March 7, 2023: Is this the superconductor of scientists’ dreams? Physicists at the University of Rochester say they have created a superconductor that works at both room temperature and relatively low pressure. A superconductor that operates under such commonplace conditions could herald a new age of high-efficiency machines, supersensitive instrumentation and revolutionary electronics.

March 24, 2023: Mathematicians have finally discovered an elusive “Einstein” tile—a 13-sided shape called “the hat” forms a pattern that never repeats. Although the name conjures up the iconic physicist, it comes from the German “ein Stein,” meaning “one stone,” referring to the single tile. Although the tiles fit neatly together and can cover an infinite plane, they are aperiodic, meaning they can’t form a pattern that repeats.

March 28, 2023: Recent discoveries by a team at MIT have revealed that introducing new materials into existing concrete manufacturing processes could significantly reduce the material’s carbon footprint, without altering concrete’s bulk mechanical properties.

March 28, 2023: Trace quantities of protein residue-- especially egg yolk—have long been detected in classic oil paintings, though they were often ascribed to contamination. A new study published in Nature Communications found the inclusion was likely intentional—and sheds light on the technical knowledge of the Old Masters, the most skilled European painters of the 16th, 17th, or early 18th century, and the way they prepared their paints.

March 29, 2023: Could grinding up lithium batteries help to recycle them? Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, used mechanochemistry—the initiation of a chemical reaction by mechanical force from grinding or milling—to recover lithium from lithium-ion batteries.