Category Archives: Technology
Nonequilibrium effects in hybrids of electron systems with spontaneously broken symmetries
Imagine a military regiment in formation. That we will call symmetry. Now imagine the same regiment when it is dismissed by the commanding officer: at once the soldiers disperse and tend to form domains (groups) or pairs. Hence, we can […]
The convergence of neuroscience and artificial intelligence
Several researchers in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) are warning about an AI winter, which means that scientists might lose the interest on the discipline, institutions reduce drastically the funding towards its research and lose presence in the public […]
How to study the protein corona using fluorinated nanoparticles
Author: Mónica Carril is an Ikerbasque Research Associate at the Biophysics Institute CSIC-UPV/EHU.
When nanoparticles (NPs) get in contact with biological fluids such as blood, proteins present in it will adsorb on the surface of those NPs forming what is […]
Open-sea experiments on a spar floating support for offshore wind turbines
Floating structures are becoming increasingly popular. They are used by several industries, some have been in business for decades, like those dedicated to oil and gas, some are newer, like renewables (wind, wave, tidal), and there are still some other […]
Unlocking graphene’s spintronic potential through spin-valley coupling
Author: José H. García is a postdoctoral researcher at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2).
Few materials have drawn as much attention as graphene, it fascinating attributes such as one-atom thickness and relativistic electrons, and its technological properties […]
Avoiding geological timescales to access low energies in bulk glasses
Common glass, used in windows or bottles, for example, is made by heating a mixture of calcium oxide (lime), sodium carbonate (soda), and silicon (IV) oxide (sand), resulting in a calcium silicate. This silicate is not a crystal but a […]
Bio-inpired self-healing materials
Plants and animals are provided with startling self-healing and defence mechanisms. Think of how trees achieve wound closure after losing a limb through callus formation, or the ability of the chameleon to adapt the colour of the skin according to […]
A route to the directional control of light–matter interactions at the nanoscale
Mobile phones and computers are currently responsible for up to 8% of the electricity use in the world. This figure has been doubling each past decade but nothing prevents it from skyrocketing in the future. Unless we find a way […]
Vibrational spectra of liquids with nanometer spatial resolution
The ability to examine the vibrational spectra of liquids with nanometer spatial resolution will greatly expand the potential to study liquids and liquid interfaces. After all, modern technology, including many manufacturing processes, and science depend on understanding the detailed interactions […]
The role of core electrons in the electronic stopping power of heavy ions
Spacecraft components potentially exposed to different ionic projectiles in space, new materials used in new energy systems or healthy tissues exposed to cancer therapies are all instances where a full comprehension of how the energy of the incoming ions is […]