Category archives: Science

Recovering native chemical information from surface-enhanced Raman scattering

Recovering native chemical information from surface-enhanced Raman scattering

ChemistryCondensed matterPhysicsQuantum physics

By DIPC

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 and the use of surface plasmon (collective electronic oscillations at the surface of metals) resonances for sensing. However, it was not until the 1990s […]

Geological phenomena implying dissolved species bring new insights on fundamental thermophysics

Geological phenomena implying dissolved species bring new insights on fundamental thermophysics

ChemistryCondensed matterGeosciences

By DIPC

Over geologic time scales, seawater transforms the basalt of the ocean floor by chemical attack. At the end of this alteration process, the basalt turns partly into clays and partly into dissolved salts in sea water. Lithium, a chemical element initially contained in basalt, will then be distributed between clay and seawater. This separation has […]

Enantioselective polymerization of a biodegradable polymer using a substituted aminoacid as a catalyst

Enantioselective polymerization of a biodegradable polymer using a substituted aminoacid as a catalyst

ChemistryCondensed matterMaterials

By DIPC

The idea that certain natural products such as rubber are composed of giant molecules, or polymers, consisting of many repeating units linked by covalent bonds arose largely from the work of the German chemist Hermann Staudinger (1881–1965) in the early 1920s. He convinced skeptical chemists of this idea partly by linking small organic molecules (monomers) […]

The tautomerization of porphycene on Cu(111) in simple physical terms

The tautomerization of porphycene on Cu(111) in simple physical terms

Condensed matterQuantum physicsTheoretical physics

By DIPC

There are compounds, called isomers, that have the same molecular formulae but different molecular structures or different arrangements of atoms in space. In the so-called cis-trans isomerism, isomers have different positions of groups or specific atoms with respect to a double bond, a ring or a central atom. For example, the numbers in the name […]

A link between straintronics and valleytronics in graphene

A link between straintronics and valleytronics in graphene

Condensed matterMaterialsNanotechnologyQuantum physicsTheoretical physics

By DIPC

So-called “valleytronics” is a new type of electronics that could lead to faster and more efficient computer logic systems and data storage chips in next-generation devices. Valley electrons are so named because they carry a valley “degree of freedom.” This is a new way to harness electrons for information processing that’s in addition to utilizing […]

LSD as a therapeutic agent for autism

LSD as a therapeutic agent for autism

MedicineNeurobiology

By José Ramón Alonso

Treatment of children with autism in the 1960s included shock therapies and many different psychotropic drugs. The results were bad: there was no positive change in those children although the treatments were occasionally maintained for years. Under these circumstances, more powerful drugs were sought and a new substance was considered: lysergic acid diethylamide or LSD […]