Coffee is one of the most widely consumed drinks in the world. Several brewing methods can be used to prepare it depending on the consumer’s taste – or the lack of it – as well as cultural and geographical habits. My father, for example, had a ritual every time he wanted a coffee. He took […]
A group of astrophysicists (to which I have the pleasure to belong to), led by scientists from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC, Spain), have recently published an article in Nature Astronomy in which the early events shaping the current view of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, have been unveiled . Such discovery has […]
Condensed matter • Materials • Nanotechnology • Quantum physics
The so-called van der Waals materials consist of two-dimensional layers bound by weak van der Waals forces. After the isolation of graphene, the field of two-dimensional van der Waals materials has experienced an explosive growth and new families of two-dimensional systems and block-layered bulk materials have been created. This growth has been fueled mainly by […]
As one of those people who REALLY love to sleep -and doesn’t get close to enough of it- I am always interested to read on the topic. What I didn’t expect was to read about sleeping fish and how that relates to its origin . But let’s get down to the details, because if the […]
Condensed matter • Materials • Nanotechnology • Quantum physics
For centuries, metals were employed in optical applications only as mirrors and gratings. New vistas opened up in the late 1970s and early 1980s with the discovery of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and the use of surface plasmon (collective electronic oscillations at the surface of metals) resonances for sensing. In a simplified picture and in […]
The cicadas are part of the soundtrack of summer. Their calls, especially if a large number of animals is gathered, can form an impressive concert. They are part of the hemiptera, the order of aphids and bedbugs, but they do not have the bad reputation of these others, although they are not beneficial either. The […]
Elements with 4f or 5f electrons in unfilled electron bands and their componuds , which have ions carrying magnetic moments but do not magnetically order, or only do so at very low temperatures, are generally known as heavy-fermion or heavy electron systems because the scattering of the conduction electrons with the magnetic ions results in […]
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have among their diagnostic characteristics problems for communication and social interaction. The typical example is the difficulty to understand the facial expressions or the body language of other people, but in addition to these aspects mediated by the visual system there may be other senses affected and, in fact, it has […]
Condensed matter • Materials • Physics • Quantum physics • Theoretical physics
We all know what an insulator is, don’t we? An insulator is any substance that is a poor conductor of heat and electricity. Both properties ussually occur as a consequence of a lack of mobile electrons.If we want to dive a little deeper into the nature of insulators we make use of energy band theory […]
A preterm baby is one that is born prematurely, a minimum of three weeks before the expected date of delivery or, in other words, before the 37th week of pregnancy. Premature babies, especially extreme premature babies, have a high risk of suffering from nervous system problems, especially cerebral palsy, neurodevelopmental delays, and hearing and vision […]