Attosecond laser technique yields movies of chemical bond dissociation

15-Jul-2019

On bright summer days, the sunlight all around us is breaking bad by breaking bonds. Chemical bonds. Ultraviolet light shatters the links between atoms in the DNA of our skin cells, potentially causing cancer. UV light also breaks oxygen bonds, eventually creating ozone, and cleaves hydrogen off ...

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Harvesting solar fuels through a bacterium's unusual appetite for gold

11-Oct-2018

A bacterium named Moorella thermoacetica won't work for free. But UC Berkeley researchers have figured out it has an appetite for gold. And in exchange for this special treat, the bacterium has revealed a more efficient path to producing solar fuels through artificial photosynthesis. M. ...

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'Topological' graphene nanoribbons trap electrons for new quantum materials

10-Aug-2018

Scientists are experimenting with narrow strips of graphene, called nanoribbons, in hopes of making cool new electronic devices, but University of California, Berkeley scientists have discovered another possible role for them: as nanoscale electron traps with potential applications in quantum ...

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19-Apr-2018

Nearly 70 percent of the energy produced in the United States each year is wasted as heat. Much of that heat is less than 100 degrees Celsius and emanates from things like computers, cars or large industrial processes. Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a ...

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13-Apr-2018

Lithium-based batteries use more than 50 percent of all cobalt produced in the world. These batteries are in your cell phone, laptop and maybe even your car. About 50 percent of the world's cobalt comes from the Congo, where it's largely mined by hand, in some instances by children. But now, a ...

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18-Sep-2017

Carbon monoxide is an insidious poison because it loves the iron in our blood; it pushes oxygen out of iron-based hemoglobin, leading to painful asphyxiation. This affinity for iron comes in handy in a newly created material that can absorb carbon monoxide far better than other materials, with ...

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30-Jan-2017

To most people, crystals mean diamond bling, semiprecious gems or perhaps the jagged amethyst or quartz crystals beloved by collectors. To Norman Yao, these inert crystals are the tip of the iceberg. If crystals have an atomic structure that repeats in space, like the carbon lattice of a diamond, ...

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Research breaks major barrier in transistor size by creating gate only 1 nanometer long

11-Oct-2016

For more than a decade, engineers have been eyeing the finish line in the race to shrink the size of components in integrated circuits. They knew that the laws of physics had set a 5-nanometer threshold on the size of transistor gates among conventional semiconductors, about one-quarter the size ...

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10-May-2016

Raising the superconducting transition temperature, the temperature above which a superconductor turns into a normal conductor, to a point where applications are practical is a dream in modern science and technology. In 1987 a superconductor with transition temperature above the boiling point of ...

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29-Jan-2016

An international research team has simplified the steps to create highly efficient silicon solar cells by applying a new mix of materials to a standard design. Arrays of solar cells are used in solar panels to convert sunlight to electricity. The special blend of materials--which could also prove ...

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