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Metallic nanocatalysts: What really happens during catalysis

Using a combination of spectromicroscopy at BESSY II and microscopic analyses at DESY’s NanoLab, a team has gained new insights into the chemical behavior of nanocatalysts during catalysis.

The research is published in the journal ACS Nano.

The nanoparticles consisted of a platinum core with a shell. This configuration allows a better understanding of structural changes in, for example, rhodium– for emission control. The results show that under typical catalytic conditions, some of the rhodium in the shell can diffuse into the interior of the nanoparticles. However, most of it remains on the surface and oxidizes. This process is strongly dependent on the surface orientation of the nanoparticle facets.

New technology turns paintings into holograms, bringing art to life

Artists are always looking for new ways to create and express themselves. A growing trend is the use of multiple layers of see-through materials, such as Plexiglas, to create paintings that have real depth, transforming two-dimensional images into three-dimensional illusions that feel more realistic and lifelike. But can these layered works be made even more immersive?

A new study, published in Royal Society Open Science, answers this question by demonstrating a novel process to transform a multilayer acrylic painting into a full-color, three-dimensional hologram. In addition to offering a striking way to experience art, this technique provides a novel method for preserving and reproducing valuable works.

The researchers used a painting of a tiger titled “Taxonomy Test 1” by renowned Colombian artist Yosman Botero. He created the by painting in acrylic on nine transparent layers of Plexiglas.

‘More than just an image’: New algorithm can extract hyperspectral info from conventional photos

Professionals in agriculture, defense and security, environmental monitoring, food quality analysis, industrial quality control, and medical diagnostics could benefit from a patent-pending innovation that opens new possibilities of conventional photography for optical spectroscopy and hyperspectral imaging.

Young Kim, Purdue University professor, University Faculty Scholar and Showalter Faculty Scholar, and postdoctoral research associate Semin Kwon of the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering created an algorithm that recovers detailed spectral information from photographs taken by conventional cameras. The research combines computer vision, color science and optical spectroscopy.

“A photograph is more than just an image; it contains abundant hyperspectral information,” Kim said. “We are one of the pioneering research groups to integrate computational spectrometry and spectroscopic analyses for biomedical and other applications.”

Software tool turns everyday objects into animated, eye-catching displays—without electronics

Whether you’re an artist, advertising specialist, or just looking to spruce up your home, turning everyday objects into dynamic displays is a great way to make them more visually engaging. For example, you could turn a kids’ book into a handheld cartoon of sorts, making the reading experience more immersive and memorable for a child.

But now, thanks to MIT researchers, it’s also possible to make dynamic displays without using electronics, using barrier-grid animations (or scanimations), which use printed materials instead. This visual trick involves sliding a patterned sheet across an image to create the illusion of a moving image.

The secret of barrier-grid animations lies in its name: An overlay called a barrier (or grid) often resembling a picket fence moves across, rotates around, or tilts toward an image to reveal frames in an animated sequence. That underlying picture is a combination of each still, sliced and interwoven to present a different snapshot depending on the overlay’s position.

Discovery of young eclipsing binary system offers insight into early stellar evolution

An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a new pre-main-sequence eclipsing binary system. The newfound binary, designated MML 48, consists of two young low-mass stars. The finding will be published in the upcoming issue of the Astronomy & Astrophysics journal.

Stellar systems showing regular light variations due to one of the stars passing directly in front of its companion are known as eclipsing binaries (EBs). In these systems, the orbit plane of the two stars lies so nearly in the line of sight of the observer that the components undergo mutual eclipses. EBs can provide direct accurate measurement of the mass, radius and effective temperature of stars; therefore, they are essential for testing and calibrating theoretical stellar-evolution models.

Astronomers are especially interested in finding new young EBs. This is due to the fact that such binaries constrain pre-main-sequence (PMS) stellar evolution models in the regime when the temperatures, luminosities, and radii of stars are changing rapidly as they settle onto the main sequence (MS).

Fat molecules and water interact in surprising ways within collagen fibrils

Researchers from the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Chemnitz University of Technology have discovered fat molecules in natural collagen fibrils, the main component of connective tissue. Their research, published in Soft Matter, shows how fats affect the mechanical properties and water content of collagen fibrils.

