https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. The energy system of the future will require sustainable catalysts that, for example, enable the efficient production of green hydrogen. Materials consisting of mixtures of five chemical elements show great promise for enabling ideal catalysts in the future. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-randomly-atoms-rows-columns-sustainable.html Nanomaterials Fri, 31 Jul 2026 11:00:05 EDT news704710261 A collaborative research group led by Hiroshi Daimon, a specially appointed research fellow at the Institute for Molecular Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, has developed an "atom-holography microscope" capable of directly observing three-dimensional atomic arrangements in nanoscale regions by combining the electron beam of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with CoDELMA, a newly developed two-dimensional display-type analyzer. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-atom-holography-microscope-visualization-3d.html Bio & Medicine Thu, 30 Jul 2026 09:40:07 EDT news704621479 What happens inside a citrus tree long before leaves turn yellow, roots decline, and fruit quality suffers? Researchers from the University of Florida Citrus Research and Education Center—Diann S. Achor, Camila Ribeiro, Jinyun Li and Nian Wang—have created a detailed microscopic atlas that provides one of the clearest pictures to date of how citrus huanglongbing (HLB), also known as citrus greening disease, develops over time and affects different parts of a tree. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-microscopic-atlas-reveals-citrus-huanglongbing.html Plants & Animals Mon, 27 Jul 2026 18:00:09 EDT news704380196 A recent study examined a transparent material used in high-impact applications such as helicopter windshields at the molecular level to measure its toughness. Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of California, Irvine, followed a crack along a grain boundary in magnesium aluminate spinel, or transparent aluminum, adding new data about this unique crystal-structured material. Their paper is published in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-tough-material.html Materials Science Fri, 17 Jul 2026 11:20:03 EDT news703497162 Materials with magnetic nanostructures have a wide range of potential applications. One area is so-called spintronics, with devices that encode information in magnetic domains. These magnetic bits can be written, read and erased in a more energy-efficient way than bits in current semiconductor devices. Spin textures and magnetic domains in such materials can be investigated using nanoscale magnetic imaging techniques. For example, photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM), coupled with a magnetically sensitive detection mechanism. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-tiny-magnetic-image-spintronic-materials.html Nanophysics Sun, 12 Jul 2026 17:00:03 EDT news702563676 Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are used in everything from household lighting and mobile phones to large display screens. Improving their efficiency could reduce energy use and enhance performance across a wide range of technologies. A new study involving researchers from the University of Liverpool and the University of Strathclyde has demonstrated a powerful way to identify tiny crystal defects that can reduce the efficiency of LED materials. The advance could help scientists better understand how these defects form and ultimately support the development of more efficient electronic and optoelectronic devices. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-imaging-method-fresh-insight-materials.html Analytical Chemistry Sun, 12 Jul 2026 16:00:01 EDT news702896148 Researchers have taken over 120,000 images of salmon lice larvae in seawater and used them to train AI models. The models were much faster and more accurate than experienced biologists at identifying the parasites that feed on the skin and blood of salmonids. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ai-outperforms-biologists-salmon-lice.html Ecology Sat, 04 Jul 2026 09:00:01 EDT news702210398 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. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-deep-sea-extremophile-yields-protein.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 29 Jun 2026 17:50:01 EDT news701968261 Scientists from the National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester and Sun Yat-sen University have captured the growth of semiconducting tellurium nanostructures in liquid in real time, revealing how tiny seed particles form, grow into nanowires and compete for material as the structures develop. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-real-microscopy-reveals-semiconductor-nanowires.html Nanophysics Thu, 18 Jun 2026 11:00:15 EDT news700900801 Experimental atomic physicists have discovered there is a maximum amount of electrical resistance, or resistivity, that can result from collisions between electrons. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-physicists-upper-limit-resistivity-pure.html General Physics Tue, 16 Jun 2026 16:30:01 EDT news700842361 From paints and inks to catalysts and drug-delivery materials, many advanced technologies rely on substances dispersed in organic solvents. Yet directly observing these materials in their native liquid environments has remained a major challenge, limiting scientists' ability to understand how microscopic structures and elemental distributions influence performance. