ScienceDaily: Matter & Energy News

A new approach to producing metamaterials draws on kirigami techniques to make three-dimensional, reconfigurable building blocks that can be used to create complex, dynamic structures. Because the design approach is modular, these structures are easy to both assemble and disassemble.

As a rule, most catalyst materials deteriorate during repeated catalytic cycles – they age. But there are also compounds that increase their performance over the course of catalysis. One example is the mineral erythrite, a mineral compound comprising cobalt and arsenic oxides. Erythrite lends itself to accelerating oxygen generation at the anode during electrolytic splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Physicists have created a new way to observe details about the structure and composition of materials that improves upon previous methods. Conventional spectroscopy changes the frequency of light shining on a sample over time to reveal details about them. The new technique, Rabi-oscillation spectroscopy, does not need to explore a wide frequency range so can operate much more quickly. This method could be used to interrogate our best theories of matter in order to form a better understanding of the material universe.

Researchers have found a way to reduce organ rejection following a transplant by using a special polymer to coat blood vessels on the organ to be transplanted. The polymer substantially diminished rejection of transplants in mice when tested. The discovery has the potential to eliminate the need for drugs -- typically with serious side effects -- on which transplant recipients rely to prevent their immune systems from attacking a new organ as a foreign object.

Engineers have designed a strong, biocompatible glue that can seal injured tissues and stop bleeding, inspired by the sticky substance that barnacles use to cling to rocks.

Researchers corrected mutations that cause cystic fibrosis in cultured human stem cells. They used a technique called prime editing to replace the 'faulty' piece of DNA with a healthy piece. The study shows that prime editing is safer than the conventional CRISPR/Cas9 technique.

Bacterial infections relating to medical implants place a huge burden on healthcare and cause great suffering to patients worldwide. Now, researchers have developed a new method to prevent such infections, by covering a graphene-based material with bactericidal molecules.

New research published in EPJ D combines mass spectroscopy with a range of other simulation and analytical techniques, allowing researchers to distinguish between two chiral forms of a dipeptide biomolecule.

In a new study published in EPJ D, researchers have clearly identified particular areas where discrepancies arise between theoretical and experimental measurements of helium ionization by an impacting proton.

A new special edition of EPJ Special Topics brings together several papers that detail our understanding of Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) and the processes that transformed it into the baryonic matter we around us on an everyday basis.

Scientists have developed two complementary bladder models to study urinary tract infections (UTIs) caused by E. coli: bladder organoids and a bladder-on-a- chip. The two studies reveal how bacteria invade the bladder, and how they evade the immune system and resist antibiotics. The studies they provide researchers and clinicians with a powerful new for studying the pathogenesis and treatment of UTIs.