It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it. In this case, the "job" is the breakdown of lignin, the structural biopolymer that gives stems, bark and branches their signature woodiness. One of the most abundant terrestrial ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 9, 2023
0
247
An international team has for the first time precisely tracked the surprisingly rapid process by which light rearranges the outermost electrons of a metal compound and turns it into an active catalyst – a substance that ...
General Physics
Apr 1, 2015
0
62
The European X-ray Free-Electron Laser (XFEL) facility, near Hamburg, Germany, was built with one objective—to provide pulses of light short enough, bright enough, and of small enough wavelength to observe processes that ...
Optics & Photonics
Dec 12, 2016
0
6
Seeing fruit "turn bad and going to waste" inspired a team of researchers in China to explore using atmospheric pressure nonequilibrium plasma—already widely used for medical purposes—as a novel solution to extend the ...
Plasma Physics
Jul 26, 2016
0
22
Classical phase transitions are governed by temperature. One of the most familiar examples is the phase transitions of water from solid to liquid to gas. However, other parameters govern phase transitions when temperatures ...
General Physics
Aug 10, 2020
0
74
Child psychologists have long known that play is essential for children's cognitive development because it boosts their social, physical, and emotional skills. But beginning in the 21st century, specialists repeatedly sounded ...
Social Sciences
Dec 15, 2023
0
33
Paper-based diagnostic tests are cheap, convenient and biodegradable. However, their use is limited by conventional dyes—which are not bright enough to show trace amounts of analyte, are prone to fading, and can be environmentally ...
Analytical Chemistry
Mar 29, 2019
0
118
The advent of intense ultrashort coherent light pulses has revolutionized the spectroscopy field. They allow easy observation of various nonlinear optical effects and facilitate the characterization of materials with nonlinear ...
Optics & Photonics
Feb 3, 2023
0
3
The sun defies conventional scientific understanding. Its upper atmosphere, known as the corona, is many millions of degrees hotter than its surface. Astrophysicists are keen to learn why the corona is so hot, and scientists ...
Plasma Physics
Dec 21, 2018
2
123
We're inching closer and closer to reliably detecting biosignatures on distant planets. Much of the focus is on determining which chemicals indicate life's presence.
Astrobiology
Nov 17, 2023
3
59
