News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

A new material that stiffens 1,800-fold when exposed to heat could protect motorcyclists and racecar drivers during accidents.

Graphene nanoribbons are only a few carbon atoms wide and have different electrical properties depending on their shape and width. A team from Kiel University has now succeeded in simulating the detailed behavior of electrons in these special nanostructures using an elaborate computational model.

DUT and SUTD researchers developed a new strategy that enhances the brightness and clarity of sub-cellular structures when dyed with novel rhodamine fluorophores, laying the ground for the advancement of super-resolution microscopes.

The structure of an Organic Lake Phycodnavirus rhodopsin II (OLPVRII), which is a unique protein found in the genome of giant viruses, has been determined thanks to the work of MIPT graduates and PhD students.

Quantum nature of hydrogen bonds in water manifests itself in peculiar physicochemical isotope effects: while deuteration often elongates and weakens hydrogen bonds of typical hydrogen-bonded systems composed of bulky constituent molecules, it elongates but strengthens hydrogen bonds of water molecular aggregates. The origin of this unique isotope effect of water molecules remains to be elucidated at the molecular level. A recent experimental study on the sublimation of isotope-mixed water ice has tackled this issue.

Researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering have discovered a new phenomenon and are applying it to make a laser with over 40% efficiency-nearly 10 times higher than other similar lasers. The laser itself is made from a single layer of molecules anchored to a glass ring on a silicon wafer. It has improved power consumption and is fabricated from more sustainable materials than previous lasers.

Researchers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have invented a way to observe the movements of electrons with powerful X-ray laser bursts just 280 attoseconds, or billionths of a billionth of a second, long.

Physicists from Switzerland, Germany, and France have found that large-amplitude acoustic waves, launched by ultrashort laser pulses, can dynamically manipulate the optical response of semiconductors.