New Superconducting Material discovered in Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides Materials

New superconducting material discovered in transition-metal dichalcogenides materials
The crystal structure and superconducting properties of (InSe2)0.12NbSe2. Credit: Niu Rui

With the support of electrical transport and magnetic measurement systems of Steady High Magnetic Field Facility (SHMFF), a research team from Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), discovered a new superconducting material called (InSe2)xNbSe2, which possesses a unique lattice structure. The superconducting transition temperature of this material reaches 11.6 K, making it the transition metal sulfide superconductor with the highest transition temperature under ambient pressure.

The results were published in Journal of the American Chemical Society.

TMD materials have received lots of attention due to their numerous applications in the fields of cata...

Read More

Mars Express finds Evidence of Large Water Deposit at the Medusae Fossae Formation

This map shows the estimated amount of ice within the mounds that form the MFF, indicating that the ice-rich deposits are up to 3000 m thick. Credit: Planetary Science Institute/Smithsonian Institution

Windswept piles of dust, or layers of ice? ESA’s Mars Express has revisited one of Mars’s most mysterious features to clarify its composition. Its findings suggest layers of water ice stretching several kilometers below ground—the most water ever found in this part of the planet.

Over 15 years ago, Mars Express studied the Medusae Fossae Formation (MFF), revealing massive deposits up to 2.5 km deep. From these early observations, it was unclear what the deposits were made of—but new research now has an answer.

“We’ve explored the MFF again using newer data from Mars Express’s M...

Read More

Moon Rocks with Unique Dust found

The meter-high rocks discovered in the work are located near the Reiner K crater in the “Reiner Gamma” region, which has a magnetic anomaly.

The moon is almost completely covered in dust. Unlike on Earth, this dust is not smoothed by wind and weather, but is sharp-edged and also electrostatically charged. This dust has been studied since the Apollo era at the end of the 1960s. Now, an international research team led by Dr. Ottaviano Rüsch from the University of Münster has for the first time discovered anomalous meter-sized rocks on the lunar surface that are covered in dust and presumably exhibit unique properties—such as magnetic anomalies.

The scientists’ most important finding is that only very few boulders on the moon have a layer of dust with very special reflective proper...

Read More

New Gut-Brain Circuits found for Sugar and Fat Cravings

Fat, sugar, and the combination of both (chocolate) navigate a gut-brain maze. The blue path represents the sugar route, the green path signifies the fat route, and the yellow path represents the combined impact of fats and sugars. Each path leads to the brain, but the combined route has a greater impact, triggering heightened dopamine release in the reward circuits, emphasizing the synergistic effect of fat-sugar combinations on neural responses. Image credit: Isadora Barga, de Lartigue lab

A new study has unraveled the internal neural wiring of separate fat and sugar craving pathways. However, combining these pathways overly triggers a desire to eat more than usual. Understanding why we overeat unhealthy foods has been a long-standing mystery...

Read More