Electric currents drive all our electronic devices. The emerging field of spintronics looks to replace electric currents with what are known as spin currents. Researchers from the University of Tokyo have made a breakthrough in this area. Their discovery of the magnetic spin Hall effect could lead to low-power, high-speed and high-capacity devices. They have created sample devices which can further research into potential applications.

“Electricity lit up the world and electronics connected it,” says Professor Yoshichika Otani from the Institute for Solid State Physics. “Spintronics will be the next step forward in this procession and we can only imagine what advances it may bring.”

So wha...

Demonstration of scrambling in quantum computer shows how to resurrect ‘lost’ information. Physicists have used a seven-qubit quantum computer to simulate the scrambling of information inside a black hole, heralding a future in which entangled quantum bits might be used to probe the mysterious interiors of these bizarre objects.

Scrambling is what happens when matter disappears inside a black hole...

Sleep increases chromosome dynamics that clear out DNA damage accumulated during waking hours. Why do animals sleep? Why do humans “waste” a third time of their lives sleeping? Throughout evolution sleep has remained universal and essential to all organisms with a nervous system, including invertebrates such as flies, worms, and even jellyfish. But the reason why animals sleep – despite the continuous threat of predators – still remains a mystery, and is considered among the biggest unanswered questions in life sciences.

In a new study, published today in the journal Nature Communications, researchers at Bar-Ilan University in Israel reveal a novel and unexpected fu...

New research by scientists at the University of Nottingham suggests that environmental contaminants found in the home and diet have the same adverse effects on male fertility in both humans and in domestic dogs.

There has been increasing concern over declining human male fertility in recent decades with studies showing a 50% global reduction in sperm quality in the past 80 years...