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Understanding heat flow across interfaces remains an open question for thermal science. Nanocrystal arrays may play a key role in unlocking this mystery.
Topological insulators have generated much interest in condensed-matter physics. The synthesis and characterization of Bi14Rh3I9, a so-called weak topological insulator, demonstrates that chemists also have much to offer to the field.
The cytoplasm of living cells responds to deformation in much the same way as a water-filled sponge does. This behaviour, although intuitive, is connected to long-standing and unsolved fundamental questions in cell mechanics.
The complete elastic response of a spider's orb web has been quantified by non-invasive light scattering, revealing important insights into the architecture, natural material use and mechanical properties of the web. This knowledge advances our understanding of the prey-catching process and the role of supercontraction therein.
Materials displaying negative linear compressibility are, at present, the exception rather than the rule. An unusually large and persistent example of this phenomenon in the molecular framework material zinc dicyanoaurate dramatically expands the range of mechanical responses conceivable in other materials.
Open crystalline configurations self-assembled from colloids with sticky patches have recently been shown to be unexpectedly stable. A theory that accounts for the entropy of the colloids' thermal fluctuations now explains why.
Assessing when cell death occurs following in vivo transplantation of stem cells is challenging. Now, pH-sensitive hydrogel capsules containing arginine-based liposomes are shown to act as magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents, allowing cell death to be monitored within the capsules.
In a uniformly aligned liquid crystal, colloidal particles having a number of holes give rise to arrays of topological defects that are associated with the particles' topology.
High-throughput computational approaches combining thermodynamic and electronic-structure methods with data mining and database construction are increasingly used to analyse huge amounts of data for the discovery and design of new materials. This Review provides an overall perspective of the field for a broad range of materials, and discusses upcoming challenges and opportunities.
Networks of glycans template multiphase lipid membranes, either by stabilizing large domains at the characteristic length scale of the network if inhomogeneous, or by suppressing macroscopic phase separation if homogeneous.
A biocompatible method for fabricating three-dimensional photonic crystals opens up unique opportunities for structurally coloured biodegradable materials, but also for implantable biosensing and targeted therapeutics on the microscale.
Electrocatalysis lies at the heart of the chemical phenomena that take place at electrochemical interfaces. In the future it will be the key to driving technological innovations that are urgently needed to deliver reliable, affordable and environmentally friendly energy.
Both electronic and nuclear spins have their pros and cons for quantum information processing. A silicon-based hybrid electronic–nuclear system can make the best of both properties.
It has been shown that glasses prepared by physical vapour deposition have extraordinary stability. A computer algorithm that mimics such a process has now identified the optimal deposition temperature and the glasses' structural features.
