Google provides open source library for quantum chemistry

Go with the flow: Scientists design new grid batteries for renewable energy

How do you store renewable energy so it's there when you need it, even when the sun isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing? Giant batteries designed for the electrical grid - called flow batteries, which store electricity in tanks of liquid electrolyte - could be the answer, but so far uti ... more

Plastic gets a do-over: Breakthrough discovery recycles plastic from the inside out

Light yet sturdy, plastic is great - until you no longer need it. Because plastics contain various additives, like dyes, fillers, or flame retardants, very few plastics can be recycled without loss in performance or aesthetics. Even the most recyclable plastic, PET - or poly(ethylene tereph ... more

New molecular blueprint advances our understanding of photosynthesis

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have used one of the most advanced microscopes in the world to reveal the structure of a large protein complex crucial to photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight into cellular ... more

New mathematics captures intricate fluid interface dynamics

A new mathematical framework developed at Berkeley Lab, published in the June 10 issue of Science Advances, allows researchers to capture fluid dynamics coupled to interface motion at unprecedented detail. The framework, called "interfacial gauge methods", developed by Robert Saye, a Luis W ... more

New-generation material removes iodine from water

Researchers at Dartmouth College have developed a new material that scrubs iodine from water for the first time. The breakthrough could hold the key to cleaning radioactive waste in nuclear reactors and after nuclear accidents like the 2011 Fukushima disaster. The new-generation microporous ... more

3-D printing turns nanomachines into life-size workers

Using advanced 3-D printing, Dartmouth College researchers have unlocked the key to transforming microscopic nanorings into smart materials that perform work at human-scale. Nanomachines can already deliver medication and serve as computer memories at the tiny nanometer scale. By integratin ... more

Team creates new method to control quantum systems

Dartmouth College researchers have discovered a method to design faster pulses, offering a new way to accurately control quantum systems. Quantum physics defines the rules that govern the realm of the ultra-small - the atomic and sub-atomic world -- which explains the behavior of matter and ... more

Monitoring the corrosion of bioresorbable magnesium

ETH researchers have recently been able to monitor the corrosion of bioresorbable magnesium alloys at the nanoscale over a time scale of a few seconds to many hours. This is an important step towards accurately predicting how fast implants are resorbed by the body to enable the development ... more

Using industrial waste as insulation for buildings

ETH spinoff FenX transforms industrial waste into a porous foam suitable for building insulation. Unlike other sustainable materials used for the purpose, this type of insulation is non-flammable and inexpensive to produce. No sooner does one of the four young men come up with the idea than ... more

Deep learning, prefabricated

Self-driving cars, the automatic detection of cancer cells, online translation: deep learning makes it all possible. The ETH spin-off Mirage Technologies has developed a deep learning platform that aims to help start-ups and companies more quickly develop and optimise their products. The na ... more

Oxybromination of methane over vanadium phosphate

ETH Zurich scientists have discovered a new catalyst that allows the easy conversion of natural gas constituents into precursors for the production of fuels or complex chemicals, such as polymers or pharmaceuticals. The new catalyst is extremely stable and results in fewer unwanted by-produ ... more

Repellent research: Ship coatings to reduce fuel, energy costs

It can repel water, oil, alcohol and even peanut butter. And it might save the U.S. Navy millions of dollars in ship fuel costs, reduce the amount of energy that vessels consume and improve operational efficiency. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is sponsoring work by Dr. Anish Tuteja, an ... more

Biocatalysts are a bridge to greener, more powerful chemistry

New research from the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute is building a bridge from nature's chemistry to greener, more efficient synthetic chemistry. Researchers in the lab of Alison Narayan analyzed biocatalysts evolved by nature for their effectiveness in a variety of syntheti ... more

The shape of melting in two dimensions

Snow falls in winter and melts in spring, but what drives the phase change in between? Although melting is a familiar phenomenon encountered in everyday life, playing a part in many industrial and commercial processes, much remains to be discovered about this transformation at a fundamental ... more

