The chemical term alkanes, or paraffins, refers to organic compounds that consist of single-bonded carbon and hydrogen atoms, such as methane, ethane, and propane, and several other hydrocarbons. Over the years, alkanes have become widely used in organic chemistry,...
Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are an emerging and promising class of materials comprised of a transition metal atomic layer sandwiched between two layers of chalcogen atoms. These 2D materials have received considerable attention over the past few years, as...
Quantum computers have the potential to outperform classical computers on several complex tasks, yet many challenges will need to be overcome before they reach their full potential. In the meantime, physicists and computer scientists have been trying to realistically...
Photons, particles that represent a quantum of light, have shown great potential for the development of new quantum technologies. More specifically, physicists have been exploring the possibility of creating photonic qubits (quantum units of information) that can be...
Over the past century or so, human activities have led to the rapid deterioration of the environment on Earth, with detrimental effects such as climate change and a rise in atmospheric CO2. Many scientists worldwide have thus been trying to devise new technologies and...
Oxytocin is a hormone produced in the brain of humans and other animals, specifically in a region known as the hypothalamus. Also known as the hormone of love, it plays a crucial part in social bonding, reproduction, and childbirth.
Over the past few decades, physicists and engineers have been trying to create increasingly compact laser-plasma accelerators, a technology to study matter and particle interactions produced by interactions between ultrafast laser beams and plasma. These systems are a...
Nanobubbles are extremely small (i.e., nanoscopic) gaseous cavities that some physicists observed in aqueous solutions, typically after specific substances were dissolved in them. While some studies reported the observation of these incredibly tiny bubbles, some...
Black holes are astronomical objects with extremely strong gravitational pulls from which not even light can escape. While the idea of bodies that would trap light has been around since the 18th century, the first direct observation of black holes took place in 2015.
Excitons are quasiparticles that are formed in insulators or semiconductors when an electron is promoted to a higher energy band, leaving a positively charged hole behind.