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Categories: Offbeat: Earth and Climate, Physics: Optics

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New research suggests that there might be other ways to generate solar energy than just trying to make individual solar cells super-efficient.

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Physicists achieve major leap in precision and accuracy at extremely low light levels.

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Perfectly adapted microorganisms live in extreme environments from deep-sea trenches to mountaintops. Learning more about how these extremophiles survive in hostile conditions could inform scientists about life on Earth and potential life on other planets.

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Researchers have discovered a new class of plasma oscillations -- the back-and-forth, wave-like movement of electrons and ions. The research paves the way for improved particle accelerators and commercial fusion energy.

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Electrical engineers have determined the theoretical fundamental limit for how much electromagnetic energy a transparent material with a given thickness can absorb. The finding will help engineers optimize devices designed to block certain frequencies of radiation while allowing others to pass through, for applications such as stealth or wireless communications.

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Scientists are exploring how tuning the genomes of mushrooms and molds can transform these food sources into gourmet, nutrient-packed meals made with minimal processing and a light environmental footprint.

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Which process is best suited for mass production of perovskite solar cells? While solvent-based manufacturing processes are used in laboratories around the world, vacuum vapor-phase deposition processes are still the standard for the production of thin films for photovoltaics or organic light-emitting diodes. A new study that reveals major differences in the scientific discussion of these production processes.

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To combine two low-energy photons into one high-energy photon efficiently, the energy must be able to hop freely, but not too quickly, between randomly oriented molecules of a solid. The discovery provides a much-needed design guideline for developing materials for more efficient PV cells, displays, or even anti-cancer therapies.

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Seattle may have experienced its own Swift Quake last July, but at an August 2023 concert Taylor Swift's fans in Los Angeles gave scientists a lot of shaking to ponder. After some debate, a research team concluded that it was likely the dancing and jumping motions of the audience at SoFi Stadium -- not the musical beats or reverberations of the sound system -- that generated the concert's distinct harmonic tremors.

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Mechanical engineers have devised a diagnostic platform that uses sound waves to spin an individual drop of water up to 6000 revolutions per minute. These speeds separate tiny biological particles within samples placed in a very light disc sitting on top of the spinning drop. The technique could allow new point-of-care applications ranging from precision bioassays to cancer diagnosis. The technique requires less time and sample volume while inflicting less damage to delicate exosomes.

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A new process for microscale 3D printing creates particles of nearly any shape for applications in medicine, manufacturing, research and more -- at the pace of up to 1 million particles a day.

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Through steady advances in the development of quantum computers and their ever-improving performance, it will be possible in the future to crack our current encryption processes. To address this challenge, researchers are developing encryption methods that will apply physical laws to prevent the interception of messages. To safeguard communications over long distances, the QUICK space mission will deploy satellites.

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Healthy coral reefs have rich soundscapes, full of the croaks, purrs, and grunts of various fishes and the crackling of snapping shrimp. Larval coral uses these sounds as cues to identify the best places to settle and grow. The authors found that sound could potentially be a vital tool in the effort to restore coral reefs. Broadcasting the sounds of a healthy reef to a reef that is degraded encourages coral larvae to settle there. This indicates that it's possible that 'acoustic enrichment' can be a key intervention to support imperiled reefs.

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A new study reports the discovery of an entirely new stable, earth-abundant, high-performance material for solar absorbers -- the central part of a solar cell that turns light into electricity. While identifying new solar materials is typically very time-consuming, the researchers used a unique high-throughput computational screening method to quickly evaluate around 40,000 candidate materials.

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A team achieves successful mass production of metalenses designed for application in the ultraviolet region.

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Sand ripples are symmetrical. Yet wind -- which causes them -- is very much not. Furthermore, sand ripples can be found on Mars and on Earth. They would be even more fascinating if the same effect found on Mars could be found here on Earth as well. What if one unified theory could explain their formation on both planets?

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Adding a fourth light to traffic signals -- in addition to red, green and yellow -- would shorten wait times at street corners for pedestrians, as well as improve traffic flow for both autonomous vehicles and human drivers. And the more autonomous vehicles there are in the traffic network, the shorter the wait times for everyone.

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Research in quantum materials is paving the way for groundbreaking discoveries and is poised to drive technological advancements that will redefine the landscapes of industries like mining, energy, transportation, and medtech. A technique called time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (TR-ARPES) has emerged as a powerful tool, allowing researchers to explore the equilibrium and dynamical properties of quantum materials via light-matter interaction.

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A new study has answered a long-held question about why medium-sized land animals like cheetahs tend to be fastest.

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A team develops an ultrasensitive broadband transparent ultrasound transducer.