Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
The tube model can explain how mutually entangled polymer chains move and interact, but it relies on the loose ends of chains to generate relaxation. Ring polymers have no ends — so how do they relax?
The durability of glasses and minerals in water has traditionally been predicted using models that ignore the molecular details. Now the surface structure dynamics are shown to play an integral role in their aqueous corrosion.
Accordion-like honeycomb scaffolds support the formation of anisotropically contracting heart tissue in vitro, opening up possibilities in the area of cardiac tissue repair.
Does the high-temperature superconductivity observed in the newly discovered iron pnictides represent another example of the same essential physics responsible for superconductivity in the cuprates, or does it embody a new mechanism?
Externally applied pressure induces superconductivity in the layer compound 1T-TaS2. Similarities to, and differences from, other superconducting systems promise exciting future experiments on this old, but suddenly rejuvenated, compound.
Printing electronic circuits will usher in a new era in electronics. With ion gel dielectrics, unprecedented transistor performance and speeds at low voltage can be demonstrated.
Single doped defects in carbon nanotubes locally modify the energies of charge carriers and lattice vibrations. They can now be detected by inelastic light-scattering experiments.
The high temperatures required for oxygen ion conductivity have hampered the development of practical applications of ionic conductors. Now superlattices made of yttria-stabilized zirconia and strontium titanate show promise for room-temperature devices.
Amorphous solids show intriguing universal behaviour whose origins often remain poorly understood. One of these features, the boson peak, is now shown to be directly linked to transverse vibrations.
A polymeric delivery vehicle, with neutral degradation products, keeps inflammation at bay during sustained drug release following myocardial infarction.
Careful design of donor–acceptor polymer molecules with reversible redox properties gives access to polymer electrochromic displays with switchable absorption in the full visible range of the optical spectrum.
Artificial photosynthesis — splitting water with light — is an attractive way to make hydrogen, but what happens to the oxygen? A catalyst that aids in the efficient production of gaseous oxygen improves the viability of this approach.
Using a known and widely used drug as a specific triggering agent, another drug can be released from a hydrogel. This route opens up the application of hydrogels in the targeted, controlled release of drugs in vivo.
