Diamonds are nearly perfect crystals, but not totally perfect. The defects in these crystals give the stones their characteristic colors. But one type of defect, the NV — nitrogen-vacancy — center, can hold a particular spin, and you can change that spin with the correct application of energy. [Asianometry] explains why this is important in […]
Entangled photons are an ideal choice for large-scale networks employing quantum encryption or similar, as photons can use fiber-optical cables to transmit them. One issue with using existing commercial fiber-optic lines for this purpose is that these have imperfections which can disrupt photon entanglement. This can be worked around by delaying one member of the […]
Sometimes a paper in a scientific journal pops up that makes you do a triple-take, case in point being a recent paper by [Aren Boyaci] and [Arindam Banerjee] in Physical Review E titled “Transition to plastic regime for Rayleigh-Taylor instability in soft solids”. The title doesn’t quite do their methodology justice — as the paper […]
A team at MIT led by [Professor Douglas Hart] has discovered a new, potentially revelatory method for the generation of hydrogen. Using seawater, pure aluminum, and components from coffee grounds, the team was able to generate hydrogen at a not insignificant rate, getting the vast majority of the theoretical yield of hydrogen from the seawater/aluminum […]
Researchers demonstrate sustainable 3D printing by using poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) solutions (PNIPAM), which speedily and reliably turn solid by undergoing a rapid phase change when in a salt solution. This property has been used to 3D print objects by using a syringe tip as if it were a nozzle in a filament-based printer. As long as the […]
Initially only seeing brief popular use as the filament in incandescent lighting, carbon fibers (CF) experienced a resurgence during the 20th century as part of composite materials that are lighter and stronger than materials like steel and aluminium, for use in aircraft, boats and countless more applications. This rising popularity has also meant that the […]
Magnetic materials are typically divided into ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic types, depending on their magnetic moments (electron spins), resulting in either macroscopic (net) magnetism or not. Altermagnetism is however a recently experimentally confirmed third type that as the name suggests alternates effectively between these two states, demonstrating a splitting of the spin energy levels (spin-split band […]
Photons are particles of light, or waves, or something like that, right? [Mithuna Yoganathan] explains this conundrum in more detail than you probably got in your high school physics class. While quantum physics has been around for over a century, it can still be a bit tricky to wrap one’s head around since some of […]
Here’s a short research paper from 2013 that explains how to create “hydroglyphics”, or writing with selecting surface wetting. In it, an apparently normal-looking petri dish is treated so as to reveal a message when wetted with water vapor. The contrast between hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces, which is not visible to the naked eye, becomes […]
For those who say there’s never enough time in a day, your wish for more time is getting granted, if ever so slightly. Scientists have now found a new source of our days getting longer — climate change. You may have already been aware that the length of the day on Earth has been getting […]