Current 3D printers employ either plastic or metal only, and the conventional method to coat 3D plastic structures with metal is not environment-friendly and yields poor results. Now, scientists have developed a metal-plastic hybrid 3D printing technique that produces plastic structures with a highly adhesive metal coating on desired areas. This approach extends the use…

Researchers perform experiments that can add or subtract a single quantum of sound — with surprising results when applied to noisy sound fields. Quantum mechanics tells us that physical objects can have both wave and particle properties. For instance, a single particle — or quantum — of light is known as a photon, and, in…

Using salt as a key ingredient, researchers have designed a new type of rechargeable battery that could accelerate the shift to greener, electric transport on our roads. Many electric vehicles (EV) are powered by rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, but they can lose energy and power over time. Under certain conditions, such batteries can also overheat while…

Having a home near a busy airport certainly has its perks. It is close to many establishments and alleviates the problem of wading through endless traffic to catch flights. But it does come at a cost — tolerating the jarring sounds of commercial airplanes during landing and takeoff. Researchers have now conducted a computational study…

Generating mechanical motion in crystals using light or heat has increasingly become the focus of materials scientists. However, the conventional mechanism employed for the purpose produces slow responses and is ineffective for thick crystals. Now, in a new study, scientists report and validate a new mechanism for generating fast bending motion in thick crystals with…

Repurposed solar panel research could be the foundation for a new ultrahigh-resolution microdisplay. The OLED display would feature brighter images with purer colors and more than 10,000 pixels per inch. Such high-pixel-density displays will be able to provide stunning images with true-to-life detail — something that will be even more important for headset displays designed…

A global inventory has revealed that CO2 emissions from oil refineries were 1.3 Gigatons (Gt) in 2018 and could be as large as 16.5 Gt from 2020 to 2030. Based on the results, the researchers recommend distinct mitigation strategies for refineries in different regions and age groups. «This study provides a detailed picture of oil…

Borrowing a page from high-energy physics and astronomy textbooks, a team of physicists and computer scientists has successfully adapted and applied a common error-reduction technique to the field of quantum computing. In the world of subatomic particles and giant particle detectors, and distant galaxies and giant telescopes, scientists have learned to live, and to work,…

Researchers have developed a new method of distance measurement for systems such as GPS, which achieves more precise results than ever before. Using quantum physics, the team has successfully overcome the so-called resolution limit. Physicist Dr Benjamin Brecht explains the problem of the resolution limit: «In laser distance measurements a detector registers two light pulses…

A decades-old problem about how to reliably control millions of qubits in a silicon quantum computer chip has now been solved. Until now, quantum computer engineers and scientists have worked with a proof-of-concept model of quantum processors by demonstrating the control of only a handful of qubits. But with their latest research, published today in…