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

Chemistry & Physics

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 4-May-2025 08:09 ET (4-May-2025 12:09 GMT/UTC)

Breakthrough in metamaterial electromagnetic response: Debye relaxation mechanism

Light Publishing Center, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics And Physics, CAS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The electromagnetic responses of metamaterial microstructural units are typically described using classical polarization theory models from dielectric physics, such as the Lorentz and Drude models. However, there has been a notable absence of the Debye model, which holds significant importance in dielectric physics. Chinese scientists have now successfully uncovered a novel broadband electromagnetic response mechanism in metamaterial microstructures based on polarization theory - Debye relaxation.

Journal: Light Science & Applications
Funder: National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Young Innovation Team Project of Shaanxi province

Smartphone photo sensors transformed into an unprecedented resolution antimatter camera

Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

At CERN, scientists from the AEgIS collaboration led by a team of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have repurposed smartphone camera sensors to create a detector capable of tracking antiproton annihilations in real time with unprecedented resolution. This new device, described in a paper just published in Science Advances, can pinpoint antiproton annihilations with a resolution of about 0.6 micrometres, a 35-fold improvement over previous real-time methods.

Journal: Science Advances

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

People living in Bronze Age-era Denmark may have been able to travel to Norway directly over the open sea, according to a study published April 2, 2025, in the open-access journal PLOS One by Boel Bengtsson from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and colleagues. To complete this study, the research team developed a new computer modeling tool that could help other scientists better understand how ancient peoples traversed the sea.

Journal: PLOS One

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a small study of eight cats at early stages of pregnancy, researchers detected 19 different kinds of microplastic particles in fetuses from two cats and in the placentas of three cats. Ilaria Ferraboschi of the University of Parma, Italy, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on April 2, 2025.

Journal: PLOS One

Hunga volcano eruption cooled, rather than warmed, the Southern Hemisphere

University of California - Los Angeles
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new UCLA-led study shows that the 2022 eruption of underwater volcano Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai did not warm the planet as was expected but actually reduced temperatures over the Southern Hemisphere by 0.1 C. The eruption released far less sulfur dioxide and much more water vapor than expected into the stratosphere. The work underscores that geoengineering could have multiple consequences, and scientists need to understand a given atmospheric system properly in order to understand whether geoengineering it will contribute to cooling or warming.

Journal: Nature Communications

Researchers demonstrate quantum computing's abilities in chemistry

Cleveland Clinic
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Kenneth Merz, PhD, of Cleveland Clinic's Center for Computational Life Sciences, and his team are testing quantum computing’s abilities in chemistry through integrating machine learning and quantum circuits.

Chemistry is one of the areas where quantum computing shows the most potential because of the technology’s ability to predict an unlimited number of possible outcomes. To determine quantum computing's ability to perform complex chemical calculations, Dr. Merz and Hongni Jin, PhD, decided to test its ability to simulate proton affinity, a fundamental chemical process that is critical to life.

Dr. Merz and Dr. Jin focused on using machine learning applications on quantum hardware. This is a critical advantage over other quantum research which relies on simulators to mimic a quantum computer’s abilities. In this study, published in the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, the team was able to demonstrate the capabilities of quantum machine learning by creating a model that was able to predict proton affinity more accurately than classical computing.

Journal: Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation

Spending on glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists among US adults

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: Spending on glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) increased from 2018 to 2023, with the largest growth rates from 2022 to 2023. Although spending for certain GLP-1 RAs increased substantially, spending declined for others. This study estimated that more than $71 billion was spent on GLP-1 RAs and more than $50 billion on a product based on either semaglutide or tirzepatide molecules.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

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