By stacking custom-designed silver nanoparticles like nanoscale LEGO bricks, scientists stabilized a mysterious crystal phase that had never been observed before. The material not only solves a ...

Illustration of the material’s transition, with time represented from left to right. A laser pulse (left) sends the material into disorder (middle). Out of this so-called soup phase emerges a highly ...

AMES, Iowa – When Valery Levitas left Europe in 1999, he packed up a rotational diamond anvil cell and brought it to the United States. He and the researchers in his group are still using a ...

Zirconium carbide nanoparticles trigger crystal-structure changes that make brittle ceramic matrix composites stronger and ...

High-pressure studies of silicon and germanium reveal a rich landscape of structural rearrangements that profoundly alter their electronic, optical and mechanical properties. Under compression, the ...

From cells that migrate to tissues that heal, nature abounds with systems capable of sensing and adapting to their surroundings. Replicating this level of adaptability in synthetic systems has ...

(Nanowerk News) A flash of light traps this material in an excited state indefinitely, and new experiments reveal how it happens. A dry material makes a great fire starter, and a soft material lends ...