Category Physics

The aluminum plates were attached to the topological insulator using platinum. The picture (scale bar: 200?nm) shows one of the devices used in the experiment. Because of the stress, induced by various cool downs, a clear buckling feature appears in the nanogap of the device. This modification is causing the characteristics of the superconducting pairs of electron to vary in different directions, a signature of unconventional superconductivity. Credit: Thilo Bauch and Floriana Lombardi/Chalmers University of Technology

They have probably succeeded in creating a topological superconductor. With their insensitivity to decoherence what are known as Majorana particles could become stable building blocks of a quantum computer...

These are rectangular shapes printed at the TU Eindhoven 3-D-concrete printer. Suiker elaborated his equations for rectangular layouts like these. Credit: Rob Wolfs/Eindhoven University of Technology

3D-printed materials commonly are soft and flexible during printing, leaving printed walls susceptible to collapse or falling over. Akke Suiker, professor in Applied Mechanics at Eindhoven University of Technology, had a Eureka moment and saw the solution to this structural problem. He developed a model with which engineers can now easily determine the dimensions and printing speeds for which printed wall structures remain stable. His formulae are so elementary that they can become commonplace in the fast growing field of 3D printing.

Conventional concrete deposited in formwork typically is al...

The ERG spacecraft observed chorus waves and scattered electrons in the magnetosphere, the origin of pulsation auroras. The scattered electrons precipitated into the atmosphere resulting in auroral illumination. Intermittent occurrence of chorus waves and associated electron scattering lead to auroral pulsation. Credit: 2018 ERG science team.

For the first time, a satellite has directly observed the shower of electrons bouncing across Earth’s magnetosphere, allowing scientists to figure out what causes a rare form of Northern Lights known as pulsating auroras. Typically, the Aurora Borealis is caused by charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun...

Examples of the new smart material, left to right: A flexible strip; a flexible strip that stiffened when twisted; a flexible strip transformed into a hard composite that can hold up a weight. Credit: Christopher Gannon/Iowa State University

Scientists have developed a rubbery material that transforms itself into a hard composite when bent, twisted or squeezed. The new material could be used in medicine to support delicate tissues or in industry to protect valuable sensors. Stress a muscle and it gets stronger. Mechanically stress the rubbery material – say with a twist or a bend – and the material automatically stiffens by up to 300%, the engineers said...