In a paper published today in Nature Chemical Engineering, a team of researchers from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and Argonne National Laboratory outlined an “AI advisor” model that helps humans and machines share the driver’s seat in self-driving labs. Inspired by the software used to help investors trade stocks, the model leverages AI’s data-processing prowess but keeps decisions in the hands of experienced researchers accustomed to making real-time choices using limited datasets. The team demonstrated this approach through synthesizing a mixed ion-electron conducting polymer (MIECP) that showed a 150% increase in mix conducting performance over MIECPs synthesized in traditional labs.

People with central vision loss can judge the motion of vehicles almost as accurately as people with normal vision, a new international study shows. Despite age-related macular degeneration (AMD), they estimated the moment when an approaching car would reach them with comparable accuracy as a group with normal vision. These are the findings of new research conducted by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in collaboration with Rice University in Texas, USA, and other American as well as French researchers.

New research, enabled by the NSF Center for Chemical Innovation on MXenes Synthesis, Tunability and Reactivity (M-STAR) and recently published in Nature Synthesis, used chemical vapor deposition to create the two-dimensional materials called MXenes that are “at least two orders of magnitude” less expensive than MXenes synthesized by traditional methods. The inspiration for this groundbreaking way to synthesize these futuristic materials came from a long-forgotten, 40-year-old exploratory paper by a chemistry legend.

Faster, more efficient, and more versatile – these are the expectations for the technology that will produce our energy and handle information in the future. But how can these expectations be met? A major breakthrough in physics has now been made by an international team of researchers from the Universities of Göttingen, Marburg, the Berlin Humboldt in Germany, and Graz in Austria. The scientists combined two highly promising types of material – organic semiconductors and two-dimensional semiconductors – and studied their combined response to light using photoelectron spectroscopy and many-body perturbation theory. This enabled them to observe and describe fundamental microscopic processes, such as energy transfer, at the 2D-organic interface with ultrafast time resolution, meaning one quadrillionth of a second. The combination of these properties holds promise for developing new technology such as the next generation of solar cells. The results were published in Nature Physics.

A researcher in the University at Albany’s College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering was awarded nearly $420,000 from the National Science Foundation to study how the accumulation of toxic “forever chemicals” in edible plants impacts food quality and safety.

A flutter of blue and yellow darts through a field in late May. Trees, shrubs and summer flowers fill the landscape. A blue-winged warbler is just within reach, with one swift motion it can be gently grasped, banded and studied to understand the health and evolution of one of North America’s most colorful birds. A practice once reserved for scientists, this moment is now possible anywhere in the world thanks to a virtual reality experience developed by scientists at Penn State.    

LionGlass, a stronger and more sustainable glass invented at Penn State, may soon be developed for windows and windshields, thanks to a new partnership with North America’s largest architectural glass manufacturer Vitro Architectural Glass. The company signed a multi-year research agreement to scale up the new, patent-pending glass technology for use in flat glass applications across architectural and automotive markets.