December 22, 2020: Materials science researchers are developing novel instrumentation that could outperform synchrotron-based X-ray absorption spectrometry in giving scientists a clearer picture of elemental composition and chemical bonding at the nanoscale level.

December 30, 2020: After its 5.24-billion-km round trip to asteroid Ryugu, the spacecraft Hayabusa2 landed in the Australian Outback on December 6. Its sample container was transported to Japan, where JAXA scientists will get down to the business of studying the material collected from the surface and sub-surface of the asteroid.

January 4, 2021: Polarons are fleeting distortions in a material’s atomic lattice that form around a moving electron in a few trillionths of a second, then quickly disappear. These disruptions, seen for the first time in lead hybrid perovskites, may help explain why these materials are exceptionally good at turning sunlight into electrical current in solar cells.

January 4, 2021: In a new study published in Nature Physics, researchers describe how structural defects in self-assembling nacre (mother-of-pearl) attract and cancel each other out, eventually leading to a perfect periodic structure.

 
January 6, 2021: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers have developed an X-ray source that can diagnose temperature in experiments that probe conditions like those at the very center of planets. The new source will be used to perform extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) experiments at the National Ignition Facility.

January 11, 2021: UC San Diego scientists reported that increased ocean acidity is weakening California mussel shells along the Pacific Coast, a result of rising levels of human-produced carbon dioxide. Mineral profiles were determined by X-ray diffraction analysis.

January 13, 2021: Scientists set a record for the highest conversion rate of carbon dioxide at low temperatures with copper-modified indium oxide, signifying sustainable e-fuel. The results have encouraged scientists about the future prospects of copper-indium oxides.

January 13, 2021: BPA (bisphenol-A) is an organic compound made from fossil fuel sources. It can be found in a variety of products, including water bottles, storage containers and sports equipment and is one of the most commonly synthesized chemicals today. NDSU researchers set out to create BPA alternatives derived from biomass feedstocks versus fossil fuels.

January 14, 2021: Scientists show ultrasonication is a cost-effective approach to enhance the properties of magnesium diboride superconductors. The Rigaku SmartLab X-ray powder diffractometer was used to identify the phase information.

January 14, 2021: A strategy for machine learning has been developed that exploits the fact that data are often collected in different ways with varying levels of accuracy. The approach was used to build a model that predicts a key property of materials.

January 15, 2021: The University of Buffalo in New York has been awarded a $2 million, four-year grant from the National Science Foundation’s Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation program to build a robotic system that will “learn” to sort plastic for recycling.