescing in cold clouds of dust and ice in between these events. Trivalent phosphorus, linked to anaerobic conditions on Earth, has also been found in the atmospheres of giant planets and in the distant interstellar medium. Phosphates are present in certain meteorites and on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. How did phosphorus make its way between these environments and ultimately became central to life on Earth? Studying here, in terrestrial laboratories, various properties of unfamiliar molecules that may wander interstellar space is an intriguing path. …a path being followed by scientists from the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences.

Journal: Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics