Los Alamos scientists have incorporated meticulously engineered colloidal quantum dots into a new type of light emitting diodes (LEDs) containing an integrated optical resonator, which allows them to function as lasers. These novel, dual-function devices clear the path towards versatile, manufacturing-friendly laser diodes. The technology can potentially revolutionize numerous fields from photonics and optoelectronics to chemical sensing and medical diagnostics.

“This latest breakthrough along with other recent advances in quantum dot chemistry and device engineering that we have achieved suggest that laser diodes assembled from solution may soon become a reality,” said Victor Klimov, head of the quantum dot group at Los Alamos Nationa...

Scientists, including those from the University of Colorado Boulder, have finally scaled the solar system’s equivalent of the Rocky Mountain range. In a study published in Nature Astronomy, researchers from the United States and Japan unveil the possible origins of our cosmic neighborhood’s “Great Divide.” This well-known schism may have separated the solar system just after the sun first formed.

The phenomenon is a bit like how the Rocky Mountains divide North America into east and west...

Tiny ‘xenobots’ assembled from cells promise advances from drug delivery to toxic waste clean-up. Scientists repurposed living frog cells – and assembled them into entirely new life-forms. These tiny ‘xenobots’ can move toward a target and heal themselves after being cut. These novel living machines are neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal...

The ancient stardust reveals a ‘baby boom’ in star formation. Scientists have discovered the oldest solid material on Earth: 7-billion-year-old stardust trapped inside a meteorite. This stardust provides evidence for a ‘baby boom’ of new stars that formed 7 billion years ago, contrary to thinking that star formation happens at a steady, constant rate.

Stars have life cycles. They’re born when bits of dust and gas floating through space find each other and collapse in on each other and heat up. They burn for millions to billions of years, and then they die...