A quantum pump without a crank

Pumps, in a nutshell, are devices that use cyclic motion to attain the steady transport of some cargo. In a bicycle pump, the repeated up and down strokes of a piston create air flow. In a Archimedean screw pump, water is ...

Giant viruses build a cell nucleus surprisingly like our own

Humans aren't the only targets for viruses. Like us, bacteria become infected by many types of viruses. In fact, across billions of years, bacteria and viruses have engaged in a non-stop evolutionary arms race for survival ...

Researchers give 2D electronics a performance boost

Two dimensional (2D) semiconductors have a unique property that allows their thickness to be reduced to one or few atoms—and this property could potentially minimize the short channel effects that remain an issue in advanced ...

Defects in quartz crystal structure reveal the origin of dust

Global warming and a progressively drier climate in many parts of the world are causing more dust storms. To predict how these storms are caused, researchers are looking into the past to understand where the dust came from, ...

Grain size of rocks in Earth's mantle affects tectonics

The planet is shaped by forces deep within its interior. These push the plates of the Earth's crust against each other, causing mountains and volcanoes to form along the collision zones. But when reconstructing what exactly ...

Supercomputing helps reveal weaknesses in HIV-1 virus

Much remains to be discovered on how the HIV-1 virus infects our cells. Scientists know that it slips past the defenses of our immune system, entering white blood cells to deliver its genetic payload and hijack the cell's ...

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