In contrast to the oil painting technique that supplanted it at the end of the 15th century, tempera painting, practiced on wood panels, walls or canvas has received little attention on the physico-chemical scale. This painting technique, which has been practiced since Antiquity, is characterised by pigments applied in a water-based binding-medium, often egg-yolk. In order to understand the properties and appeal of this mixture on a molecular scale, a CNRS team, from Sorbonne Université and ESPCl , reproduced 15th century recipes that a Tuscan painter Cennino Cennini had consigned to paper, using egg-yolk and a clay-based pigment, green earth (terra verde).

Physicists have created a new ultra-thin two-layer material with quantum properties that normally require rare earth compounds. This material, which is relatively easy to make and does not contain rare earth metals, could provide a new platform for quantum computing and advance research into unconventional superconductivity and quantum criticality.

Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed highly efficient, on-chip frequency shifters that can convert light in the gigahertz frequency range. The frequency shifters are easily controlled, using continuous and single-tone microwaves.

Artificial intelligence-based technique reveals previously unknown cell components that may provide new clues to human development and disease.