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In the Sept. 15 SN: The plant microbiome revolution, Parker probe’s stellar tech, the first RNAi drug approved, video fakery, a puzzling lemur fossil, how elephants dodge cancer, supersmooth desalination, really old cheese and more.
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News
A new hydrogen-rich compound may be a record-breaking superconductor
09/10/2018 - 07:00 Condensed Matter, Materials, PhysicsSuperconductors are heating up, and a world record-holder may have just been dethroned.
Two studies report evidence of superconductivity — the transmission of electricity without resistance — at temperatures higher than seen before. The effect appears in compounds of lanthanum and hydrogen squeezed to extremely high pressures.
All known superconductors must be chilled to function,...
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News
Strange metals are even weirder than scientists thought
08/06/2018 - 06:00 Condensed Matter, Materials, PhysicsCuriouser and curiouser: Strange metals are getting a little stranger.
Normal metals such as copper and aluminum are old hat — physicists have a strong grasp on the behavior of the electrons within. But strange metals behave in mysterious ways, and researchers have now uncovered an additional oddity. A type of strange metal called a cuprate behaves unexpectedly when inside a strong...
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News in Brief
‘Time crystals’ created in two new types of materials
05/04/2018 - 07:00 Physics, Condensed MatterIt was only a matter of time.
A weird form of matter called a time crystal has made an appearance in two more types of materials, doubling the number of known time crystal habitats. In a typical crystal, its arrangement of atoms regularly repeats in space, such as the alternating sodium and chloride ions that make up a salt crystal. But time crystals’ patterns repeat themselves at...
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News in Brief
Give double-layer graphene a twist and it superconducts
03/08/2018 - 16:10 Condensed Matter, MaterialsLOS ANGELES — Give a graphene layer cake a twist and it superconducts — electrons flow freely through it without resistance. Made up of two layers of graphene, a form of carbon arranged in single-atom-thick sheets, the structure’s weird behavior suggests it may provide a fruitful playground for testing how certain unusual types of superconductors work, physicist Pablo Jarillo-Herrero of MIT...
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News
Some meteorites contain superconducting bits
03/07/2018 - 17:04 Condensed Matter, AstronomyLOS ANGELES — In the search for new superconductors, scientists are leaving no stone — and no meteorite — unturned. A team of physicists has now found the unusual materials, famous for their ability to conduct electricity without resistance, within two space rocks.
The discovery implies that small amounts of superconducting materials might be relatively common in meteorites, James...
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News
Some high-temperature superconductors might not be so odd after all
12/08/2017 - 07:00 Condensed Matter, Physics, MaterialsA misfit gang of superconducting materials may be losing their outsider status.
Certain copper-based compounds superconduct, or transmit electricity without resistance, at unusually high temperatures. It was thought that the standard theory of superconductivity, known as Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory, couldn’t explain these oddballs. But new evidence suggests that the standard theory...
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News
Photons are caught behaving like superconducting electrons
10/30/2017 - 15:21 Condensed Matter, Quantum PhysicsLight is a fan of the buddy system. Photons, or particles of light, have been spotted swapping energy with partners. This chummy behavior resembles how electrons pair up in materials that conduct current without resistance, known as superconductors, researchers report in a paper accepted in Physical Review Letters.
Although the photons exchange energy like electrons do, it’s unknown...
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News
Turning up the heat on electrons reveals an elusive physics phenomenon
09/26/2017 - 12:00 Condensed Matter, PhysicsWhen things heat up, spinning electrons go their separate ways.
Warming one end of a strip of platinum shuttles electrons around according to their spin, a quantum property that makes them behave as if they are twirling around. Known as the spin Nernst effect, the newly detected phenomenon was the only one in a cadre of related spin effects that hadn’t previously been spotted,...
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News
How to peel permanent marker off glass
09/14/2017 - 07:00 Condensed MatterView the video
Permanent markers aren’t so permanent after all. All that’s required to peel the ink from glass is the surface tension of water and a little patience, scientists report.
When glass marked with permanent ink is slowly dipped in water, the writing lifts off the glass and floats intact atop the water. For the first time, scientists have now explained the physics behind...
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News
Majorana fermion detected in a quantum layer cake
07/20/2017 - 15:58 Condensed MatterA particle that is its own antiparticle seems to have left its calling card within a solid material.
To observe the signature of that particle, a Majorana fermion, scientists coupled a thin film of a topological insulator — which conducts electricity on its edges but is insulating within — with a layer of a superconductor, in which electrons can flow without resistance. In this layer...