ScienceDaily: Matter & Energy News

Nickel-cobalt metal dimer on nitrogen-doped carbon can catalyze electrolysis under both acidic and basic conditions.

The World Climate Conference in Glasgow has just ended, and the question is whether the goal of maximum global heating of 1.5°C can still be achieved. In a model calculation, researchers show how the energy transition could lead to the lowest possible cumulative emissions: Instead of slowly cutting back emissions, we should quickly push ahead with the conversion to solar energy and use fossil power plants at full capacity for one last time to do so.

A 'macrogrid' that increases the electricity moving between America's Eastern and Western interconnections, two of the biggest power grids on the planet, would more than pay for itself, according to new research.

Researchers are using generative adversarial networks (GANs) -- technology best known for creating deepfake videos and photorealistic human faces -- to improve brain-computer interfaces for people with disabilities. The team successfully taught an AI to generate synthetic brain activity data. The data, specifically neural signals called spike trains, can be fed into machine-learning algorithms to improve the usability of brain-computer interfaces (BCI).

Bubbles are common in nature and can form when ocean waves break and when raindrops impact surfaces. When bubbles burst, they send tiny jets of water and other materials into the air. A new study examines how the interplay between bubble surfaces and water that contains organic materials contributes to the transport of aerosolized organic materials -- some of which are linked to the spread of disease or contamination -- into the atmosphere.

Physicists have confirmed that as atoms are chilled and squeezed to extremes, their ability to scatter light is suppressed, making them less visible. The findings show the Pauli exclusion principle, or Pauli blocking, applies not just to electrons but also to atoms.

Introducing a vertical arrangement of n and p layers into the drift layer of semiconductors to enable bipolar operation is a way around the 'unipolar limit' problem in semiconductors. But defect generation during the fabrication of such devices is a matter of concern. Researchers have examined the depth and distribution of defects formed by aluminum ion implantation in silicon carbide bipolar diodes to identify ways to induce efficient conductivity modulation.

For years, researchers believed that the smaller the domain size in a ferroelectric crystal, the greater the piezoelectric properties of the material. However, recent findings have raised questions about this standard rule.

Chemistry researchers have developed a new method using blue light to create pharmaceuticals in a more sustainable way, significantly reducing the amount of energy needed and the chemical waste created in the manufacture process.

The creation of nanoscale computers for use in precision health care has long been a dream of many scientists and health care providers. Now, for the first time, researchers have produced a nanocomputing agent that can control the function of a particular protein that is involved in cell movement and cancer metastasis. The research paves the way for the construction of complex nanoscale computers for the prevention and treatment of cancer and other diseases.