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Category: materials – Page 11

What astonishing phenomena might materials reveal when they are subjected to conditions mimicking the extremes of the cosmos-ultra-low temperatures, magnetic fields that are hundreds of thousands of times stronger than Earth’s, and pressure close to that at the planet’s core?

The Synergetic Extreme Condition User Facility (SECUF), located in Beijing’s suburban Huairou District, is opening a portal for scientists to observe the bizarre phenomena of matter under such extreme environments.

After starting construction in September 2017, the SECUF passed national acceptance review on Wednesday, marking the completion of the internationally advanced experimental facility integrating extreme conditions such as ultra-low temperature, ultra-high pressure, strong magnetic fields, and ultra-fast optical fields.

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A new scanner which can distinguish tumour material from healthy tissue more accurately than current methods could change the way breast cancer is diagnosed and treated, researchers have said.

It is hoped the scanner, developed by scientists at the University of Aberdeen, could lead to patients undergoing fewer surgeries and receiving more individually-tailored treatments.

Scientists from the university, in collaboration with NHS Grampian, used a prototype version of the new Field Cycling Imager (FCI) scanner to examine the breast tissue of patients newly diagnosed with cancer.

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Researchers have developed a new type of photochromic glass that can store and rewrite data indefinitely.

By embedding magnesium and terbium, they’ve created a material that changes colors under different wavelengths of light, allowing for high-density, long-term storage without power. This breakthrough could revolutionize data preservation.

Exploring the potential of glass for data storage.

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Researchers at the University of Bayreuth present novel electrospun nonwovens in Science Advances that exhibit an unusual combination of high electrical conductivity and extremely low thermal conductivity.

The nonwovens represent a breakthrough in : it has been possible to decouple electrical and based on a simple-to-implement material concept. The nonwovens are made of carbon and silicon-based ceramic via electrospinning process and are attractive for technological applications, for example, in and electronics. They can be manufactured and processed cost-effectively on an industrial scale.

Normally, is associated with , and goes with low electrical conductivity. However, in many high-tech industries, there is growing interest in multifunctional materials that that combine good electric with low thermal transport.

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You may recognize graphite as the “lead” in a pencil, but besides helping you take notes or fill in countless bubbles on exam answer sheets, it is helping scientists grapple with the secrets of superconductivity.

Superconductivity happens when an electric current is transmitted through wires without the loss of any energy in the form of heat or resistance. Superconducting materials have the potential to revolutionize many aspects of our daily lives, from improving the electrical grid to making more powerful computers.

However, generally requires very low temperatures, so low they may become impractical, and the exact mechanisms of superconductivity are not well understood for many .

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UT Dallas researchers have identified the cause of LiNiO₂ battery degradation and developed a structural reinforcement method that could enable its commercial use in longer-lasting lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium nickel oxide (LiNiO₂) is a promising material for next-generation lithium-ion batteries with longer lifespans. However, its commercialization has been hindered by degradation after repeated charging cycles.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas have identified the cause of this breakdown and are testing a solution that could overcome a major obstacle to its widespread use. Their findings were recently published din the journal Advanced Energy Materials.

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The practice of purposely looping thread to create intricate knit garments and blankets has existed for millennia. Though its precise origins have been lost to history, artifacts like a pair of wool socks from ancient Egypt suggest it dates back as early as the third to fifth century CE. Yet, for all its long-standing ubiquity, the physics behind knitting remains surprisingly elusive.

“Knitting is one of those weird, seemingly simple but deceptively complex things we take for granted,” says and visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, Lauren Niu, who recently took up the craft as a means to study how “geometry influences the mechanical properties and behavior of materials.”

Despite centuries of accumulated knowledge, predicting how a particular knit pattern will behave remains difficult—even with modern digital tools and automated knitting machines. “It’s been around for so long, but we don’t really know how it works,” Niu notes. “We rely on intuition and trial and error, but translating that into precise, predictive science is a challenge.”

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The ancient peoples of the Philippines and of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) may have built sophisticated boats and mastered seafaring tens of thousands of years ago—millennia before Magellan, Zheng He, and even the Polynesians.

In a paper in the Journal of Archaeological Science, Ateneo de Manila University researchers Riczar Fuentes and Alfred Pawlik challenge the widely-held contention that technological progress during the Paleolithic only emerged in Europe and Africa.

They point out that much of ISEA was never connected to mainland Asia, neither by land bridges nor by ice sheets, yet it has yielded evidence of early human habitation. Exactly how these peoples achieved such daring ocean crossings is an enduring mystery, as organic materials like wood and fiber used for boats rarely survive in the .

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Researchers at UC Santa Barbara and TU Dresden are pioneering a new approach to robotics by creating a collective of small robots that function like a smart material.

According to Matthew Devlin, a former doctoral researcher in the lab of UCSB mechanical engineering professor Elliot Hawkes and lead author of a paper published in Science, researchers have developed a method for robots to behave more like a material.

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