Phys.org October 4, 2024 The underrepresented minority (URM) faculty face challenges in many domains of academia, from university admissions to grant applications. A team of researchers in the US (University of Houston, University of California Merced, Texas Southern University, Texas A&M University, Louisiana State University) examined whether this translates to promotion and tenure (P&T) decisions. Data from five US universities on 1,571 faculty members’ P&T decisions showed that URM faculty received 7% more negative votes and were 44% less likely to receive unanimous votes from P&T committees. A double standard in how scholarly productivity was rewarded was also observed, with […]
Fused molecules could serve as building blocks for safer lithium-ion batteries
Phys.org October 3, 2024 A team of researchers in the US (Cornell University, Rice University, University of Chicago, Columbia University) assembled a new supramolecular porous crystal from fused macrocycle-cage molecules. The molecule comprised a prismatic cage with three macrocycles radially attached. The molecules formed a nanoporous crystal with one-dimensional nanochannels. The supramolecular porous crystal can take up lithium-ion electrolytes and achieve an ionic conductivity of up to 8.3 × 10–4 S/cm. Structural analysis and density functional theory calculations revealed that efficient Li-ion electrolyte uptake, the presence of 1D nanochannels, and weak interactions between lithium ions and the crystal enabled fast […]
Modeling system could enable future generations of self-sensing materials
Phys.org October 7, 2024 An international team of researchers (UK, Turkey) developed an experimentally informed predictive framework for autonomous sensing architected materials, combining theoretical and computational methodologies. The model incorporates stress-dependent electrical resistivity, geometric, and contact nonlinearities. It captures architecture-dependent piezoresistive responses of lattice composites produced via additive manufacturing of polyetherimide (PEI)/carbon nanotube (CNT) nanoengineered feedstock. The PEI/CNT composite exhibited exceptional strength, stiffness, and strain sensitivity, translating into remarkable piezoresistive characteristics for the PEI/CNT lattice composites, surpassing existing works. It accurately predicts both macroscopic piezoresistive responses and the influence of architectural and topological variations on electric current paths. According to […]
Nanoscale method boosts materials for advanced memory storage
Phys.org October 7, 2024 Hierarchical assemblies of ferroelectric nanodomains can exhibit exotic morphologies that lead to distinct behaviours. Controlling these super-domains reliably is critical for realizing states with desired functional properties. A team of researchers in the US (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of Texas at Arlington, UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Rice University) described the super-switching mechanism by using a biased atomic force microscopy tip of a model ferroelectric Pb0.6Sr0.4TiO3. They demonstrated that the writing process was dominated by a super-domain nucleation and stabilization process. A complex scanning-probe trajectory enabled on-demand formation of intricate centre-divergent, centre-convergent and flux-closure […]
New materials and techniques show promise for microelectronics and quantum technologies
Phys.org October 2, 2024 Low dimensional (LD) organic metal halide hybrids (OMHHs) have recently emerged as new generation functional materials with exceptional structural and property tunability. Despite the remarkable advances in the development of LD OMHHs, optical properties have been the major functionality extensively investigated for most of LD OMHHs developed to date, while other properties such as magnetic and electronic properties, remain significantly under-explored. An international team of researchers (USA – Florida State University, North Carolina State University, UCLA, Israel) describe the characterization of the magnetic and electronic properties of a 1D OMHH, organic-copper (II) chloride hybrid (C8H22N2)Cu2Cl6. Due […]
The pitfalls of passion: How it can backfire at work—and what managers can do about it
Phys.org October 9, 2024 An international team of researchers (UC Berkeley, Harvard University, Columbia Business School) support the benefits of passion. They revealed significant variability in the size of the effect. To explain this heterogeneity, they proposed that passion is associated with performance overconfidence—inflated views about how well the self is performing and that this association provides a helpful lens in understanding when passion will be beneficial for performance. A daily diary field study with 829 employees (33,160 observations) and an experiment with 396 participants provided evidence that passion is associated with performance overconfidence. These findings provided a lens through […]
Restoring quantum dot solar cells as if ‘flattening crumpled paper’
Nanowerk October 4, 2024 All-inorganic CsPbI3 perovskite quantum dots (PQDs) hold significant potential for next-generation photovoltaics due to their unique optoelectronic properties. Initially used long-chain ligands in PQDs synthesis stabilized the black phase but hindered charge transport when employed to solar cells, necessitating their replacement with shorter ones leading to the formation of surface defects and loss of tensile strain, resulting in the transition to the undesired orthorhombic phase and compromising PQD solar cell performance. To address these issues researchers at the Republic of Korea developed an efficient ligand-exchange process utilizing a multifaceted anchoring ligand, 2-thiophenemethylammonium iodide (ThMAI). The larger […]
Self-propelled shape-changing robots mimic aquatic insects for untethered swimming
Nanowerk October 8, 2024 Despite recent advances in the field of small-scale robots, the development of efficient, untethered, and integrated powering, actuation, and control of small-scale robots remains a challenge due to the out-of-equilibrium and dissipative nature of the driving physical and chemical phenomena. An international team of researchers (USA – University of Michigan, Canada) designed small-scale, bioinspired aquatic locomotors with programmable deterministic trajectories that integrated self-propelled chemical motors and photoresponsive shape-morphing structures. They developed robots integrating structural protein networks that self-regulated the release of chemical fuel with photochemical liquid crystal network (LCN) actuators that changed their shape and deformed […]
Study calls for responsible academic research assessment
Phys.org October 4, 2024 In their study a team of researchers in the UK challenged mainstream thinking that academic judges are best suited for evaluating research outputs. It aimed to inspire methods to utilize metrics effectively, considering the diverse communities requiring clear evaluation criteria. The research team used data from the UK’s 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) to examine the interplay between metrics and expert judgment in evaluating research outputs from 108 institutions, covering 13,973 publications in business and management—one of the evaluation’s largest and most heterogeneous fields. They showed that the strong association between journal rankings and expert evaluations […]
Study warns of ‘irreversible’ climate impacts from overshooting 1.5C
Phys.org October 9, 2024 An international team of researchers (Austria, Germany, France, UK, Switzerland, Australia, Norway) found that achieving declining global temperatures could limit long-term climate risks compared with a mere stabilization of global warming, including for sea-level rise and cryosphere changes. However, the possibility that global warming could be reversed many decades into the future might be of limited relevance for adaptation planning today. Temperature reversal could be undercut by strong Earth-system feedback resulting in high near-term and continuous long-term warming. To protect against high-risk outcomes, they identified the geophysical need for a preventive carbon dioxide removal capacity of […]