Phys.org news
Phys.org / A familiar magnet gets stranger: Why cobalt's topological states could matter for spintronics
The element cobalt is considered a typical ferromagnet with no further secrets. However, an international team led by HZB researcher Dr. Jaime Sánchez-Barriga has now uncovered complex topological features in its electronic ...
Phys.org / Carbon nanotube 'sandpaper' polishes semiconductor surfaces down to a few atoms
The performance and stability of smartphones and artificial intelligence (AI) services depend on how uniformly and precisely semiconductor surfaces are processed. KAIST researchers have expanded the concept of everyday "sandpaper" ...
Phys.org / 7,000 years of change: How humans reshaped Caribbean coral reef food chains
Human activity has lessened the resilience of modern coral reefs by restricting the food-fueled energy flow that moves through the food chains of these critical ecosystems, reports an international team of researchers in ...
Phys.org / Cell division spindles self-organize like active liquid crystals—a theory that holds up
When a cell divides, it performs a feat of microscopic choreography—duplicating its DNA and depositing it into two new cells. The spindle is the machinery behind that process: It latches onto chromosomes (where DNA is stored) ...
Phys.org / What honey bee brain chemistry tells us about human learning
A multi-institutional team of researchers led by Virginia Tech's Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC has for the first time identified specific patterns of brain chemical activity that predict how quickly individual ...
Phys.org / Mira A ejects seven Earth masses, forming a heart-shaped cloud 300 light-years away
Just in time for Valentine's Day, space offers a heart-shaped greeting. The star Mira A, about 300 light-years from Earth, has released material into an expanding cloud of gas and dust resembling a heart. Both the amount ...
Phys.org / Unseen planet or brown dwarf may have hidden 'rare' fading star
One of the longest stellar dimming events ever observed was likely caused by the gigantic saucer-like rings of either an unseen brown dwarf or "super-Jupiter" blocking its host star's light, astronomers say. For decades, ...
Phys.org / Visualizing how a plant's leaves, stem and roots mutually communicate under environmental stress in real time
How do the different parts of an adult plant communicate with each other when it suffers an injury, is waterlogged, burnt or exposed to environmental stress? Today we can answer this question thanks to an innovative optical ...
Phys.org / Extinct Hawaiian ibis with strangely small eyes suggests a shift to nocturnal life
Islands are famous for producing some of the world's strangest creatures, and now a new international study shows that the evolution of bird species on Hawaiian islands includes an ibis with unusually small eyes and limited ...
Phys.org / New lithium-based green phosphors rival today's commercial LED standard
Research results from Innsbruck, Schwabmünchen, and Düsseldorf demonstrate how the most widely used green phosphors in commercial LEDs can be replaced by representatives of an entirely new class of compounds. Green luminescence, ...
Phys.org / Majorana qubits become readable as quantum capacitance detects even-odd states
The race to build reliable quantum computers is fraught with obstacles, and one of the most difficult to overcome is related to the promising but elusive Majorana qubits. Now, an international team has read the information ...
Phys.org / Scientists reveal formation mechanism behind spherical assemblies of nanocrystals
From table salt to snowflakes, and from gemstones to diamonds—we encounter crystals everywhere in daily life, usually cubic (table salt) or hexagonal (snowflakes). Researchers from Noushine Shahidzadeh's group at the UvA ...