Functional materials are physical systems engineered so that their intrinsic properties—such as electrical conductivity, magnetization, optical response, ionic mobility, or mechanical deformation—can be deliberately modulated by external stimuli (e.g., electric or magnetic fields, light, temperature, stress, or chemical environment) to perform specific tasks. They encompass classes such as ferroelectrics, piezoelectrics, magnetoresistive and thermoelectric materials, shape-memory alloys, solid electrolytes, and stimuli-responsive polymers. In research and device design, functional materials serve as active components enabling sensing, actuation, energy conversion, information storage, and signal processing, with performance governed by their structure–property relationships across atomic, mesoscale, and macroscopic length scales.
Photosynthetic microorganisms can use light energy to convert carbon dioxide into useful compounds under mild, environmentally compatible conditions. However, many current photosynthetic production systems rely on cells growing ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 10, 2026
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The performance of many next-generation devices depends on controlling how energy flows at extremely small scales. In the field of microelectronics—where devices continue to shrink and new materials are introduced—small imperfections ...
General Physics
Jul 31, 2026
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Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have demonstrated a new way of switching a material between two fundamentally different magnetic states using an electric current. The discovery could pave the way for ...
Condensed Matter
Jul 30, 2026
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74
Full-color displays normally require separate red, green and blue light emitters. A team from the University of Osaka and Ritsumeikan University has demonstrated another approach: a single light-emitting layer that produces ...
Optics & Photonics
Jul 30, 2026
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41
A fleeting photoinduced electronic state and the subsequent formation of a photoinduced hidden state in a metal–organic framework were captured in just 30 femtoseconds by researchers at Science Tokyo, Tohoku University and ...
Condensed Matter
Jul 27, 2026
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10
Photographs can reveal things that are otherwise impossible for the naked eye to see, be they distant galaxies or microscopic cells. Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University have developed a practical and versatile imaging ...
Nanophysics
Jul 24, 2026
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109
Deep-diving insect larvae are challenging a long-held idea about why there are almost no insects in the ocean, thanks to sturdy air sacs. In Lake Malawi in East Africa, billions of lake fly larvae (Chaoborus edulis) make ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 23, 2026
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Researchers from Skoltech, in collaboration with the Harbin Institute of Technology and Jiangsu University (China), have published a study presenting the first empirical model to explain and predict the sensing behavior of ...
Nanophysics
Jul 20, 2026
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Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) are the first to directly utilize orbital currents without the need for conversion of the orbital current into a spin current.
Condensed Matter
Jul 2, 2026
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16
Scientists discovered a protein secreted by a deep-sea extremophile—an organism adapted to extreme environmental conditions—that self-assembles into a biofilm and is highly stable, boosting its potential for biomedical applications.
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 29, 2026
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