EurekAlert! News by Subject: Chemistry & Physics - News by Subject: Chemistry & Physics

Chemistry & Physics

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 7-May-2025 14:10 ET (7-May-2025 18:10 GMT/UTC)

MIT astronomers find the smallest asteroids ever detected in the main belt

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

MIT astronomers have found a way to spot the smallest, “decameter,” asteroids within the main asteroid belt. They used their approach to detect more than 100 new asteroids, ranging from the size of a bus to several stadiums wide, which are the smallest asteroids within the main belt detected to date.

Journal: Nature
Funder: Heising-Simons Foundation, Czech Science Foundation, NVIDIA Academic Hardware Grant Program

Faster organic phosphorescence for better display tech

University of Michigan
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Screens for TVs, smartphones or other displays could be made with a new kind of organic LED material developed by an international team, co-led by University of Michigan engineers. The material maintains sharp color and contrast while replacing the heavy metal with a new hybrid material.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: National Research Foundation of Korea, U-M College of Engineering

Queen Mary University of London data center waste heat to provide hot water and heating for campus

Queen Mary University of London
Business Announcement

Queen Mary University of London's Tier 2 data centre is now powering up sustainability. By repurposing waste heat to provide hot water and heating for the Joseph Priestley Building and Mile End campus, Queen Mary is reducing our carbon footprint by 625 tonnes of CO2 annually. This innovative approach not only enhances the university's energy efficiency but also supports cutting-edge particle physics research with CERN's Large Hadron Collider and other groundbreaking projects. Data centres are typically energy-intensive, requiring significant electricity to maintain low temperatures. The heat generated during their operation is often wasted. By capturing and reusing this waste heat, this initiative repurposes this energy, reducing our reliance on gas boilers and cutting fossil fuel consumption.

Fusion with a twist: Improving stellarators

DOE/US Department of Energy
Grant and Award Announcement

Plasma many times hotter than the surface of the sun swirls inside of a large device. From the outside, the device looks like a metal ring surrounded by scaffolding and walkways. But inside, the device is creating the conditions needed to achieve fusion – the process that powers our sun and every star. Researchers supported by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science are working to improve our understanding of the process of fusion with the goal of commercializing fusion energy. In particular, scientists at DOE’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have made a big step forward in advancing stellarators, one type of fusion device.

New study reveals quasiparticle loss in extreme quantum materials

Rice University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study by Rice University physicist Qimiao Si unravels the enigmatic behaviors of quantum critical metals — materials that defy conventional physics at low temperatures. Published in Nature Physics Dec. 9 , the research examines quantum critical points (QCPs), where materials teeter on the edge between two distinct phases such as magnetism and nonmagnetism. The findings illuminate the peculiarities of these metals and provide a deeper understanding of high-temperature superconductors, which conduct electricity without resistance at relatively high temperatures.

Journal: Nature Physics
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Welch Foundation, European Research Council

KIT receives another Humboldt professorship for a top international researcher

Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)
Grant and Award Announcement

With his research, Professor Christopher Barner-Kowollik makes it possible to develop high-precision materials and surfaces for special applications in nanotechnology and materials science. Now the macromolecular chemistry expert has been selected for an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship. Next year he is expected to conduct research on new materials and polymer-based systems at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

Space-time crystals, an important step toward new optical materials

Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Photonic space-time crystals are materials that could increase the performance and efficiency of wireless communication or laser technologies. They feature a periodic arrangement of special materials in three dimensions as well as in time, which enables precise control of the properties of light. Working with partners from Aalto University, the University of Eastern Finland and Harbin Engineering University in China, scientists from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have shown how such four-dimensional materials can be used in practical applications. They published their results in Nature Photonics (DOI: 10.1038/s41566-024-01563-3).

Journal: Nature Photonics