Collagen fibrils are the basic building blocks of skin, tendons, ligaments, and bones. They hold our bodies together. Fats and oils have long been used to soften and protect leather, which consists of collagen molecules. However, it is not known how many fat molecules are contained in natural collagen fibrils.

Knowing the precise chemical composition of collagen fibrils is important for understanding biochemical processes involved in tissue growth, aging, and disease. In chemistry, the various molecular components are usually separated to study the properties of pure substances. However, contain thousands of different chemical molecules, all of which are likely important.

RNA technology ‘hacks’ into phage replication, offering new insights into molecular interactions

Bacteriophages, or phages for short, are viruses that infect bacteria. Using phages therapeutically could be very useful in fighting antibiotic-resistant pathogens, but the molecular interactions between phages and host bacteria are not yet sufficiently understood. Jörg Vogel’s research group at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) and the Institute of Molecular Infection Biology (IMIB) in Würzburg has now succeeded in specifically interfering with phage reproduction using a molecular tool called antisense oligomers (ASOs).

According to the researchers, this innovative RNA technology offers new insights into the molecular world of phages and is expected to advance the development of future therapeutic applications. The study has been published in the journal Nature.

Like humans, bacteria have to cope with viruses—known as bacteriophages, or phages for short. Phages invade bacteria, hijack their cellular machinery, multiply, and cause the bacterial cell to burst. This releases new phages, which then go on to infect other bacteria. Phages are harmless to humans because they target only bacteria. They are also quite selective: Most phages are specialized in infecting specific host bacteria, including bacterial pathogens.

Permeable inspection of pharmaceuticals: Real-time tablet quality inspection system developed

Led by Assistant Professor Kou Li, a research group at Chuo University, Japan, has developed a synergetic strategy among non-destructive terahertz (THz)–infrared (IR) photo-monitoring techniques and ultrabroadband sensitive imager sheets toward demonstrating in-line real-time multi-scale quality inspections of pharmaceutical agent pills.

The paper has been published in Light: Science & Applications.

While non-destructive in-line monitoring at manufacturing sites is essential for safe distribution cycles of pharmaceuticals, efforts are still insufficient to develop analytical systems for detailed dynamic visualization of foreign substances and material composition in target pills.

In quantum sensing, what beats beating noise? Meeting noise halfway

Noise is annoying, whether you’re trying to sleep or exploit the laws of quantum physics. Although noise from environmental disturbances will always be with us, a team including scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) may have found a new way of dealing with it at the microscopic scales where quantum physics reigns. Addressing this noise could make possible the best sensors ever made, with applications ranging from health care to mineral exploration.

By taking advantage of quantum phenomena known as superposition and entanglement, researchers can measure subtle changes in the environment useful for everything from geology to GPS. But to do this, they must be able to see through the caused by environmental sources such as stray magnetic fields to detect, for example, an important signal from the brain.

New findings, detailed today in Physical Review Letters, would enable interlinked groups of quantum objects such as atoms to better sense the environment in the presence of noise. A horde of unlinked quantum objects can already outperform a conventional sensor. Linking them through the process of quantum entanglement can make them perform better still. However, entangling the group can make it vulnerable to environmental noise that causes errors, making the group lose its additional sensing advantage.

Advanced X-ray technique enables first direct observation of magnon spin currents

Spintronics is an emerging field that leverages the spin, or the intrinsic angular momentum, of electrons. By harnessing this quantum-relativistic property, researchers aim to develop devices that store and transmit information faster, more efficiently, and at higher data densities, potentially making devices much smaller than what is possible today. These advances could drive next-generation memory, sensors, and even quantum technologies.

A key step toward this future is the control of “spin currents,” the flow of angular momentum through a material without an accompanying electrical charge current. However, spin currents have proven notoriously difficult to measure directly—until now.

In a new study, a research team led by scientists at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II)—a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory—used a technique called resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) to detect a current formed by the flow of magnons, quantized spin-wave excitations in a material’s magnetic structure.

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