Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) is a singular research center born in 2000 devoted to research at the cutting edge in the fields of condensed matter physics, materials science, nanoscience, physical chemistry, cosmology, particle physics, and life-science-related physics. Since its conception DIPC has stood for the promotion of excellence in research, which demands a flexible space where creativity is stimulated by diversity of perspectives. Its dynamic research community integrates local host scientists and a constant flow of international visiting researchers.
Condensed matter • DIPC Advanced materials • Materials • Quantum physics
Graphene, a single sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb, was first isolated in 2004, and for years its electrons were treated as nearly independent travellers. That changed in 2018, when two sheets twisted by a “magic” angle produced almost flat energy bands, in which an electron’s energy hardly depends on its motion, together […]
Porphyrins are among nature’s most important pigments. The name comes from the Greek word for purple, and the molecules are four small nitrogen-containing rings joined into a larger ring, with room at the centre for a metal atom. In the haemoglobin of blood that atom is iron; in the chlorophyll of plants it is magnesium […]
Biochemistry • Chemistry • DIPC Biochemistry • Pharmacy • Quantum chemistry
Fats do far more than store energy. They form the membranes that enclose every cell and act as chemical signals. Cells build and reshape them with enzymes, and one of these, ELOVL6, lengthens fatty acids by two carbon atoms. Embedded in the membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum, an internal network where many lipids are made […]
Chemistry • Condensed matter • DIPC Advanced materials • Materials
Graphene, a honeycomb sheet of carbon atoms just one atom thick, was first isolated in 2004 with adhesive tape and a lump of graphite, work that earned a Nobel Prize in 2010. Large sheets of graphene conduct electricity superbly, but they are not magnetic. Shrink a piece to a few nanometres, however, and its boundary […]
Condensed matter • DIPC Advanced materials • Materials • Quantum chemistry • Quantum physics
In 2004, physicists isolated graphene, a sheet of carbon just one atom thick. It launched the study of two-dimensional (2D) materials: crystals a few atoms thick in which electrons are confined to a plane and can behave quite differently from those in ordinary solids. The family of known and predicted 2D crystals has since grown […]
Galaxies rotate faster than the matter we can see should allow. Evidence for an unseen, gravitating substance began to build in the 1930s with Fritz Zwicky’s studies of galaxy clusters, and strengthened in the 1970s as Vera Rubin measured how stars orbit within spiral galaxies. Nearly a century later, dark matter is still known almost […]
In 1911, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes cooled mercury to a few degrees above absolute zero and watched its electrical resistance vanish. Lead soon joined the list of superconductors, losing its resistance below about 7.2 kelvin. A full explanation arrived in 1957: electrons bind into Cooper pairs that move together as one collective state below a critical […]
One of the most powerful ways to study the Universe is to map where galaxies are located. Galaxies are not scattered randomly through space; they gather into groups, clusters, filaments and other structures that trace the underlying distribution of dark matter. The pattern of this cosmic web carries information about the basic ingredients and history […]
At the smallest scales, materials are never entirely still. Atoms in a crystal continuously vibrate around their resting positions, and some of these vibrations, called phonons, have well-defined energies that can interact with light. Normally, light and a material vibration can be treated as separate things. But when their interaction becomes strong enough, they can […]
Condensed matter • DIPC Advanced materials • Materials • Quantum physics
Nickel disulfide, NiS₂, is an unusual material. Its interior behaves as an electrical insulator, blocking the flow of current, while certain parts of its surface conduct electricity freely. This contradiction has puzzled physicists for decades, and a recent study offers a detailed explanation. The conduction, it turns out, is confined to tiny one-dimensional steps on […]