A Peculiar State of Matter in Layers of Semiconductors

A cube with stripes representing layers of semiconductors, with clusters of gold spheres representing nanodots
The setup for the milli-electronvolt inelastic X-ray scattering that probes the many-body localization in the disordered superlattice system
Credits:Image courtesy of the researchers

Scientists around the world are developing new hardware for quantum computers, a new type of device that could accelerate drug design, financial modeling, and weather prediction. These computers rely on qubits but these are fickle, degrading into regular bits when interactions with surrounding matter interfere. But new research at MIT suggests a way to protect their states, using a phenomenon called many-body localization (MBL).

MBL is a peculiar phase of matter, proposed decades ago, that is unlike solid or liquid. Typically, matter comes to thermal equilibrium with its environment...

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Researchers find Protein may Protect against Neurodegenerative diseases

Taking advantage of knowledge on translation, Hiroshima University researchers examined whether the translational regulatory protein 5MP can suppress RAN translation, which would also suppress the production of the toxic repeat peptide products.

An international research team may have found that a protein implicated in tumor growth may be able to help regulate awry cellular translation and protect against neuronal decay.

Cells translate their genetic material at rapid rates with exquisite precision to reproduce, repair damage or even combat disease. But the process can deregulate and give rise to disease...

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Scientists develop new technique for large-scale energy storage

electric vehicles
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The sale of electric vehicles (EVs) has grown exponentially in the past few years as has the need for renewable energy sources to power them, such as solar and wind. There were nearly 1.8 million registered electric vehicles in the U.S. as of 2020, which is more than three times as many in 2016, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Electric vehicles require power to be available anywhere and anytime, without delays in recharging, but solar and wind are intermittent energy sources that are not available on demand. And the electricity they do generate needs to be stored for later use and not go to waste. That’s where Dr...

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Researchers Solve 20-year-old Paradox in Solar Physics

Researchers solve 20-year-old paradox in solar physics
Image of the solar atmosphere showing a coronal mass ejection. Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO

In 1998, the journal Nature published a seminal letter concluding that a mysterious signal, which had been discovered while analyzing the polarization of sunlight, implies that the solar chromosphere (an important layer of the solar atmosphere) is practically unmagnetised, in sharp contradiction with common wisdom. This paradox motivated laboratory experiments and theoretical investigations, which instead of providing a solution, raised new issues, and even led some scientists to question the quantum theory of matter-radiation interaction.

Researchers at the Istituto Ricerche Solari (IRSOL) in Locarno-Monti (affiliated to USI Università della Svizzera italiana), and the Instituto de Astrofísica de C...

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