The Shape of Melting in Two Dimensions

A movie depicting the hexatic phase transition of a two-dimensional hard particle system of hexagons under external pressure. On the left, red and green particle pairs indicate the structure of defects in the system. On the right, blue and yellow particles show how defects migrate within th ... more

From Liquid To Gel: A New Test for Lead in Paint

A new molecular gel recipe developed at the University of Michigan by Anne McNeil, Arthur F Thurnau Professor of Macromolecular Science, and is at the core of a prototype for a more accurate lead paint test.The new test is more clear and accurate than its counterparts. It consists of a vial ... more

Icephobic Coating

University of Michigan researchers demonstrate a durable ice-repellent coating that could help keep everything from airplanes to ships, power lines and windshields ice-free. more

Artificial neural network resolves puzzles from condensed matter physics

For some phenomena in quantum many-body physics several competing theories exist. But which of them describes a quantum phenomenon best? A team of researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Harvard University in the United States has now successfully deployed artificial n ... more

Computing faster with quasi-particles

In collaboration with researchers from Harvard University, researchers from the University of Würzburg have made an important step on the road to topological quantum computers. Majorana particles are very peculiar members of the family of elementary particles. First predicted in 1937 by the ... more

A reconfigurable soft actuator

Mechanical systems, such as engines and motors, rely on two principal types of motions of stiff components: linear motion, which involves an object moving from one point to another in a straight line; and rotational motion, which involves an object rotating on an axis. Nature has developed ... more

A diamond radio receiver

Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have made the world’s smallest radio receiver – built out of an assembly of atomic-scale defects in pink diamonds. This tiny radio — whose building blocks are the size of two atoms — can withstand extrem ... more

A 3-D Material that Folds, Bends and Shrinks on its Own

Harvard researchers have designed a new type of foldable material that is versatile, tunable and self actuated. It can change size, volume and shape; it can fold flat to withstand the weight of an elephant without breaking, and pop right back up to prepare for the next task. more

New Polymers for Solar Power

As part of the 2015–2016 Fellows’ Presentation Series at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Scott T. Milner RI ’16 discusses current trends in solar power, how solar cells work, and how polymer-based materials may offer an attractive alternative to silicon. more

New material for splitting water

Solar energy is clean and abundant. But when the sun isn't shining, you must store the energy in batteries or through a process called photocatalysis -- in which solar energy is used to make fuels. In photocatalytic water splitting, sunlight separates water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hyd ... more

Polymers and Fuels from Renewable Resources

Prof. Charlotte K. Williams from Oxford University receives the Otto Roelen Medal 2018. This prize will be awarded by DECHEMA and the German Catalysis Society in recognition of her developments in the field of highly active catalysts for carbon dioxide copolymerization. This enables renewab ... more

Two-dimensional melting of hard spheres experimentally unravelled after 60 years

After extensive research, scientists from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford have found experimental evidence that sheds new light on the melting of two-dimensional substances. Findings from the study could be used to support technological improvements to thin film mate ... more

How do hydrogen droplets behave when hydrogen-oxygen aerosol mixtures burn?

Modern rockets and their launch vehicles commonly rely on hydrogen-oxygen mixtures as propellant, but this combination is highly explosive. The Challenger space shuttle catastrophe of 1986 is associated with self-ignition of such mixtures. Risks of explosion are mitigated by the evaporation ... more

3-D printing for building densely populated electronic assemblies investigated

As detector assemblies get smaller and denser -- packed with electronic components that all must be electrically connected to sense and read out signals -- it's becoming increasingly more challenging to design and manufacture these all-important instrument devices. A team of NASA technologi ... more

Printing nanomaterials with plasma

Printing has come a long way since the days of Johannes Gutenberg. Now, researchers have developed a new method that uses plasma to print nanomaterials onto a 3-D object or flexible surface, such as paper or cloth. The technique could make it easier and cheaper to build devices like wearabl ... more