The 2019 heat wave that struck Mo'orea—a volcanic island in French Polynesia—swept through its coral reefs like an invisible wildfire. Colorful, lively corals bleached into ghostly, chalk-white skeletons as soaring ocean temperatures triggered a mass mortality event (MME) that wiped out up to 80% of some local coral populations.
Lasers have become indispensable in everyday life and research, with applications ranging from data transmission and metrology to manufacturing. Masers, by contrast, have so far found hardly any practical applications.
Ceramic materials are used everywhere, from smartphones and computers to electric vehicles and renewable energy systems. These materials are used in a wide range of technologies because of their unique electrical, magnetic and thermal properties. However, discovering new ceramic compositions with better performance remains a significant challenge because each candidate material must typically be synthesized and tested individually, involving multiple labor-intensive steps.
Collecting rainwater from rooftops and using it to spray buildings during hot weather could help cities cut air conditioning use, lower urban temperatures and lessen the impact of heat waves, according to new research from The University of Manchester.
Dark matter's existence is all but certain—astronomers believe it makes up about a quarter of the universe's total energy content—yet its true identity has eluded us for decades. Two of the leading candidates for dark matter are the hypothetical particles ultralight axions and dark photons, which in the range studied here would be some 19 to 21 orders of magnitude lighter than the electron.
Young children often overestimate what they can do. That overconfidence may help them approach challenges without fear, but it can also get them into trouble. Children who overestimate their physical abilities, for example, may take risks that make accidental injuries more likely.
With annual production of around 1 million metric tons (1.1 million tons), formic acid is one of the most important basic chemicals and is used, among other things, as an additive in the animal feed industry. It is also increasingly attracting attention as an H2 carrier. To date, its production has relied on fossil raw materials, which are to be replaced in the long term by sustainable raw materials.
Black holes are fascinating regions in space where gravity is so strong that nothing, even light, can escape them. The largest known black holes, called supermassive black holes, contain millions to billions of times the mass of the sun and are typically located at the centers of galaxies.
A 19th-century real estate agent created the world's first version of Rightmove more than 160 years before the birth of online property previews.
Chiral phonons are groups of atoms that move in a circular direction when excited by an energy source, such as heat. As the phonons move through a material, they propagate that circular motion, or angular momentum, through the material. The angular momentum serves as the source of spin, and the chirality dictates the direction of the spin, enabling spin control in spintronics.
