NEWS RELEASES

Laboratory and field experiments have repeatedly demonstrated that modifications to the process of photosynthesis or to the physical characteristics of plants can make crops more resilient to hotter temperatures. Scientists can now alter the abundance or orientation of leaves, change leaf chemistry to improve heat tolerance and adjust key steps in the process of photosynthesis to overcome bottlenecks, researchers report in a new review in the journal Science.

University of Utah’s Bischak Lab discovers new shape-shifting properties in perovskites—a type of layered material made from alternating sheets of inorganic and organic components— that could make them ideal for next-generation LEDs, solar panels and batteries.

An international collaboration led by scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has generated the shortest hard X-ray pulses to date through the first demonstration of strong lasing phenomena. The resulting pulses can lead to several potential applications, from quantum X-ray optics to visualizing electron motion inside molecules.

Oregon State University researchers are gaining a more detailed understanding of emissions from wood-burning stoves and developing technologies that allow stoves to operate much more cleanly and safely, potentially limiting particulate matter pollution by 95%.

Researchers in Germany and the U.S. set a new fusion record, this time for the triple product in a plasma longer than 30 seconds: a key measure of whether a fusion system can sustain itself. It’s calculated by multiplying three factors: plasma density, temperature and the length of time the plasma is confined in the magnetic field. The international effort moves the world one step closer to a commercial fusion power plant, which will need to run continuously at temperatures hotter than the sun. 

Scientists at University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland have developed a powerful new tool for finding the next generation of materials needed for large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computing.

The significant breakthrough means that, for the first time, researchers have found a way to determine once and for all whether a material can effectively be used in certain quantum computing microchips.