ScienceDaily: Matter & Energy News

Engineers are using neural networks to accelerate predictions of how the microstructures of materials evolve. The machine-learning technique should speed the development of novel materials.

Researchers have created a new gene editing tool called Retron Library Recombineering (RLR) that can generate up to millions of mutations simultaneously, and 'barcodes' mutant bacterial cells so that the entire pool can be screened at once. It can be used in contexts where CRISPR is toxic or not feasible, and results in better editing rates.

The future of particle acceleration has begun. Awake is a promising concept for a completely new method with which particles can be accelerated even over short distances. The basis for this is a plasma wave that accelerates electrons and thus brings them to high energies. A team now reports a breakthrough in this context. For the first time, they were able to precisely time the production of the proton microbunches that drive the wave in the plasma. This fulfills an important prerequisite for using the Awake technology for collision experiments.

Scientists have developed an ultrasonic imaging system, which can be deployed on the tip of a hair-thin optical fiber, and will be insertable into the human body to visualize cell abnormalities in 3D.

Researchers have developed a method that allows for simulation and visualization of magnetic-field-induced electron currents inside gold nanoparticles. The method facilitates accurate analysis of magnetic field effects inside complex nanostructures in nuclear magnetic resonance measurements and establishes quantitative criteria for aromaticity of nanoparticles.

Researchers are building tougher circuits to help withstand the grueling demands of energy production, space exploration and more.

Researchers have uncovered a major cause of limitations to efficiency in a new generation of solar cells.

The field of soft robotics has exploded in the past decade, as ever more researchers seek to make real the potential of these pliant, flexible automata in a variety of realms, including search and rescue, exploration and medicine.

Scientists have developed a type of deception to calm unruly plasma and accelerate the harvesting on Earth of fusion energy.