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Categories: Geoscience: Geochemistry, Physics: Quantum Computing
Published Don't overeat: How archaea toggle the nitrogen-uptake switch



By tightly regulating nitrogen uptake, microorganisms avoid overeating nitrogen and thus wasting energy. Scientists now reveal how some methanogenic archaea manage to do so.
Published Deepwater Horizon oil spill study could lead to overhaul of cleanup processes worldwide



New research could lead to major improvements in marine oil spill cleanup processes. The innovative study assessed the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on microscopic seawater bacteria that perform a significant role in ecosystem functioning.
Published New research sheds light on a phenomenon known as 'false vacuum decay'



Scientists have produced the first experimental evidence of vacuum decay.
Published Groundbreaking discovery enables cost-effective and eco-friendly green hydrogen production



A research team has developed a novel catalyst for the high-efficiency and stable production of high-purity green hydrogen.
Published Ice age could help predict oceans' response to global warming



A new way to measure the ocean oxygen level and its connections with carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere during the last ice age could help explain the role oceans played in past glacial melting cycles and improve predictions of how ocean carbon cycles will respond to global warming.
Published Towards the quantum of sound



A team of scientists has succeeded in cooling traveling sound waves in wave-guides considerably further than has previously been possible using laser light. This achievement represents a significant move towards the ultimate goal of reaching the quantum ground state of sound in wave-guides. Unwanted noise generated by the acoustic waves at room temperature can be eliminated. This experimental approach both provides a deeper understanding of the transition from classical to quantum phenomena of sound and is relevant to quantum communication systems and future quantum technologies.
Published Next-generation batteries could go organic, cobalt-free for long-lasting power



In the switch to 'greener' energy sources, the demand for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries is surging. However, their cathodes typically contain cobalt -- a metal whose extraction has high environmental and societal costs. Now, researchers in report evaluating an earth-abundant, carbon-based cathode material that could replace cobalt and other scarce and toxic metals without sacrificing lithium-ion battery performance.
Published Efficiently moving urea out of polluted water is coming to reality



Researchers have developed a material to remove urea from water and potentially convert it into hydrogen gas. By building these materials of nickel and cobalt atoms with carefully tailored electronic structures, the group has unlocked the potential to enable these transition metal oxides and hydroxides to selectively oxidize urea in an electrochemical reaction. The team's findings could help use urea in waste streams to efficiently produce hydrogen fuel through the electrolysis process, and could be used to sequester urea from water, maintaining the long-term sustainability of ecological systems, and revolutionizing the water-energy nexus.
Published Cobalt-free batteries could power cars of the future



A new battery material could offer a more sustainable way to power electric cars. The lithium-ion battery includes a cathode based on organic materials, instead of cobalt or nickel.
Published Rain can spoil a wolf spider's day, too



Researchers found that wolf spiders can't signal others or perceive danger from predators as easily on rain-soaked leaves compared to dry ones. Even communicating with would-be mates is harder after it rains.
Published Chemists create a 2D heavy fermion



Researchers have synthesized the first 2D heavy fermion. The material, a layered intermetallic crystal composed of cerium, silicon, and iodine (CeSiI), has electrons that are 1000x heavier and is a new platform to explore quantum phenomena.
Published Higher measurement accuracy opens new window to the quantum world



A team has developed a new measurement method that, for the first time, accurately detects tiny temperature differences in the range of 100 microkelvin in the thermal Hall effect. Previously, these temperature differences could not be measured quantitatively due to thermal noise. Using the well-known terbium titanate as an example, the team demonstrated that the method delivers highly reliable results. The thermal Hall effect provides information about coherent multi-particle states in quantum materials, based on their interaction with lattice vibrations (phonons).
Published Let it glow: Scientists develop new approach to detect 'forever chemicals' in water



Researchers have created a new way to detect 'forever chemical' pollution in water, via a luminescent sensor.
Published US air pollution rates on the decline but pockets of inequities remain



Our latest study shows there are racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in air pollution emissions reductions, particularly in the industry and energy generation sectors. The findings provide a national investigation of air pollution emission changes in the 40 years following the enactment of the Clean Air Act (CAA). Until now, studies have primarily focused on evaluating air pollution disparities at a single time point, focusing on pollutant concentrations instead of emissions. A focus on emissions, however, has more direct implications for regulations and policies. In this study, the researchers used county-level data to evaluate racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in air pollution emissions changes in the contiguous U.S. from 1970 to 2010.
Published Long live the graphene valley state



Researchers found evidence that bilayer graphene quantum dots may host a promising new type of quantum bit based on so-called valley states.
Published New AI makes better permafrost maps



New insights from artificial intelligence about permafrost coverage in the Arctic may soon give policy makers and land managers the high-resolution view they need to predict climate-change-driven threats to infrastructure such as oil pipelines, roads and national security facilities.
Published Artificial 'power plants' harness energy from wind and rain



Fake plants are moving into the 21st century! Researchers developed literal 'power plants' -- tiny, leaf-shaped generators that create electricity from a blowing breeze or falling raindrops. The team tested the energy harvesters by incorporating them into artificial plants.
Published Physicists identify overlooked uncertainty in real-world experiments



The rules of statistical physics address the uncertainty about the state of a system that arises when that system interacts with its environment. But they've long missed another kind. In a new paper, researchers argue that uncertainty in the thermodynamic parameters themselves -- built into equations that govern the energetic behavior of the system -- may also influence the outcome of an experiment.
Published Solid-state qubits: Forget about being clean, embrace mess



New findings debunk previous wisdom that solid-state qubits need to be super dilute in an ultra-clean material to achieve long lifetimes. Instead, cram lots of rare-earth ions into a crystal and some will form pairs that act as highly coherent qubits, a new paper shows.
Published More aerosol particles than thought are forming over Siberia, study finds



A new study finds that, contrary to previous beliefs, large amounts of aerosol particles can form over vast areas of the West Siberian taiga in the spring. When temperatures rise, this can have a significant impact on the climate.