Electrons, negatively charged particles, sometimes coordinate their movements in ways that produce certain collective excitations referred to as quasiparticles. One case in which this occurs is the quantum Hall effect, a phenomenon that emerges when electrons are confined to a very thin layer, cooled to temperatures around 0 kelvin and exposed to a very strong magnetic field.
NASA and China's national space agency plan to send crewed missions to Mars in the coming decades. Per NASA's Moon to Mars mission architecture, this will involve using infrastructure established through the Artemis Program to send crews to the red planet sometime in the 2030s or 2040s. Similar to Artemis, these missions will culminate in the creation of habitats that will facilitate long-duration exploration and research. Naturally, this presents many challenges, including lengthy deep-space transits and the hazards of extended periods in microgravity.
Researchers at the Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI) at Kanazawa University, the Institute for Molecular Science and SOKENDAI have uncovered the hidden mechanism behind a molecular switch—a molecule that can change between different structural states in response to a chemical signal. Their study, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, reveals how molecules can gradually switch between alternative states, a process that could help scientists design future molecular machines, smart materials and molecular information technologies.
At Morningside Park in Miami, a new installation is testing a simple but urgent idea: What if a seawall could help heal the bay? Researchers at the Institute of Environment recently installed a series of 3D-printed seawall tiles designed and developed at FIU's Robotics and Digital Fabrication Lab.
Unexpectedly low calf numbers within the spinner dolphin population off Hawaiʻi Island were revealed in a study led by scientists with the Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, along with national and international collaborators. Their research, published in Endangered Species Research, determined that calves make up only about 9% of the population, a stark contrast to the 17% expected in a healthy, stable population, raising urgent concerns about the long-term survival of this isolated population.
"Complex chemical processes are essential for making DNA." This long-held assumption in the field of biotechnology has been overturned by a Korean research team. A KAIST research team has developed the world's first foundational technology that enables the synthesis of desired DNA using only temperature. Using this technology, the team also demonstrated a "DNA temperature black box" that records temperature changes during shipping without electricity.
Physicists have long puzzled over a strange contradiction inside a family of minerals called rutile oxides. These materials all share the same crystal structure—but while some of them, like titanium dioxide, are firmly insulating, others, like ruthenium dioxide, conduct electricity like a metal. So far, physicists have had little idea of why this happens.
Where does the solar system end and interstellar space begin? That's a question scientists have been working to answer using spacecraft traveling beyond the sun's influence. A team of researchers from the Southwest Research Institute, led by Heather Elliott, is using the Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument aboard New Horizons to track the solar wind in the outer reaches of the solar system.
Managing pediatric dental patients can be stressful for dental students and inexperienced practitioners, particularly when communicating with fearful and uncooperative children. Previous studies found that dental students experience three times the stress levels of seasoned specialists.
New research finds that birds can use lactate, often thought of as a metabolic waste product, as a cellular fuel that aids in rapid recovery from a harmful state that impairs oxygen delivery. Hemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen to our tissues, naturally converts to methemoglobin, which limits the blood's oxygen-carrying capacity.
