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52 articles from PhysOrg

Breakthrough in quantum photonics promises a new era in optical circuits

The modern world is powered by electrical circuitry on a "chip"—the semiconductor chip underpinning computers, cell phones, the internet, and other applications. In the year 2025, humans are expected to be creating 175 zettabytes (175 trillion gigabytes) of new data. How can we ensure the security of sensitive data at such a high volume? And how can we address grand-challenge-like problems, from...

Women's voices in the media still outnumbered by those of men: study

New research from Simon Fraser University shows that women's voices continue to be underrepresented in the media, despite having prominent female leaders across Canada and internationally. Researchers in SFU's Discourse Processing Lab found that men outnumber women quoted in Canadian news media about three to one. The findings from the team's Gender Gap Tracker study were published this week in...

Long live superconductivity! Short flashes of light with sustaining impact

Superconductivity—the ability of a material to transmit an electric current without loss—is a quantum effect that, despite years of research, is still limited to very low temperatures. Now a team of scientists at the MPSD has succeeded in creating a metastable state with vanishing electrical resistance in a molecular solid by exposing it to finely tuned pulses of intense laser light. This...

Fingerprint for the formation of nitrous oxide emissions

Scientists led by Eliza Harris and Michael Bahn from the Institute of Ecology at the University of Innsbruck have succeeded in studying emissions of the greenhouse gas N2O under the influence of environmental impacts in an unprecedented level of detail. The study, which has now been published in Science Advances, is thus also a starting point for the creation of models that could predict future...

New way to power up nanomaterials for electronic applications

UCLA materials scientists and colleagues have discovered that perovskites, a class of promising materials that could be used for low-cost, high-performance solar cells and LEDs, have a previously unutilized molecular component that can further tune the electronic property of perovskites.

Healthy oceans need healthy soundscapes

Rain falls lightly on the ocean's surface. Marine mammals chirp and squeal as they swim along. The pounding of surf along a distant shoreline heaves and thumps with metronomic regularity. These are the sounds that most of us associate with the marine environment. But the soundtrack of the healthy ocean no longer reflects the acoustic environment of today's ocean, plagued with human-created noise.

Forests of the world in 3-D: Research team analyses complexity of forest structure

Primeval forests are of great importance for biodiversity and global carbon and water cycling. The three-dimensional structure of forests plays an important role here because it influences processes of gas and energy exchange with the atmosphere, whilst also providing habitats for numerous species. An international research team led by the University of Göttingen has investigated the variety of...

How protein condensation slows down gene activity and ensures the survival of stressed cells

All life on earth evolved multiple layers and networks of ensuring survival upon catastrophic events. Even cells have their emergency plan: the heat shock response. Triggered by multiple stress stimuli such as heat, toxins, or radiation, this cellular safety program tries to prevent permanent damage to the organism. The response resembles an overall adopted 'lockdown' strategy witnessed during the...

FGM safeguarding policies are alienating UK's African diaspora communities

Ahead of tomorrow's International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, by the United Nations, FORWARD, the leading African women-led organization working to end violence against women and girls, and the University of Huddersfield have published new research that documents how the stringent, targeted, FGM safeguarding measures introduced since the 2014 Girl Summit are causing...

Machine learning generates realistic genomes for imaginary humans

Machines, thanks to novel algorithms and advances in computer technology, can now learn complex models and even generate high-quality synthetic data such as photo-realistic images or even resumes of imaginary humans. A study recently published in the international journal PLOS Genetics uses machine learning to mine existing biobanks and generate chunks of human genomes which do not belong to real...

Signs of burnout can be detected in sweat

EPFL engineers, working in association with startup Xsensio, have developed a wearable system that can continually measure the concentration of cortisol—the stress hormone—in human sweat. Their device can eventually help doctors better understand and treat stress-related conditions like burnout and obesity.

Mathematicians develop new classes of stellar dynamics systems solutions

The Vlasov-Poisson equations describe many important physical phenomena such as the distribution of gravitating particles in interstellar space, high-temperature plasma kinetics, and the Landau damping effect. A joint team of scientists from the Mathematical Institute of RUDN University and the Mathematical Institute of the University of Munich suggested a new method to obtain stationary solutions...

Tiny sensor technique reveals cellular forces involved in tissue generation

A new technique developed by Brown University researchers reveals the forces involved at the cellular level during biological tissue formation and growth processes. The technique could be useful in better understanding how these processes work, and in studying how they may respond to environmental toxins or drug therapies.

The Ramanujan Machine: Researchers have developed a 'conjecture generator' that creates mathematical conjectures

Using AI and computer automation, Technion researchers have developed a 'conjecture generator' that creates mathematical conjectures, which are considered to be the starting point for developing mathematical theorems. They have already used it to generate a number of previously unknown formulas. The study, which was published in the journal Nature, was carried out by undergraduates from different...

At the core of the integrator complex

Gene expression is a highly regulated process that involves several steps. These include transcription of DNA instructions into RNA, removal of non-coding segments from the RNA message, and its subsequent translation into proteins. All these steps involve specific molecular machineries responsible for conducting each process with high accuracy. The Galej group, based at EMBL Grenoble, studies the...

How to predict the unpredictable in a changing climate

The retreat of an Alaskan glacier in the Barry Arm fjord, caused by rising temperatures, has left a steep and hefty land mass without structural support. If the hillside collapses in a landslide, millions of tons of rock and soil will plummet into the waters below, generating a wave of water hundreds of feet tall, endangering nearby coastal towns. Perhaps even more troubling, scientists cannot...

Trapping gases better with boron nitride 'nanopores'

What is common between a technology for storing energy in a solar cell and that for water purification? They both rely on the use of porous materials, or more specifically, 'nanoporous' materials that can trap gas molecules within narrow spaces on their surface, called pores, which are only nanometers (one-billionth of a meter) in size. In the parlance of chemistry, the phenomenon is known as...

A magnetic twist to graphene

Electrons in materials have a property known as 'spin," which is responsible for a variety of properties, the most well-known of which is magnetism. Permanent magnets, like the ones used for refrigerator doors, have all the spins in their electrons aligned in the same direction. Scientists refer to this behavior as ferromagnetism, and the research field of trying to manipulate spin as spintronics.

Chimp deaths at Sierra Leone sanctuary linked to a bacterium

An international team of researchers has found what they believe to be the pathogen that has been killing chimpanzees at a Sierra Leone sanctuary for approximately 15 years. In their paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the group describes their study of multiple samples of chimp tissue retrieved from some of the dead chimps and what they have found thus far.

Has life existed beyond Earth?

When the NASA Mars rover Perseverance touches down on the surface of Mars on February 18, it will arrive in Jezero Crater, which preserves evidence of a time when rivers flowed on Mars.