Researchers have developed a new method for quickly detecting and identifying very low concentrations of gases, which , could form the basis for highly sensitive real-time sensors for applications such as environmental monitoring, breath analysis and chemical process control.

The intensive development of new technologies, especially in the field related to the construction of new portable devices used as sensors for the detection of many chemical compounds has brought many surprising solutions. One of them is an electronic tongue that can answer various questions about unknown samples: presence and amount of some specific compound, contamination, spoilage, or providing seemingly unmeasurable information such as taste. Such devices, however, would not have succeeded without the development of efficient, fast and inexpensive sensors, such as electrochemical sensors. Recent paper published by the researchers from the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences led by dr. Emilia Witkowska Nery demonstrates the low-cost, ion-selective syringe electrodes to be used to quantify potassium level in a wide range of food products, and pharmaceutical supplements. Let’s take a look closer on this research.

A team of international researchers led by the Plasma Science and Fusion Technology Laboratory of the University of Seville, have demonstrated the key role that energetic particles play in the stability of a tokamak plasma edge. The findings have been published in Nature Physics and could be key for the design of compact fusion power plants.

Researchers show that the efficacy of a commonly-used piezoceramic can be dramatically increased just by reducing its thickness and by preventing atomic defects during manufacture

The advancement of laser manipulating and shaping technology enables the precise control of strong field electron dynamics on a subcycle time scale which helps to resolve this critical issue. Two-color fields, which are the coherent overlap of the strong driving laser fields and its second harmonic field acting as a perturbation, provide an easy-to-implement method to shape the tunnelling electron wavepacket and control the coherent radiation.

Epithelial tissues are in constant interaction with their environment. Maintaining their functionality requires dynamic balance (homeostasis) and that their cell numbers are tightly regulated. This is achieved by cell extrusion programs, a checkpoint mechanism eliminating unwanted or harmful cells. Researchers at the Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin (MPZPM), Institut Jacques Monod (CNRS, UP Cité, France) and Niels Bohr Institute (Denmark) have now demonstrated how physical signals can have an impact on the fate of extruding cells governing their death or survival. The results recently published in “Nature Physics” may establish novel paths for understanding tissue properties in both normal and pathological conditions.