Astronomers find evidence that a seemingly ordinary flash of gamma rays came from a colossal explosion seen from the sidelines.

Using a new slow-motion electron camera, physicists from Regensburg, Marburg, and Jülich revealed how intense electric fields drive electrons in graphene, causing them to jump across energy gaps in a seemingly paradoxical manner. This was made possible by a novel combination of laser technology and electron microscopy.

Tucked away inside a limestone cave in southeastern France lies some of the oldest artwork in existence. Known as Chauvet Cave, the site is so historically important — and fragile — that its location is kept secret and locked behind a huge steel door. And now, researchers reporting in ACS Omega have devised a technique to safely investigate these artworks and understand the natural varnish that has protected them for centuries. 

A collaboration between Kyushu University and Sumitomo Chemical has verified the potential use of potassium sodium niobate (KNN) as a core material in optical modulators, a next-generation semiconductor/data center technology, for photonics-electronics convergence. The new optical modulator demonstrated ultrafast operation at 180 Gbaud and achieved a VπL value of less than 0.7 Vcm, which is three times the modulation efficiency of another next-generation optical modulator, Thin-Film Lithium Niobate (TFLN).

Spintronics, where spin currents are used to process information, could enable energy-efficient computing and heat-based energy harvesting. In a recent study, researchers from Japan found that inserting an ultrathin layer of iridium manganese between a magnetic insulator and platinum can improve spin transfer. By carefully measuring and analyzing two spin-related effects, they provide key insights for developing better spintronic devices.

The new tool recognizes bacterial DNA in tiny genetic fragments, making it faster and easier to study the complex communities living in soil.

75 years after Rosalind Franklin’s pioneering work, Oxford chemists have used machine learning simulations to reveal how hard carbon forms at the atomic scale.

The simulations reveal why some carbon resists forming graphite: as a common packaging polymer (PVDC) breaks down, reactive carbon sites link together, forming five- and seven-membered rings that disrupt the formation of ordered graphite layers.

With hard carbon emerging as a key material for sodium-ion batteries, the findings show how machine learning can unlock the atomic-scale processes behind complex materials, paving the way for more targeted material design.

Macromolecular crowding can serve as a design tool for controlling the formation and organization of synthetic DNA droplets, a study from Science Tokyo reveals. Researchers investigated this novel strategy using DNA nanostars and polymeric crowding agents to mimic the crowded cellular environment. They found that crowding promoted droplet formation and enabled control over droplet size, interactions, and organization. The findings could support the development of programmable artificial cell systems.