Feature Articles
In-depth articles written by our editorial team focusing on the latest developments in materials science and technology
Scientists at the University of Shanghai published a paper demonstrating how they used thermal analysis to indicate how to create optical reference cavities.
The discovery of this duality in light was the basis of modern quantum physics, and the ability of electrons’ quantum states to change from wave to particle, or both at once, continues to fascinate experimental and theoretical physicists today.
Cryo-electron microscopy (EM) has recently emerged as one of the main techniques used to study the structural biology of many macromolecular complexes at near-atomic resolution. More recently, this high-resolution technique has been incorporated into the drug discovery process for a number of different purposes.
In February 2020, a team of engineers reported the development of a technique that was able to enhance dark-field microscopy using a small, mirrored chip to generate images in place of the expensive components that were previously required by conventional methods. The advancement of the dark-field microscopy technique opened up the method for use in a variety of new applications, such as diagnostics and other bioanalytical applications.
The optical properties of lubricating greases such as urea, lithium, extreme pressure lithium, and molybdenum disulfide lithium greases have been studied using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. Different lubricating oils have revealed unique spectral features in the terahertz range.
Progress in nanoscience and nanotechnology depends not only on examining the surfaces of materials but on microscopically examining biological organisms and material structures to identify what they are made of and what electronic, magnetic, optical, and chemical processes may be in play.
Using concentrated solar energy to reverse combustion, a research team from Sandia National Laboratories has built a prototype device intended to chemically “reenergize” carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide using concentrated solar power.
In a precedent-shattering demonstration of the potential of laser-wakefield acceleration, scientists at the United States Department of Energy's (DOE’s) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, working with colleagues at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, have accelerated electron beams to energies exceeding a billion electron volts (1 GeV) in a distance of just 3.3 centimeters.
Article updated on 03/03/20 by Ben Pilkington
Harnessing the work in gravitational microlensing, supercomputer modeling and adaptive optics pioneered at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) at the University of California, Berkeley (United States), scientists have discovered two new planets in a solar system very much like our own.
A collaboration led by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has used molecular vibrations, triggered by ultrafast pulses of terahertz radiation, to change a manganite crystal from an electrical insulator into a conductor.