In a May 15 paper released in the journal Physical Review Letters, Virginia Tech physicists revealed a microscopic phenomenon that could greatly improve the performance of soft devices, such as agile flexible robots or microscopic capsules for drug delivery....

Two-dimensional materials such as graphene promise to form the basis of incredibly small and fast technologies, but this requires a detailed understanding of their electronic properties. New research demonstrates that fast electronic processes can be probed by irradiating the materials with ions...

The Venus flower basket sponge, with its delicate glass-like lattice outer skeleton, has long intrigued researchers seeking to explain how this fragile-seeming creature's body can withstand the harsh conditions of the deep sea where it lives....

The shimmering of butterfly wings in bright colors does not emerge from pigments. Rather, photonic crystals are responsible for the play of colors. Their periodic nanostructure allows light at certain wavelengths to pass through while reflecting other wavelengths. This causes the wing scales, which...

In solid materials, magnetism generally originates from the alignment of electron spins. For instance, in the ferromagnet iron, the overall net magnetization is prompted by the alignment of spins in the same direction....

Disk-related back pain may one day meet its therapeutic match: Gene therapy delivered by naturally derived nanocarriers that, a new study shows, repairs damaged disks in the spine and lowers pain symptoms in mice....

The synthesis of metallic inorganic compound thin films typically requires high-temperature processes, which hampers their applications on flexible substrates. Recently, a research team at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) developed a pulse irradiation technique that synthesizes a variety of...

In a novel study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the University of Twente have made significant strides in understanding the behavior of micro- and nanobubbles on electrodes during water electrolysis. This process is crucial for (green) hydrogen...

Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity without resistance and are essential for several technological advancements, which include medical imaging and energy-efficient technology. However, most known superconductors operate under extreme conditions such as extremely low temperatures...

Scientists have made a breakthrough in significantly improving the sharpness of X-ray imaging and potentially boosting the speeds at which X-ray scans can be processed. This lays the groundwork for both better medical imaging and faster security clearance....