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    Physicists exploit a quantum rule to create a new kind of crystal

    Physicists have harnessed the aloofness of quantum particles to create a new type of crystal. Some particles shun one another because they are forbidden to take on the same quantum state as their neighbors. Atoms can be so reluctant to overlap that they form a crystal-like arrangement even when they aren’t exerting any forces on […] More

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    50 years ago, superconductors started feeling the pressure

    Superconductivity under pressure, Science News, May 2, 1970 – Cooling certain metals to temperatures near absolute zero turns them into superconductors, substances without electrical resistance, in which currents flow without power loss. In recent years it has become apparent that in some cases pressure as well as cooling has something to do with inducing superconductivity. Metals are […] More

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    A newfound superconducting current travels only along a material’s edge

    Superconductors are getting edgy. For the first time, scientists have spotted a superconducting current traveling along the edge of a material, like a trail of ants crawling along the rim of a dinner plate without venturing into its middle. Normally, such superconducting currents, in which electricity flows without any loss of energy, permeate an entire […] More

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    New quantum computers can operate at higher temperatures

    Quantum computing’s deep freeze is beginning to thaw. Computers that harness quantum physics could trump standard computers on certain types of calculations. But the machines typically work only at temperatures tiny fractions of a degree above absolute zero. Now, two teams of physicists report that they’ve created silicon-based quantum computers that work under warmer conditions. […] More

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    To cook a perfect steak, use math

    Hala Nelson and her colleagues wanted to cook the perfect steak. So they decided to use math. The researchers created a mathematical simulation of a lean slab of beef roasting in an oven. That simulation successfully reproduced the temperatures and moisture levels seen within meat in laboratory experiments previously performed by food scientists, the team […] More

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    How materials science has changed humankind — for better and worse

    The Alchemy of UsAinissa RamirezMIT Press, $27.95 Humans have continually wielded materials, from steel to silicon, in new ways to send technology leaping forward. But those technologies have unintentionally molded our bodies and society, materials scientist and science writer Ainissa Ramirez argues in The Alchemy of Us. Increasingly precise clocks — based on steel springs and then […] More

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    A mysterious superconductor’s wave could reveal the physics behind the materials

    Physicists have finally captured a superconductor’s wave. The first direct evidence of a phase of matter known as a pair-density wave helps reveal the physics that underlies mysterious high-temperature superconductors, which conduct electricity without resistance at surprisingly high temperatures. The wave was detected using a scanning tunneling microscope, researchers report April 1 in Nature. Physicists […] More