Materials – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Jul 19
2025

Molecular Decrowding by Tissue Expansion Allows Precise Determination of the Spatial Distribution of Synaptic Proteins at a Nanometer Scale by exTEM

To understand how the molecular machinery of synapses works, it is essential to determine an inventory of synaptic proteins at a subsynaptic resolution. Nevertheless, synaptic proteins are difficult to localize because of the low expression levels and limited access to immunostaining epitopes. Here, we report on the exTEM (epitope-exposed by expansion-transmission electron microscopy) method that enables the imaging of synaptic proteins in situ. This method combines TEM with nanoscale resolution and expandable tissue-hydrogel hybrids for enhanced immunolabeling with better epitope accessibility via molecular decrowding, allowing successful probing of the distribution of various synapse-organizing proteins. We propose that exTEM can be employed for studying the mechanisms underlying the regulation of synaptic architecture and function by providing nanoscale molecular distribution of synaptic proteins in situ. We also envision that exTEM is widely applicable for investigating protein nanostructures located in densely packed environments by immunostaining of commercially available antibodies at nanometer resolution.

Jul 19
2025

Ecosystem collapse patterns mirror magnetic material behavior under stress

A new study published in the journal One Earth reveals that the way ecosystems collapse—abruptly or gradually—may depend on internal complexity, much like how magnetic materials behave under stress.

Jul 19
2025

Scanning tunneling microscopy reveals subsurface atomic structure

Scientists use scanning tunneling microscopy to understand how a material’s electronic or magnetic properties relate to its structure on the atomic scale. When using this technique, however, they can normally investigate only the uppermost atomic layer of a material.

Jul 19
2025

Spin currents control device magnetization using low-cost materials

Research from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities gives new insight into a material that could make computer memory faster and more energy-efficient.

The study was recently published in Advanced Materials, a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The researchers also have a patent on the technology.

As technology continues to grow, so does the demand for emerging memory technology. Researchers are looking for alternatives and complements to existing memory solutions that can perform at high levels with low energy consumption to increase the functionality of everyday technology.

Jul 18
2025

Asymmetric metasurface allows precise control of photon entanglement

A new material platform has enabled scientists to create photon pairs whose entanglement can be tuned from a layer thinner than a human hair.

Jul 18
2025

Iron oxide behavior under pressure may reduce reliance on rare-earth metals in consumer, energy and medical tech

Researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington have discovered a surprising new type of magnetic property that could lead to stronger magnets made from tiny particles of common iron oxide. This finding could enhance the performance of everyday technologies while reducing the need for rare-earth metals—materials that are more costly, less sustainable and harder to obtain.

Jul 18
2025

New microscopy technique achieves 1-nanometer resolution for atomic-scale imaging

Understanding the interaction between light and matter at the smallest scales (angstrom scale) is essential for advancing technology and materials science. Atomic-scale structures, such as defects in diamonds or molecules in electronic devices, can significantly influence a material’s optical properties and functionality. To explore these tiny structures, we need to extend the capabilities of optical microscopy.

Researchers at the Fritz-Haber Institute of the Max-Planck Society, Germany, and their international collaborators at Institute for Molecular Science/SOKENDAI, Japan and CIC nanoGUNE, Spain have developed an approach to scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) that achieves a spatial resolution of 1 nanometer. This technique, termed as ultralow tip oscillation amplitude s-SNOM (ULA-SNOM), combines advanced microscopy methods to visualize materials at the atomic level.

The work is published in the journal Science Advances.

Jul 17
2025

Examining mushrooms under microscopes can help engineers design stronger materials

Some mushrooms are sturdier than others, but it isn’t necessarily because of their chemistry – it’s how the filaments that make them up are arranged.

Jul 17
2025

JWST finds unusual black hole in the center of the Infinity Galaxy: ‘How can we make sense of this?’

The researchers behind these findings uncovered the Infinity Galaxy while examining images from the JWST’s 255-hour treasury COSMOS-Web survey. In addition to the suspected direct collapse black hole that sits between the colliding galaxies, the team found that each nucleus of those galaxies also contains a supermassive black hole!

“Everything is unusual about this galaxy. Not only does it look very strange, but it also has this supermassive black hole that’s pulling a lot of material in,” team leader and Yale University researcher Pieter van Dokkum said in a statement. “The biggest surprise of all was that the black hole was not located inside either of the two nuclei but in the middle.

We asked ourselves: How can we make sense of this?

Jul 17
2025

2014 Nobel Prize idea used to reach super-resolution imaging, turning noise into data

A new method turns noise into valuable data to enhance understanding of chemical reactions and material properties with unprecedented detail at the atomic level. The results of this research are now published in Nature.