Skyrmions are nanometer- to micrometer-sized magnetic whirls that exhibit particle-like properties and can be moved efficiently by electrical currents. These properties make skyrmions an excellent system for new types of data storage or computers. However, for the optimization of such devices, it is usually too computationally expensive to simulate the complicated internal structure of the skyrmions. One possible approach is the efficient simulation of these magnetic spin structures as particles, similar to the simulation of molecules in biophysics. Until now, however, there has been no conversion between simulation time and experimental real time. o meet this challenge, the theoretical physics group of Professor Peter Virnau and the experimental physics group of Professor Mathias Kläui at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have joined forces. The method for determining the time conversion combines experimental measurement techniques with analysis methods from statistical physics.

A study led by Nikita Komarov and Simon Sprecher at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, has discovered neurons in the fly larva mouth that allow the taste of food texture. Published in the open-access journal PLOS Biology on January 30^th, the study found that the fly peripheral taste organ has neurons with texture-tasting mechanoreceptors that derive their ability from the painless gene.

Zaps of static electricity might be a wintertime annoyance, but to certain scientists, they represent an untapped source of energy. Using a device called a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), mechanical energy can be converted into electrical energy using triboelectric effect static. Many TENGs contain expensive, specially fabricated materials, but one team has instead used inexpensive store-bought tape, plastic and aluminum metal. The researchers report an improved version of their tape-based TENG in ACS Omega.