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A complete understanding of the mechanism underpinning high-temperature superconductivity is notoriously elusive. The growing body of evidence suggesting that monolayer iron selenide superconducts up to 65 K indicates it may become an ideal model system for testing theoretical ideas.
The application of imaging techniques prevalent in materials science to the biological process of soft tissue calcification lends new insight into age-related cardiovascular disease.
Tissue-mimicking printed networks of droplets separated by lipid bilayers that can be functionalized with membrane proteins are able to spontaneously fold and transmit electrical currents along predefined paths.
Discrepancies in the glass-forming ability of metallic glasses have been explained in terms of the presence of local structural features in the liquid. Findings from molecular dynamics simulations now show that the structure of the crystal/liquid interface may play a bigger role than previously thought.
Technologies to isolate colonies of human pluripotent stem cells from other cell types in a high-throughput manner are lacking. A microfluidic-based approach that exploits differences in the adhesion strength between these cells and a substrate may soon fill the gap.
A series of breakthroughs is making the fabrication of single-atom devices possible. Their behaviour is controlled by the quantum state of single dopants, and they hold promise for applications such as quantum bits, magnetometers and memories.
Semiconducting quantum dots are considered candidate materials for realizing spin-based quantum computation devices. This Review examines the main results obtained over the past decade concerning the so-called central spin problem, namely the interaction between a single electronic spin or hole with the surrounding nuclear environment.
Single spins trapped in self-assembled quantum dots present rich opportunities for studying their quantum mechanical properties. This Review surveys their optical properties, and the techniques for initializing, manipulating and reading out single spin qubits in these structures.
Stem cells alter their morphology and differentiate to particular lineages in response to biophysical cues from the surrounding matrix. When the matrix is degradable, however, cell fate is morphology-independent and is directed by the traction forces that the cells actively apply after they have degraded the matrix.
A predictive theoretical framework that incorporates both classical and non-classical crystal-nucleation pathways explains the observed rapid aggregation of metastable clusters in the nucleation process of minerals.
Ceramic surfaces can be rendered hydrophobic by using polymeric modifiers, but these are not robust to harsh environments. A known family of rare-earth oxide ceramics is now found to exhibit intrinsic hydrophobicity, even after exposure to high temperatures and abrasive wear.
Three-photon imaging enables deeper tissue penetration in vivo, however, a lack of imaging probes has restricted its use. Now, this problem has been overcome by engineering non-toxic manganese-doped quantum dots.
A nanostructuring processing route that leads to submicrometre grains and nanometric oxide particles uniformly distributed within the grains' interior is used to fabricate molybdenum alloys that have both exceptional high strength and ductility at room temperature.
The rich dynamics of magnetic materials subject to very short laser pulses is important for both information processing and recording technology. The characterization of these phenomena with nanoscale spatial resolution shines new light on our understanding of them.
By efficiently exploring the huge variety of possible grain shapes, computer algorithms that mimic evolution make possible the design of grains that pack into configurations with the desired mechanical or structural properties.
Two-photon luminescence in metallic nanostructures provides a unique signature of the number of plasmonic modes per unit energy and volume, paving the way for more efficient plasmonic sources, detectors and sensors.
