1+ week, 4+ day ago   (778+ words) Polyvinyl chloride is one of the world’s most widely used plastics, but it is also difficult to recycle responsibly. Discarded PVC from pipes, window frames, and even credit cards could become a useful ingredient in synthetic lubricants instead of ending…...

2+ week, 18+ hour ago   (741+ words) Every cup of coffee leaves behind a hidden reservoir of energy. Damp coffee grounds discarded after brewing still contain valuable oils that can be converted into biodiesel, while their carbohydrates and other compounds could be used to produce renewable fuels,…...

2+ week, 2+ day ago   (714+ words) An AI model adapted from image inpainting can reconstruct missing atoms in crystal structures with a reported 97 percent success rate. A crystal structure can appear nearly complete yet still be unusable for computer simulations because some of its atoms are…...

2+ week, 2+ day ago   (394+ words) Researchers observed a hidden state triggered by light forming within 30 femtoseconds. A pulse of light sent a metal-organic framework into a hidden electronic state in just 30 femtoseconds. By watching the transformation almost as it happened, researchers uncovered a fleeting intermediate…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago   (219+ words) Physicists at Göttingen University imaged three-dimensional wave functions using a tabletop soft X-ray laser. An electron inside a molecule does not occupy one fixed point. Quantum mechanics instead describes it through a “wavefunction,” a mathematical map that gives the probabilities…...

2+ week, 5+ day ago   (887+ words) An HZDR research team has developed methods for breaking down “forever chemicals.” The carbon-fluorine bonds inside PFAS are among the strongest in chemistry, allowing these industrial pollutants to persist in water for years. Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) are…...

3+ week, 17+ hour ago   (555+ words) The symmetry of vanadium’s crystal structure acts as a switch for hydrogen’s quantum behavior. Inside a vanadium crystal, hydrogen can travel in two very different ways. It may move as a conventional particle that needs enough energy to jump between…...

3+ week, 1+ day ago   (1112+ words) A meteorite that blasted through a New Jersey roof carried a startling secret: evidence of ancient salty fluids and complex organic chemistry inside a primitive asteroid. A space rock that tore through a New Jersey roof has turned out to…...

3+ week, 4+ day ago   (48+ words) A previously overlooked set of spin symmetries has revealed that magnetism does not fit neatly into just two categories....

3+ week, 5+ day ago   (693+ words) Scientists can now twist large oxide crystals into new materials with potentially powerful electronic properties. A carefully chosen twist can transform how a material behaves. Researchers have now found a way to apply that principle to large sheets of crystalline…...