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-cryo-electron-microscopy.html Materials Science Thu, 11 Jun 2026 21:40:04 EDT news700389686 Nearly 100 years ago, a seemingly simple discovery revolutionized the microscope. The introduction of phase contrast, which garnered a Nobel Prize in 1953, brought into clear view structures inside cells that had previously been too faint or washed out for biologists to study. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-physicists-phase-contrast-electron-microscopy.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 11 Jun 2026 14:00:06 EDT news700394697 Many natural processes, ranging from magnetism to chemical reactions, entail the movement and rotation of particles at very small scales. In quantum mechanics, particles exhibit both particle-like and wave-like behaviors, and their states can be described mathematically using representations known as wavefunctions. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-electron-gain-ultrafast-torque-flips.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 11 Jun 2026 07:00:01 EDT news700225602 Physicists from Emory University have led work to develop a microscopic, nonlinear light source that can be switched on, off or tuned to a particular intensity by an electrical "knob." The paper is published in the journal Optica, and could aid in the design of smaller, more flexible technologies for communications, sensing and quantum computing. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-electrical-knob-tune-intensity-nanoscale.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 28 May 2026 17:50:01 EDT news699207961 Complexity may seem subjective, but a quantitative measure of the complexity of nanomaterials was recently developed by a team of researchers from the University of Michigan Engineering, the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Their metric promises to take nanomaterials engineering from a process of discovery to one of design, enabling engineers to produce combinations of properties not seen in natural or existing man-made materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-complexity-isnt-subjective-amount-results.html Nanomaterials Thu, 21 May 2026 18:20:01 EDT news698594941 All cells, whether big or small, short or long, rely on proteins to function properly. In most cells, transporting these proteins is relatively simple. Neurons in the brain, however, face a significant logistical challenge because their axons, the thread-like structures that carry electrical impulses, can extend for meters. As a result, essential materials produced in the cell body must travel enormous distances to reach the ends of axon terminals. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-neuron-imaging-captures-unconventional-receptor.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 15 May 2026 15:20:03 EDT news698059304 The task of gently transporting a microscopic particle from one point to another along a winding path, and then bringing it back using nothing more than a single, compact chip is a challenge we set out to address in our new study, now published in Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-optical-metaconveyors-enable-programmable-nanomanipulation.html Nanophysics Wed, 13 May 2026 18:00:02 EDT news697800686 Antiferromagnetic materials, with antiparallel atomic spins and zero net magnetization, are fast and resistant to external magnetic interference, making them ideal for high-speed, high-density spintronic devices. However, their zero net magnetization makes conventional imaging difficult, as neutron- or synchrotron-based methods have limited resolution and cannot easily probe microscopic regions or interfaces. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-atomic-column-imaging-uncovers-hidden.html Nanophysics Wed, 29 Apr 2026 15:50:01 EDT news696694742 Diamond is among the hardest naturally occurring substances on Earth, but if you shrink it down to the nanoscale, it is surprisingly elastic. And that could be useful for a host of applications such as quantum computing. In a paper published in the journal Physical Review X, Chongxin Shan at Zhengzhou University in China and colleagues studied diamonds as small as four nanometers across to see how they respond to pressure. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-nanodiamond-intense-pressure-flexible.html Nanophysics Tue, 21 Apr 2026 12:20:01 EDT news695992166 How do organic solar cells work on the inside? The answer lies in structures far too small to see—and difficult to access even with advanced techniques. So far, researchers have relied mainly on X-ray methods to understand how molecules are arranged within these materials and how this order can be optimized for high efficiency. While powerful, X-rays provide only a spatially averaged picture. Electrons, in contrast, offer a local view at the nanoscale, revealing both structure and chemical composition. