The scattering of conduction electrons in metals owing to impurities with magnetic moments is known as the Kondo effect, after Jun Kondo, who analysed the phenomenon in 1964. This scattering increases the electrical resistance and has the consequence that, in contrast to ordinary metals, the resistance reaches a minimum as the temperature is lowered and […]
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5) includes sensory alterations as one of the four characteristics of restricted / repetitive behavior of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It defines this symptom characteristic as a «hyper- or hyporeactivity to sensory inputs or an unusual interest for sensory aspects of the environment» […]
Many aromatic compounds can be made into organic semiconductors by doping them with a substance such as iodine, thereby producing mobile carriers of electric charge. This is analogous to the doping of silicon in an ordinary semiconductor. The benefits of using organic compounds are evident, namely, the resources are available everywhere, extremely cheap, and there […]
First of all, I don’t want to mean that a neuron was found in space, but that similarly to the grid cells found by Nobel laureate May-Britt Moser and colleagues another cell type named object-vector cell has been found -also by their group- which is involved in spatial sensation. While grid cells are place modulated […]
Last February I published my first scientific article as principal author in Physical Review B . This article summarizes a big part of my work as a PhD student, a journey that has not been easy. The first version was sent to the journal a year ago; in between many things happened: new experiments, discussions […]
Since the discovery of graphene, a wide diversity of atomic-layer-thick, two-dimensional (2D) materials with varied properties have emerged. Of particular interest are those that exhibit semiconducting behavior, such as hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). hBN is isoelectronic to graphene and has also a honeycomb lattice formed by alternating nitrogen and boron atoms, but in contrast to […]
The computer metaphor draws an analogy between the mind as software and the brain as hardware. In this metaphor, the focus of discussions is usually on the software part, taking for granted that the brain, or the whole nervous system, is a computer of sorts. But this is something that needs to be proved first […]
On our unique planet, life evolved under the pressure of natural selection. The evolution theory of Darwin demonstrates the incredible plasticity of the living organism. For millions of years, living organisms explored the conformational universe of proteins introducing new structures and function through genetic mutations. The genetic modifications are translated into the sequence of amino-acids […]
The way a particular reaction proceeds, described in terms of the steps involved, is called mechanism. The study of organic chemistry is, to a great extent, the study of reaction mechanisms and textbooks content both their description and their applications. But something has come to revolutionize the world of mechanisms: surface chemistry. On-surface synthesis is […]
Sensory profiling is a very important tool in food industry, crucial in order to adapt the products to consumers’ preferences. Quantitative Descriptive Analysis (QDA) is a precise tool to relate characteristics of the product with consumers’ perception, since trained panels provide very detailed, robust, consistent, and reproducible results . However, creating and maintaining a well-trained […]