Condensed matter • DIPC Electronic Properties • Materials • Quantum physics
Imagine taking two identical sheets of chicken wire and laying them on top of one another. If you align them perfectly, they look like a single sheet. But if you rotate the top layer by just a tiny amount, a beautiful large-scale crawling pattern emerges. In physics, we call this a Moiré pattern. When we […]
Author: Atheena Johnson, Docteure en linguistique appliquée, Université Paris Nanterre Over the decades, technological devices have been gradually integrated into language learning, as is recently the case with generative artificial intelligence (AI). Does the sophistication of these tools eventually render pencils and pens obsolete? Or can digital uses be combined with handwriting? How does writing […]
University of Houston professor of psychology Arturo Hernandez is disputing a high-profile study claiming that people who live in multilingual countries show healthier brain aging. Though the study got lots of attention, Hernandez and collaborators report that the findings warrant cautious interpretation and reframing of public health implications. “We took a closer look and argued […]
During the last decade, neurodegenerative diseases have often been described as fires spreading silently from one neuron to another. We knew that misfolded proteins such as alpha‑synuclein could travel across neural circuits, igniting new pathological hotspots along the way. What we did not know is that, behind the scenes, astrocytes —those tireless caretakers of the […]
Chemistry • DIPC Biochemistry • Evolution • Geosciences • Materials
The classic chemical garden experiment is a staple of introductory chemistry, where colorful, plant-like structures sprout from metal salt crystals dropped into a solution of sodium silicate. While these vibrant tubes look like biological life, they are entirely inorganic, driven by the physics of osmosis and the chemistry of precipitation. For decades, scientists have admired […]
Author: Jordi Diaz Marcos, CCiTUB , Universitat de Barcelona As good citizens, we diligently fill the recycling bins provided by our local authorities with all manner of plastic trays, boxes, bottles and bags. But as these bins fill up quicker and quicker each week, an awkward question arises: is all this effort actually doing any […]
Imagine cooling a liquid so fast it turns into glass: a solid that’s jumbled inside, unlike neat crystal lattices. In 1948, Walter Kauzmann noticed a puzzle. As liquids cool, their entropy (a measure of disorder) drops faster than in crystals. Below a certain temperature, a supercooled liquid would have less entropy than the crystal, implying […]
Have you ever wondered how your ears can pick up the faintest whisper yet also handle loud music without damage? Scientists at Rockefeller University have achieved a remarkable feat : they kept a tiny piece of cochlea alive and working outside the body, allowing them to witness the hearing process in unprecedented detail. Building a […]
When we peel a crystal down to its very last layer, the physics governing its behavior undergoes a radical shift. This transition from the bulk (three-dimensional) to the two-dimensional limit is where some of the most exotic phenomena in condensed matter physics emerge. Among these, Titanium Diselenide, or TiSe₂, has long fascinated researchers because of […]
Author: Steven Gillespie, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, University of Liverpool Psychopaths might account for only about 1% of the general population, but they account for a disproportionate share of violent crime. Distinct from other conditions like sociopathy and antisocial personality disorder, psychopaths tend to show traits such as an absence of remorse or guilt […]