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-electrons-solar-cells-exposing-hidden.html Nanophysics Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:50:01 EDT news695490421 A new analysis reveals what happens when very short or narrow electron beams encounter a particle. The research is published in the New Journal of Physics. Scientists should be able to achieve a new level of control over high-energy electrons interacting with a particle, according to the theoretical analysis by a RIKEN physicist and two colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-electronatom-encodes-quantum-state-electron.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 08 Apr 2026 13:40:02 EDT news694869137 When created at the nanoscale, materials can resemble shapes like stars, rods or even pyramids. These particle shapes, also known as the morphologies of a solid, make for more than just interesting images under a microscope—they can determine how the material behaves, sometimes in dramatic ways. University at Buffalo researchers have demonstrated this phenomenon by creating the first-ever star-shaped vanadyl hydroxide (VOOH) and shown that this shape can fundamentally alter how the material stores energy. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-pretty-picture-star-nanomaterial-energy.html Nanophysics Tue, 07 Apr 2026 12:40:04 EDT news694776061 The electrons that power our society flow left and right through the circuitry in our electronics, back and forth along the transmission lines that make up our power grid, and up and down to light up every floor of every building. But the electrons in newly discovered "moiré crystals" move in much stranger ways. They can move left and right, back and forth, or up and down in our three-dimensional world, but these electrons also act as if they can teleport in and out of a mysterious fourth dimension of space that is perpendicular to our perceivable reality. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-electrons-moir-crystals-explore-higher.html Condensed Matter Mon, 06 Apr 2026 10:00:03 EDT news694685941 A team led by scientists at the National Graphene Institute (NGI) at The University of Manchester has developed the first technique capable of capturing atomic‑resolution videos of individual gold atoms 'dancing' across a surface surrounded by liquid, opening a window into a hidden atomic world that has been invisible until now. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-graphene-nano-aquariums-capture-atomic.html Nanomaterials Thu, 02 Apr 2026 14:00:03 EDT news694340281 Scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a new way to determine atomic structures from nanocrystals previously considered unusable, a breakthrough that could transform how researchers study materials too small or imperfect for conventional crystallography. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-4d-stem-method-isolates-atomic.html Nanomaterials Wed, 04 Mar 2026 04:17:13 EST news691820185 A stretchy, conductive type of plastic could help power the next generation of implantable biomedical devices, like longer-lasting pacemakers or glucose monitors, according to Enrique Gomez, professor of chemical engineering at Penn State. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-stretchy-plastics-electricity-tiny-whisker.html Bio & Medicine Mon, 23 Feb 2026 10:20:04 EST news691062601 Minerals form the building blocks of almost everything on Earth. They are made up of crystals—regular, repeating atomic structures that fit together like a three-dimensional pattern. When minerals deform, their normally ordered crystal lattices develop linear imperfections known as dislocations. These are small breaks or shifts in the atomic arrangement that allow crystals to change shape under stress. Some deformed crystals contain large numbers of dislocations, while in others they are sparse and searching for them is like looking for a needle in a haystack. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-analysis-crystal-deformation-olivine-reveals.html Earth Sciences Thu, 12 Feb 2026 16:35:19 EST news690136501 Researchers from the Institute of Metal Research (IMR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a new ferroelectric ultraviolet photodetector material that overcomes the long-standing performance limitations of conventional photodetectors. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-ferroelectric-ultraviolet-photodetector.html Condensed Matter Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:00:32 EST news688834801 Researchers from the Institute of Metal Research (IMR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have stretched a chain of gold atoms by a record-breaking 46%, providing direct evidence of how fundamental metal bonds behave under extreme deformation. This study also reveals how structural changes at the atomic scale influence electrical transport. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-metallic-bond-reveals-quantum-gold.html Nanophysics Wed, 28 Jan 2026 14:57:26 EST news688834621 The mystery of quantum phenomena inside materials—such as superconductivity, where electric current flows without energy loss—lies in when electrons move together and when they break apart. KAIST researchers have succeeded in directly observing the moments when electrons form and dissolve ordered patterns. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-visualization-captures-hidden-spatial-electrons.html Condensed Matter Tue, 20 Jan 2026 09:52:48 EST news688125122