2+ hour, 18+ min ago  (745+ words) Ada Zejun Shen/Quanta Magazine But what if noise could be made into the computer engineer’s friend? What if, instead of trying to make devices that work despite the hubbub of thermal fluctuations that ruffle everything in the universe, we…...

5+ day, 2+ hour ago  (1212+ words) When pulled at 100 millimeters per second, a blend of hydrogen and carbon stretches. At 300 millimeters per second, the fluid breaks. Adapted with permission from Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 124002. Copyrighted by the American Physical Society. Thamires Lima, a research professor in chemical…...

1+ mon, 2+ week ago  (1181+ words) What Garnet Chan cares most about is basic science. He entered chemistry decades ago to understand some of the most consequential biochemical processes on Earth. “My main interest is in solving chemical problems. If classical computers are the right tool…...

4+ mon, 6+ day ago  (1520+ words) The inner channel of the nuclear pore complex in all its messy glory. Far from a simple pore, the complex is filled with dynamic proteins that move molecules into and out of the nucleus. In this computer model, green strands…...

5+ mon, 4+ day ago  (925+ words) Water molecules flow together; electrons usually do not. Myriam Wares for Quanta Magazine If you were asked to picture how electrons move, you could be forgiven for imagining a stream of particles sluicing down a wire like water rushing through…...

7+ mon, 1+ week ago  (597+ words) Solids don’t usually have such slick surfaces. The reason we can gracefully glide on an ice-skating rink or clumsily slip on an icy sidewalk is that the surface of ice is coated by a thin watery layer. Scientists generally agree…...

10+ mon, 4+ week ago  (977+ words) How can atoms assemble into quasicrystals? Scientists seek to understand both for curiosity’s sake and in hopes of putting the materials to work. DVDP for Quanta Magazine “Quasicrystals are one of those things that as a materials scientist, when you…...