Dr. Png Rui-Qi (left), Mervin Ang (middle) and Cindy Tang (right) working on conducting polymers that can provide unprecedented ohmic contacts for better performance in a wide range of organic semiconductor devices. Credit: Seah Zong Long

Semiconductors, which are the very basic components of electronic devices, have improved our lives in many ways. They can be found in lighting, displays, solar modules and microprocessors that are installed in almost all modern day devices, from mobile phones, washing machines, and cars, to the emerging Internet of Things. To innovate devices with better functionality and energy efficiency, researchers are constantly looking for better ways to make them, in particular from earth-abundant materials using eco-friendly processes...

2D hexagonal sheet-like and 3D capsid structures based on atomically precise gold nanoclusters as guided by hydrogen bonding between the ligands. The inset in the top left corner shows the atomic structure of one gold nanocluster. Credit: Image courtesy of Suomen Akatemia (Academy of Finland)

Self-assembly of matter is one of the fundamental principles of nature, directing the growth of larger ordered and functional systems from smaller building blocks. Self-assembly can be observed in all length scales from molecules to galaxies...

This image shows the closest stellar system to the Sun, the bright double star Alpha Centauri AB and its distant and faint companion Proxima Centauri. In late 2016 ESO signed an agreement with the Breakthrough Initiatives to adapt the VLT instrumentation to conduct a search for planets in the Alpha Centauri system. Such planets could be the targets for an eventual launch of miniature space probes by the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative. Credit: ESO/B. Tafreshi (twanight.org)/Digitized Sky Survey 2 Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin/Mahdi Zamani

ESO has signed an agreement with the Breakthrough Initiatives to adapt the Very Large Telescope instrumentation in Chile to conduct a search for planets in the nearby star system Alpha Centauri...

This is astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. on the moon in 1971 with the Apollo 14 mission. Credit: NASA

Formation occurred 4.51 billion years ago, 40 million to 140 million years older than scientists previously thought A UCLA-led research team analysed minerals from the moon called zircons that were brought back to Earth by the Apollo 14 mission in 1971. The moon’s age has been a hotly debated topic, even though scientists have tried to settle the question over many years and using a wide range of scientific techniques. “We have finally pinned down a minimum age for the moon; it’s time we knew its age and now we do,” said Mélanie Barboni, geochemist in UCLA.

The moon was formed by a violent, head-on collision between the early Earth and a “planetary embryo” called Theia, a UCLA-led team of ge...