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Zero Resistance Breakthrough: Meet the Quantum Sandwich Powering the Future

Researchers have developed a new “sandwich” structure material that exhibits the quantum anomalous Hall effect, enabling electrons to travel with almost no resistance at higher temperatures.

This breakthrough could significantly enhance computing power while dramatically reducing energy consumption. The structure is based on a layered approach with bismuth telluride and manganese bismuth telluride, promising faster and more efficient future electronic devices.

Quantum Material Innovations

New research shows most space rocks crashing into Earth come from a single source

The two new studies place the sources of ordinary chondrite types into specific asteroid families – and most likely specific asteroids. This work requires painstaking back-tracking of meteoroid trajectories, observations of individual asteroids, and detailed modelling of the orbital evolution of parent bodies.

The study led by Miroslav Brož reports that ordinary chondrites originate from collisions between asteroids larger than 30 kilometres in diameter that occurred less than 30 million years ago.

The Koronis and Massalia asteroid families provide appropriate body sizes and are in a position that leads to material falling to Earth, based on detailed computer modelling. Of these families, asteroids Koronis and Karin are likely the dominant sources of H chondrites. Massalia (L) and Flora (LL) families are by far the main sources of L-and LL-like meteorites.

‘Electric Plastic’ Could Merge Technology With the Body in Future Wearables and Implants

Finding ways to connect the human body to technology could have broad applications in health and entertainment. A new “electric plastic” could make self-powered wearables, real-time neural interfaces, and medical implants that merge with our bodies a reality.

While there has been significant progress in the development of wearable and implantable technology in recent years, most electronic materials are hard, rigid, and feature toxic metals. A variety of approaches for creating “soft electronics” has emerged, but finding ones that are durable, power-efficient, and easy to manufacture is a significant challenge.

Organic ferroelectric materials are promising because they exhibit spontaneous polarization, which means they have a stable electric field pointing in a particular direction. This polarization can be flipped by applying an external electrical field, allowing them to function like a bit in a conventional computer.

Titan’s Atmosphere and Climate: Lessons from an Alien World

Dr. Lauren Schurmeier: “The methane clathrate crust warms Titan’s interior and causes surprisingly rapid topographic relaxation, which results in crater shallowing at a rate that is close to that of fast-moving warm glaciers on Earth.”


How does Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, have such a methane-rich atmosphere? This is what a recent study published in The Planetary Science Journal hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how methane that resides with Titan’s crust could be responsible for the lack of depth in Titan’s impact craters, which could explain why Titan’s atmosphere has so much methane, as well. This study holds the potential to help researchers better understand the formation and evolution of Titan and whether it could host life as we know it.

For the study, the researchers used computer models to simulate the formation and evolution of impact craters on Titan, of which only approximately 90 have been identified via satellite imagery from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.

“This was very surprising because, based on other moons, we expect to see many more impact craters on the surface and craters that are much deeper than what we observe on Titan,” said Dr. Lauren Schurmeier, who is a research associate in the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) and lead author of the study. “We realized something unique to Titan must be making them become shallower and disappear relatively quickly.”