Category Physics

Cross-sectional schematic view showing the detailed structural characteristics of a SGC hybrid particle.

A team affiliated with Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), South Korea, claims to have made yet another step towards finding a solution to accelerate the commercialization of silicon anode for Lithium-ion batteries. A new approach developed by a team led by Prof. Jaephil Cho could hold the key to greatly improving the performance of lithium-ion batteries.

Prof. Cho and his team have developed a new type anode material that would be used in place of a conventional graphite anode, which they claim will lead to lighter and longer-lasting batteries for everything from personal devices to electric vehicles...

The Foldit puzzle-solving game, where groups compete online to fold the best protein. In a recent study, gamers beat scientists, college students and computer algorithms to see who could identify a particular protein’s shape. Credit: Scott Horowitz

Gamers playing the popular online puzzle game Foldit beat scientists, college students and computer algorithms in a contest to see who could identify a particular protein’s shape. The study findings have implications for video game enthusiasts and classroom instruction, and showcase the positive impact citizen science can have on research...

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Typically when scientists make a measurement, they know exactly what kind of measurement they’re making, and their purpose is to obtain a measurement outcome. But in an “unrecorded measurement,” both the type of measurement and the measurement outcome are unknown. Despite the fact that scientists do not know this information, experiments clearly show that unrecorded measurements unavoidably disturb the state of the system being measured for quantum (but not classical) systems. In classical systems, unrecorded measurements have no effect.

Although the information in unrecorded measurements appears to be completely lost, Prof Michael Revzen and Prof Ady Mann have described a protocol that can retrieve some of the lost information...

ORNL’s Michael Manley led a study to discover the key to the success of modern materials used in ultrasound machines and other piezoelectric devices. At the ARCS instrument of the Spallation Neutron Source, he and colleagues studied lattice dynamics in relaxor-based ferroelectrics. Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy; photographer Genevieve Martin

The lighter wand for your gas BBQ, a submarine’s sonar device and the ultrasound machine at your doctor’s office all rely on piezoelectric materials, which turn mechanical stress into electrical energy, and vice versa. In 1997, researchers developed piezoelectric materials that were 10X better at coupling electrical and mechanical responses than prior state-of-the-art materials...