Zircones. Credit: Anders Lindskog

Sustained meteorite bombardment. Some 470 million years ago, during the middle part of the geological period known as the Ordovician, an asteroid collision took place somewhere between Mars and Jupiter. The collision caused an explosion that sent a cascade of meteorites towards Earth. The heavy bombardment of Earth continued for millions of years, and even today some 20% of all meteorites that reach Earth originate from this asteroid break-up. At the same time Earth witnessed the greatest rise in marine biodiversity since the origin of multicellular life...

These are the researchers. (From left) Dr. Rhonda Bassel-Duby, Dr. Lawrence Lum, Huanyu Zhou, Dr. Jesung Moon, and Dr. Wei Tan. Credit: UT Southwestern Medical Center

An anticancer agent in development promotes regeneration of damaged heart muscle – an unexpected research finding that may help prevent congestive heart failure, CHF in the future. Many parts of the body, such as blood cells and the lining of the gut, continuously renew throughout life. Others, such as the heart, do not. Because of the heart’s inability to repair itself, damage caused by a heart attack causes permanent scarring that frequently results in serious weakening of the heart, known as heart failure.

For years, Dr...

1. A near-perfect broadband absorber that’s thin, flexible and transparent in visible light. Credit: UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
2. SEM images of a nanotube array: side view (left) and top view (right). Credit: UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering

Transparent window coatings that keep buildings and cars cool on sunny days. Devices that could more than triple solar cell efficiencies. Thin, lightweight shields that block thermal detection. These are potential applications for a thin, flexible, light-absorbing material developed by engineers at the University of California San Diego...

For the first time, researchers have simulated local magnetic anisotropy at the atomic level in a magnetic material based on experimental data. This figure shows changes in magnetic energy across individual iron and platinum atoms from an FePt nanoparticle.
Credit: Image courtesy of Markus Eisenbach and Nature

Barely wider than a strand of human DNA, magnetic nanoparticles – such as those made from iron and platinum atoms – are promising materials for next-generation recording and storage devices like hard drives. Building these devices from nanoparticles should increase storage capacity and density, but understanding how magnetism works at the level of individual atoms is critical to getting the best performance...