Materials Science News

New Form of Matter May Lurk Deep Inside Uranus and Neptune

Illustration of the predicted hexagonal carbon hydride compound under Neptune-like interior conditions. In this structure, carbon forms the outer spiral chains (yellow) and hydrogen forms the inner spiral chains (blue), consistent with the quasi-one-dimensional superionic behavior identified in first-principles simulations. Image credit: Cong Liu.
Apr 6, 2026 by News Staff

New computational simulations suggest ice-giant planets like Uranus and Neptune harbor a quasi-one-dimensional superionic state of carbon hydride that could reshape how scientists understand planetary interiors. Illustration of the predicted hexagonal carbon hydride compound under Neptune-like interior conditions. In this structure, carbon forms the outer spiral chains (yellow) and hydrogen forms the inner spiral chains (blue), consistent with the...

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Schulz et al. examined the whiskers that cover Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) trunks and found that they are geometrically and mechanically tailored to facilitate tactile perception by encoding contact location in the amplitude and frequency of the vibrotactile signal felt at the whisker base. Image credit: Schulz et al., doi: 10.1126/science.adx8981.

Remarkable Sense of Touch in Elephant’s Trunk Isn’t Just about Muscles or Nerves: Study

Feb 17, 2026 by News Staff

Keratin composites enable animals to hike with hooves, fly with feathers, and sense with skin. Mammalian whiskers are elongated keratin rods attached to...

Operating principle and implementation of MASI. Image credit: Wang et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-65661-8.

New Sensor Rewrites Rules of Optical Imaging

Jan 19, 2026 by News Staff

Inspired by a technique that allowed astronomers to image a black hole, scientists at the University of Connecticut developed a lens-free image sensor...

Experimental set-up on the roof of the Sydney Nanoscience Hub. Image credit: University of Sydney.

Innovative Paint-Like Coating Captures Water Directly from Thin Air

Nov 3, 2025 by News Staff

Scientists from University of Sydney and start-up Dewpoint Innovations have created a porous polymer coating that reflects up to 97% of sunlight and radiates...

Using Higgs echo spectroscopy, Huang et al. uncovered unconventional echo formation caused by inhomogeneous broadening and soft quasiparticle bands, which dynamically evolve under THz driving. Image credit: Ames National Laboratory.

Physicists Discover Unconventional Quantum Echo in Niobium Superconductors

Jul 21, 2025 by News Staff

Physicists from Ames National Laboratory and Iowa State University have demonstrated the emergence of a Higgs echo in niobium superconductors. Their discovery...

This conceptual illustration of a computer based on 2D molecules displays an actual scanning electron microscope image of the computer fabricated by Ghosh et al. Image credit: Krishnendu Mukhopadhyay / Penn State.

Researchers Develop World’s First Non-Silicon 2D Computer

Jun 18, 2025 by News Staff

Silicon has enabled advancements in semiconductor technology through miniaturization, but scaling challenges necessitate the exploration of new materials....

Biswas et al. observed how electrons, excited by ultrafast light pulses, danced in unison around a buckminsterfullerene molecule, then emitted excess energy in the form of several electrons. Image credit: RMT Bergues.

Physicists Observe Synchronized Dance of Electrons on Buckminsterfullerene Molecule

Feb 19, 2025 by News Staff

Physicists from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the University of Hamburg have observed how electrons, excited by ultrafast light pulses, danced...

A film a few atoms thick of non-crystalline niobium phosphide conducts better through the surface to make the material, as a whole, a better conductor. Image credit: Il-Kwon Oh / Asir Khan.

Researchers Create Ultrathin Niobium-Phosphide Conductor for Nanoelectronics

Jan 9, 2025 by News Staff

Niobium phosphide can conduct electricity better than copper in films that are only a few atoms thick; moreover, these films can be created and deposited...

Illustration of the atomic arrangement within a single lanthanide-doped nanocrystal; each lanthanide ion can emit light. Image credit: Andrew Mueller / Columbia Engineering.

Researchers Create New Nanosensors of Force

Jan 1, 2025 by News Staff

The newly-developed all-optical nanosensors are luminescent nanocrystals that can change intensity and/or color when you push or pull on them; they are...

Ilyas et al. demonstrated the efficient manipulation of the magnetic ground state in layered magnets through non-thermal pathways using terahertz light and established regions near critical points with enhanced order parameter fluctuations as promising areas to search for metastable hidden quantum states. Image credit: Adam Glanzman.

Scientists Magnetize Antiferromagnetic Material with Terahertz Laser Light

Dec 26, 2024 by News Staff

Physicists at MIT have directly stimulated atoms in an antiferromagnetic material using a terahertz laser, a light source that oscillates more than a trillion...

