X-rays indicate that water can behave like a liquid crystal

Scientists at Stockholm University have discovered that water can exhibit a similar behavior to that of a liquid crystal when illuminated with laser light. This effect originates by the alignment of water molecules, which ...

Old X-rays, new vision: A nano-focused X-ray laser

Imagine taking movies of the fastest chemical processes, or imaging atomic-scale detail of single virus particles without damaging them. Researchers from Japan have advanced the state-of-the-art in such endeavors, by enhancing ...

Looping X-rays to produce higher quality laser pulses

Ever since 1960, when Theodore Maiman built the world's first infrared laser, physicists dreamed of producing X-ray laser pulses that are capable of probing the ultrashort and ultrafast scales of atoms and molecules.

A new way to study how elements mix deep inside giant planets

There are giants among us—gas and ice giants to be specific. They orbit the same star, but their environmental conditions and chemical makeup are wildly different from those of Earth. These enormous planets—Jupiter, Saturn, ...

Examining a snapshot of exploding oxygen

For more than 100 years, we have been using X-rays to look inside matter and progressing to ever smaller structures—from crystals to nanoparticles. Now, within the framework of a larger international collaboration on the ...

Checking out iron under pressure

Iron is the most stable and heaviest chemical element produced by nucleosynthesis in stars, making it the most abundant heavy element in the universe and in the interiors of Earth and other rocky planets.

Untangling a key step in photosynthetic oxygen production

Photosystem II is a protein complex in plants, algae and cyanobacteria that is responsible for splitting water and producing the oxygen we breathe. Over the past few years, an international collaboration between scientists ...

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