October 21, 2020: Geological investigations of low-temperature young deposits on the Styrian Erzberg provide paleoclimatology with new data on the Earth's history and its development. The mineralogical composition of the rock samples analyzed in the investigation was determined by X-ray diffraction and the chemical properties were defined using high-resolution electron microscopy.
October 27, 2020: The appropriately named diabolical ironclad beetle can take a shelling thanks to the incredibly crush-resistant architecture of its exoskeleton, which could serve as the blueprints for designing tougher materials and stronger connections between different material types.
November 1, 2020: The Morgan Library & Museum’s collection includes a significant number of Coptic Christian manuscripts made in Egypt dating from the fifth through the eleventh centuries. In 2017, book conservators at the Morgan embarked on a project to see whether non-destructive imaging techniques could uncover hidden text and sewing details. The research team has been involved in a number of projects using X-ray microtomography, or micro-CT scanning, to reveal texts made inaccessible by damage or age. One of their most notable projects has been the “virtual unrolling” of a carbonized scroll from the En-Gedi archaeological site.
November 3, 2020: A research group led by scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Brookhaven National Laboratory used a form of X-ray scattering that has not—until now—been widely used to study a particular group of high-temperature superconductors. The researchers investigated a specific arrangement of electric charge that arises in cuprates: an ordered pattern of electrons known as a charge-density wave (CDW).
November 5, 2020: Scientists have discovered a spongy form of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), a material found in limestone, chalk, marble and the shells of mussels and other shellfish. While most forms of calcium carbonate are hard minerals, this new form is soft and absorbent.
November 6, 2020: Researchers in the U.S. have uncovered a structure where rhenium had been misidentified as cadmium, yet had acceptable refinement standards for publication. Atoms with similar atomic numbers can be hard to differentiate using X-ray diffraction but such unprecedented confusion between atoms with a shift in atomic number of 27 may mean that misidentified structures could be a more widespread concern than previously realized.
November 9, 2020: Northwestern Engineering researchers have developed a new computational approach to accelerate the design of materials exhibiting metal-insulator transitions (MIT), a rare class of electronic materials that have shown potential to jumpstart future design and delivery of faster microelectronics and quantum information systems.
November 9, 2020: Modern life relies closely on plastics, even though the petroleum-based production creates serious environmental challenges. Researchers in China have developed a method to manufacture a bioinspired plastic alternative that is strong, tough, and heat resistant.
November 9, 2020: Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University (SBU), the Materials Project at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the University of California, Berkeley, and European collaborators have developed a new way to decipher the atomic-level structure of materials based on data gleaned from ground-up powder samples. For the study, X-ray powder diffraction experiments were performed at the ALBA synchrotron in Barcelona, Spain. They describe their approach and demonstrate its ability to solve the structure of a material that shows promise for shuttling ions through sodium-ion batteries in a paper published in the journal Chemistry of Materials.
November 11, 2020: Thermoelectric materials use the temperature difference between both sides of the material to create an electric current. Organic thermoelectric materials could be used to power wearable electronics or sensors; however, the power output is still very low. An international team has now produced an n-type organic semiconductor with superior properties that brings these applications a big step closer.
November 12, 2020: Finding new, low-cost ways to make better metal alloys and composites is one of the holy grails of the materials research world. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are finding a lot of success using solid phase processing approaches to create materials with improved properties.
November 12, 2020: The quest for high-throughput intelligent computing paradigms and the ever-increasing volume of digital information has led to increased demand for high-speed and low-power-consuming next-generation electronic devices. The “forgotten” world of antiferromagnets (AFM), a class of magnetic materials, offers promise in future electronic device development and complements present-day ferromagnet-based spintronic technologies.
November 12, 2020: Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) synthesize sub-nanometer particles with precisely controlled proportions of indium and tin using specific macromolecular templates called dendrimers. Through a screening process spanning different metallic ratios, they discovered unusual electronic states and optical properties originating from size-miniaturization and elemental-hybridization. Their approach could be a first step in the development of sub-nanoparticles with unique functionalities and characteristics for electronic, magnetic and catalytic application.
November 12, 2020: Scientists are identifying promising “caloric materials” that undergo big temperature changes when placed under pressure and other forces. Many materials exhibit small temperature changes under certain forces, but researchers have been hunting for materials that undergo large shifts, ideally from as little added energy as possible. Among other materials, certain metal alloys have shown promising results under strain; some ceramics and polymers respond well to electrical fields; and inorganic salts and rubber look promising for pressure.
November 13, 2020: Japanese scientist Masatoshi Koshiba, a co-winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in physics for his pioneering contribution in the field of astrophysics, has died at the age of 94. Koshiba, a distinguished professor at the University of Tokyo, confirmed the existence of cosmic neutrinos by devising and using a detector called Kamiokande, composed of photomultiplier tubes in a cylindrical water tank placed 1,000 meters underground in Gifu Prefecture, central Japan.
