Researchers demonstrate how to control liquid crystal patterns

When Lisa Tran set out to investigate patterns in liquid crystals, she didn't know what to expect. When she first looked through the microscope, she saw dancing iridescent spheres with fingerprint-like patterns etched into ...

Microlaser chip adds new dimensions to quantum communication

Researchers at Penn Engineering have created a chip that outstrips the security and robustness of existing quantum communications hardware. Their technology communicates in "qudits," doubling the quantum information space ...

Liquid crystal turns water droplets into 'gemstones'

(Phys.org) —Liquid crystals are remarkable materials that combine the optical properties of crystalline solids with the flow properties of liquids, characteristics that come together to enable the displays found in most ...

Team shows how 'spontaneous' social norms emerge

Fifteen years ago, the name "Aiden" was hardly on the radar of Americans with new babies. It ranked a lowly 324th on the Social Security Administration's list of popular baby names. But less than a decade later, the name ...

Bacteria form biofilms like settlers form cities

Microbiologists have long adopted the language of human settlement to describe how bacteria live and grow: They "invade" and "colonize." Relations dwelling in close proximity are "colonies."

Biologists show how plants turn off genes they don't need

A plant has one genome, a specific sequence of millions of basepairs of nucleotides. Yet how this genome is expressed can vary from cell to cell, and it can change as a plant goes through various life stages, from germination ...

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