Planck’s law ignores but does not prohibit black-body radiation (BBR) from being circularly polarized. BBR from nanostructured filaments with twisted geometry from nanocarbon or metal has strong ellipticity from 500 to 3000 nanometers. The submicrometer-scale chirality of these filaments satisfies the dimensionality requirements imposed by fluctuation-dissipation theorem and requires symmetry breaking in absorptivity and emissivity according to Kirchhoff’s law. The resulting BBR shows emission anisotropy and brightness exceeding those of conventional chiral photon emitters by factors of 10 to 100. Image credit: Lu et al., doi: 10.1126/science.adq4068.

Nanostructured Filaments Produce Bright Light Waves that Twirl as They Travel

Dec 24, 2024 by News Staff

Bright, twisted light can be produced thanks to nanostructured filaments with twisted geometry, according to scientists at the University of Michigan. Planck’s...

Mapping of the altermagnetic order vector in MnTe. Image credit: Amin et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08234-x.

New Class of Magnetism Imaged for First Time: Altermagnetism

Dec 12, 2024 by News Staff

Altermagnetism is a distinct form of magnetic order where the tiny constituent magnetic building blocks align antiparallel to their neighbors, but the...

Bottom-up nano- to micro-fabrication is crucial in modern electronics and optics. Conventional multi-scale array fabrication techniques, however, are facing challenges in reconciling the contradiction between the pursuit of better device performance and lowering the fabrication cost and/or energy consumption. Chang et al. introduce a facile mixed-metal array fabrication method based on guided self-assembly of polymerizing organometallic adducts derived from the passivating oxides of a ternary liquid metal to create mixed metal wires. Image credit: Julia Chang.

Researchers Demonstrate New Technique for Self-Assembling Electronics

Dec 5, 2024 by News Staff

The new proof-of-concept work, published in the journal Materials Horizons, paves the way for self-assembling more complex electronic devices without relying...

A diffractive robot. Image credit: Smart et al., doi: 10.1126/science.adr2177.

Researchers Create Smallest Walking Robot Yet

Dec 4, 2024 by News Staff

A team of researchers at Cornell University has created a new class of magnetically controlled microscopic robots (microbots) that operate at the visible-light...

Britton et al. used a scanning electron microscope, scanning the mat with a focused beam of electrons and creating an image based on the pattern of electrons that are deflected or knocked-off; each individual strand is too narrow to be clearly captured by any form of visible light camera or microscope. Image credit: Beatrice Britton / Adam Clancy.

World’s Thinnest Spaghetti Created: Nanopasta

Nov 25, 2024 by News Staff

The world’s thinnest spaghetti is just 372 nm across — about 200 times thinner than a human hair. Britton et al. used a scanning electron microscope,...

The 5D memory crystal. Image credit: University of Southampton.

Researchers Store Entire Human Genome on ‘Everlasting’ 5D Memory Crystal

Sep 20, 2024 by News Staff

Unlike other data storage formats that degrade over time, 5D memory crystals can store up to 360 terabytes of information without loss for billions of...

This schematic shows the process by which the smart mask can detect chemicals in the breath, such as nitrite, which is an indicator of airway inflammation. Image credit: Wei Gao & Wenzheng Heng, Caltech.

EBCare: New Smart Mask Can Be Used to Assess Metabolic and Respiratory Conditions

Aug 30, 2024 by News Staff

Recent respiratory outbreaks have garnered substantial attention, yet most respiratory monitoring remains confined to physical signals. Exhaled breath...

C-ELM uses Kamptonema animale cyanobacteria to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Image credit: Prantar Tamuli.

New Building Biomaterial Draws Carbon Dioxide Out of Atmosphere, Scientists Say

Aug 12, 2024 by News Staff

A new biomaterial called C-ELM incorporates living cyanobacteria into translucent panels that can be mounted on to the interior walls of buildings. As...

An artist’s impression of fast phosphorescence: the blue light rays come into the molecule to generate bold yellow pillars, representing the acceleration of phosphorescence through the mixing of singlet states. Image credit: YAP Co Ltd.

Metal-Free Organic Molecules Show Highly Efficient Room-Temperature Phosphorescence

Jul 4, 2024 by News Staff

Metal-free organic 3-bromo-2-thienyl diketones exhibit fast and highly efficient room-temperature phosphorescence with high color purity under various...

Shroff et al. revealed excellent antiviral activity manifesting already within 10 to 15 min in Scots pine and Norway spruce, particularly against enveloped viruses; in contrast, other hardwoods displayed varied efficacy, with oak showing effectiveness against the enterovirus. Image credit: Shroff et al., doi: 10.1021/acsami.4c02156.

Solid Wood Surfaces Have Natural Antiviral Properties, Study Shows

Jun 19, 2024 by News Staff

In a new study, scientists from the University of Jyväskylä and the University of Eastern Finland evaluated the antiviral efficacy of various wood types,...

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