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Designing better semiconductor chips: NP hard problems and forever chemicals

We report from the Heidelberg Laureate Forum

Single-phonon coupler brings different quantum technologies together

Waveguide-style approach promises to pair the versatility of phononic quantum technologies with the tight control of photonic ones

An illustration showing how vibrations in one side of the splitter become coupled to the other side. The two waveguides are shown as long, narrow purple blocks that overlap for part of their length. In the area of overlap, a big blue-and-yellow wave envelope that enters the picture via one waveguide is split into two smaller-magnitude wave envelopes travelling through both waveguides.

Deep-blue LEDs get a super-bright, non-toxic boost

A new hybrid copper iodide semiconductor converts nearly all the photoenergy it receives into blue light

Crystals emitting deep-blue light. A scale bar at the bottom indicates that the crystals are millimetre-scale

New metalaser is a laser researcher’s dream

Nanostructured lasing system creates arbitrarily-shaped wavefronts, making it possible to control laser emission at will

Diagram of the metalaser showing different emission profiles it can produce

Ancient woodworking technique inspires improved memristor

Mortise-and-tenon structure makes for fast, highly uniform switching

Diagram of an electronic device in different colours showing interlocking elements

Novel zinc alloys could make bone screws biodegradable

New coarser-grained alloys are strong enough to challenge stainless steel and titanium as materials for orthopaedic implants, say researchers

Photo of Feng Nei in the lab with his zinc alloy prototype. He's wearing glasses and a white lab coat and holding the prototype with metal tweezers, and is slightly out of focus so the emphasis is on the prototype, which is in focus. A rack of blue-lidded chemical bottles is on a shelf in the background.

Triboelectric device reduces noise pollution

A fibrous composite foam employs the triboelectric effect and in situ electrical energy dissipation to absorb low-frequency sound waves

Sound-absorbing mechanism of triboelectric fibrous composite foam

Quantum material detects tiny mechanical strains

Sensitivity of vanadium-oxide-based device breaks previous record by more than an order of magnitude

Air-powered computers make a comeback

Novel device contains a pneumatic logic circuit made from 21 microfluidic valves

Close up of the air-powered sensing device

Twisted fibres capture more water from fog

New finding could allow more fresh water to be harvested from the air

Shadowgraph of an oil drop sliding down two fibres

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