01. Survey finds public perception of scientists’ credibility has slipped 02. Scientists develop the next generation of highly efficient memory materials with atom-level control 03. Researcher discovers 1 in 5 bacteria can break down plastic 04. Simple new process stores carbon dioxide in concrete without compromising strength 05. Scientists crack new method for high-capacity, secure quantum communication 06. A breakthrough in inexpensive, clean, fast-charging batteries 07. New study shows mysterious solar particle blasts can devastate the ozone layer, bathing Earth in radiation for years 08. Scientists discover way to ‘grow’ sub-nanometer sized transistors 09. Understanding quantum states: New research shows […]
An alternative way to manipulate quantum states
EurekAlert July 2, 2024 Control over quantum systems is typically achieved by time-dependent electric or magnetic fields. Alternatively, electronic spins can be controlled by spin-polarized currents. Researchers in Switzerland demonstrated coherent driving of a single spin by a radiofrequency spin-polarized current injected from the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope into an organic molecule. With the excitation of electron paramagnetic resonance, they established dynamic control of single spins by spin torque using a local electric current. Their work highlighted the dissipative action of the spin-transfer torque, in contrast to the nondissipative action of the magnetic field, which allowed for the […]
A breakthrough in inexpensive, clean, fast-charging batteries
Science Daily July 3, 2024 Anode-free batteries possess the optimal cell architecture due to their reduced weight, volume and cost. However, their implementation has been limited by unstable anode morphological changes and anode–liquid electrolyte interface reactions. An international team of researchers (USA – UC San Diego, University of Chicago, University of Korea) showed that an electrochemically stable solid electrolyte and the application of stack pressure could solve these issues by enabling the deposition of dense sodium metal. An aluminium current collector was found to achieve intimate solid–solid contact with the solid electrolyte, which allowed highly reversible sodium plating and stripping […]
In State of the Science Address, NAS President Urges Improvements to K-12 Science Education in Order to Strengthen the U.S. STEM Workforce
National Academy of Sciences June 27, 2024 In her inaugural “State of the Science” address, National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt recommended a range of actions to protect and strengthen U.S. global leadership in science. U.S. science has become exceptionally dependent on international students. Foreign-born individuals currently make up 19% of all U.S. STEM workers and 43 percent of STEM workers at the Ph.D. level. This is not likely to last as foreign nations increase their investment in R&D. Being a global leader in science and technology has enabled the U.S. to effectively protect its national security, benefit from […]
MIT researchers identify routes to stronger titanium alloys
MIT News July 2, 2024 Optimizing the properties of structural materials to involve a tradeoff between two key characteristics: strength and ductility. Mechanical properties of titanium alloys suffer from the lack of 〈c + a〉dislocations on pyramidal slip planes, failing homogeneous plastic strain accommodation. A team of researchers in the US (MIT, industry) demonstrated that such a dilemma may be overcome by meticulously tuning the c/a ratio, the simplest crystallographic parameter of the hexagonal close-packed lattice, through Sn alloying. Combining this lattice-scale design concept with a cross-rolling based polycrystal-scale design solution, they showed a facile route to bimodal (α + […]
New study shows mysterious solar particle blasts can devastate the ozone layer, bathing Earth in radiation for years
Phys.org July 2, 2024 The impacts of strong solar particle events (SPEs) would be far more severe when the Earth’s protective geomagnetic field is weak, such as during past geomagnetic excursions or reversals. An international team of researchers (Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Australia, Germany) modeled the impacts of an extreme SPE under different geomagnetic field strengths, focusing on changes in atmospheric chemistry and surface radiation using the atmosphere–ocean–chemistry–climate model and the radiation transfer model LibRadtran. Under current geomagnetic conditions, an extreme SPE would increase NOx concentrations in the polar stratosphere and mesosphere, causing reductions in extratropical stratospheric ozone lasts for about […]
New twists on tornadoes: Earth scientist studies why U.S. has so many tornadoes
Phys.org June 27, 2024 Central North America is the global hotspot for tornadoes, fueled by elevated terrain of the Rockies to the west and a source of warm, moist air from equatorward oceans. Based on this theory central South America, with the Andes to the west and Amazon basin to the north, should have a “tornado alley” at least as active as central North America. Central South America has frequent severe thunderstorms yet relatively few tornadoes. According to a team of researchers in the US (Purdue University, National Center for Atmospheric Researchers, (Boulder, CO), Stony Brook University, Colorado State University) […]
Researcher discovers 1 in 5 bacteria can break down plastic
Phys.org June 28, 2024 Researchers in the Netherlands identified an organic compound BHET (Bis(2-Hydroxyethyl) terephthalate) and identified and characterized an enzyme (LipA), which could degrade the PET-derived oligomer BHET. The enzyme exhibited varying sequence similarity to several BHETase/PETase enzymes. SclipA was deleted from S. coelicolor resulting in reduced BHET degradation. Overexpression of all LipA variants significantly enhanced BHET degradation. The optimum conditions were determined as pH 7 and 25 °C for all variants. The activity on BHET and amorphous PET film was investigated. S2LipA efficiently degraded BHET and caused roughening and indents on the surface of PET films, comparable to […]
Scientists crack new method for high-capacity, secure quantum communication
Phys.org July 2, 2024 To achieve global quantum internet preparing and manipulating N-dimensional flying qudits as well as subsequently establishing their entanglement are still challenging tasks. A team of researchers in the US (University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, College of Staten Island) used an integrated approach, to explore the synergy from two degrees of freedom of light, spatial mode and polarization, to generate, encode, and manipulate flying structured photons and their formed qudits in a four-dimensional Hilbert space with high quantum fidelity, intrinsically enabling enhanced noise resilience and higher quantum data rates. The four eigen spin–orbit modes of their qudits […]
Scientists develop the next generation of highly efficient memory materials with atom-level control
Phys.org June 27, 2024 Recently a single-phase material concurrently exhibiting magnetism and the spin Hall effect has emerged as a scientifically and technologically interesting platform for realizing efficient and compact spin–orbit torque (SOT) systems. Researchers in South Korea demonstrated external-magnetic-field-free switching of perpendicular magnetization in a single-phase ferromagnetic and spin Hall oxide SrRuO3 by delicately altering the local lattices of the top and bottom surface layers of SrRuO3, while retaining a quasi-homogeneous, single-crystalline nature of the SrRuO3 bulk. This led to unbalanced spin Hall effects between the top and bottom layers. SrRuO3 exhibited the highest SOT efficiency and lowest power […]