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Updates every hour. Last Updated: 19-Jun-2026 09:15 ET (19-Jun-2026 13:15 GMT/UTC)

Megalibraries in pole position for autonomous discovery over self-driving labs

Northwestern University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Megalibrary platform rapidly discovers promising new materials. Platform marks a shift from trial-and-error materials discovery toward intentional design. Team used the system to identify a new piezoelectric material and then deliberately engineered it to operate at a target temperature. Megalibraries outperform emerging ‘self-driving labs’ in terms of speed and throughput to create and screen vast numbers of materials samples simultaneously.

Journal: Science Advances

The complete evolution of spin glass from order to chaos

Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

For decades, physicists have approached spin glass like blind men to an elephant. In a seven-year-long study, researchers have now monitored the evolution of spin organization in a well-ordered antiferromagnetic crystal as chemical disorder is gradually introduced, raising the bar for studying exotic magnetism and offering an experimentally verified definition of spin glass, which previously represented a foundational disconnect between theoretical physics and materials science.

Journal: Matter
Funder: Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University

Carbon markets underestimate the risks U.S. forests face from climate change

University of Utah
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research led by the University of Utah documents how carbon markets, a pillar of climate policy, fail to accurately account for the risks U.S. forests face from climate change. The team produced maps that show where the risk of loss from fire, insects and drought are most elevated, and therefore best avoided for forest preservation projects.

Journal: Nature
Funder: Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy, NASA Headquarters

Turning down the heat from data centers

Arizona State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Waste heat from data centers can boost air temperatures in downwind neighborhoods by as much as 4 degrees Fahrenheit. With hundreds of megawatts of data center capacity operating in many cities, and thousands more proposed, the combined impact on urban temperature could be substantial. Researchers aim to help develop solutions that could significantly reduce downwind impacts.

Researchers solve longstanding problem in measuring semiconductor defects

Auburn University Department of Physics
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers in the Department of Physics at Auburn University, in collaboration with scientists at Sandia National Laboratories, have developed a new method for accurately measuring microscopic defects in semiconductor materials. The work addresses a longstanding challenge in electronic device characterization by introducing a physics-based framework that improves the reliability of a widely used measurement technique. The advance could help improve high-efficiency semiconductor technologies used in electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, and next-generation power electronics.

Journal: Journal of Applied Physics

Researchers “reprogram” materials by quickly rearranging their atoms

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

MIT researchers developed a way to precisely move columns of individual atoms within a material, to produce exotic quantum properties. The approach works in minutes at room temperature, and could aid the development of stable quantum devices.

Journal: Nature

Baltimore emergency rooms see spike in asthma-related cases after night heat waves

Johns Hopkins University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Hospitals in Baltimore see an uptick in asthma-related emergency room cases in the weeks following nighttime heat waves in their neighboring communities. The findings suggest heat alert systems that rely on daytime temperature forecasts may need to be updated to be more helpful for people with asthma or other heat-sensitive health conditions.

Journal: GeoHealth

Understanding how lasers can rapidly magnetize fusion plasmas

Princeton University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

PPPL researchers have identified a novel mechanism in which expanding plasmas rapidly self-magnetize through the Weibel instability, generating magnetic fields strong enough to alter heat transport. The finding, supported by first-principles simulations, has direct implications for inertial fusion research and for understanding how magnetic fields arise in astrophysical plasmas.

Journal: Physical Review Letters
Funder: Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

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