When hit with laser light (illustrated, red), a cuprate containing copper and oxygen atoms (blue and red spheres) expels magnetic fields (blue). That effect strengthens the case for light-induced superconductivity in such materials.
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Physics
Can light spark superconductivity? A new study reignites debate
Brief blasts of light might make some materials into fleeting superconductors. Magnetic measurements strengthen the case for this controversial claim.
An amberlike material used to store DNA at room temperature is like polystyrene plastic, with an added molecular weakness that allows scientists to break down and reassemble it as needed.
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Nuclear engineers are making fuel for advanced nuclear reactors known as HALEU, using equipment at Idaho National Laboratory (shown).
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Scientists have proposed that Earth’s moon-sized inner core revolves independently of the mantle and crust, and that it is now backpedaling relative to those other layers.
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No known source of light could even come close to concentrating enough energy to form a black hole, a new study suggests.
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In a laboratory experiment, scientists sent entangled photons (red squiggles) into an interferometer (illustrated) that was sensitive enough to measure Earth’s rotation.
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Once an egg is cracked, you can’t put it back together, a phenomenon that may be explained by the second law of thermodynamics.
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Scientists could create atoms made of tau leptons (illustrated in upper left) using a particle collider that smashes together electrons and positrons (arrows at right and left, respectively).
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In a demonstration of technology needed for a quantum internet, researchers in China generated entanglement between three quantum memories in the city of Hefei (illustrated).
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Frozen water’s slipperiness comes from a liquidlike layer on its surface. Arrangements of water molecules on the surface of ice (illustrated in blue) are helping to explain how that layer forms.
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Scientists used a superconducting sensor chip (shown) to detect the energy of atoms recoiling after they decayed within a layer of tantalum on the sensor. That measurement helped set a limit on a quantum property of neutrinos, which are also emitted in the decay.
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Scientists are considering whether the universe might have a complicated topology, represented by a doughnut shape in this artist’s conception.
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