Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed

Scientists have cracked a key mystery behind spider silk’s legendary strength and flexibility. They discovered that tiny molecular interactions act like natural glue, holding silk proteins together as they transform from liquid into incredibly tough fibers. This same process helps create silk that’s stronger than steel by weight and tougher than Kevlar.

Researchers have built a paper-thin chip that converts infrared light into visible light and directs it precisely, all without mechanical motion. The design overcomes a long-standing efficiency-versus-control problem in light-shaping materials. This opens the door to tiny, highly efficient light sources integrated directly onto chips.

Physicists have watched a quantum fluid do something once thought almost impossible: stop moving. In experiments with ultra-thin graphene, researchers observed a superfluid—normally defined by its endless, frictionless flow—freeze into a strange new state that looks solid yet still belongs to the quantum world. This long-sought phase, known as a supersolid, blends crystal-like order with superfluid behavior and has puzzled scientists for decades.

A new metasurface design lets light of different spins bend, focus, and behave independently—while staying sharp across many colors. The trick combines two geometric phase effects so each spin channel can be tuned without interfering with the other. Researchers demonstrated stable beam steering and dual-focus lenses over wide frequency ranges. The approach could scale from microwaves all the way to visible light.

A new optical device allows researchers to generate and switch between two stable, donut-shaped light patterns called skyrmions. These light vortices hold their shape even when disturbed, making them promising for wireless data transmission. Using a specially designed metasurface and controlled laser pulses, scientists can flip between electric and magnetic modes. The advance could help pave the way for more resilient terahertz communication systems.

Researchers have found that manganese, an abundant and inexpensive metal, can be used to efficiently convert carbon dioxide into formate, a potential hydrogen source for fuel cells. The key was a clever redesign that made the catalyst last far longer than similar low-cost materials. Surprisingly, the improved manganese catalyst even beat many expensive precious-metal options. The discovery could help turn greenhouse gas into clean energy ingredients.

Astronomers have produced the most detailed map yet of dark matter, revealing the invisible framework that shaped the Universe long before stars and galaxies formed. Using powerful new observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the research shows how dark matter gathered ordinary matter into dense regions, setting the stage for galaxies like the Milky Way and eventually planets like Earth.

MACE is a next-generation experiment designed to catch muonium transforming into its antimatter twin, a process that would rewrite the rules of particle physics. The last search for this effect ended more than two decades ago, and MACE plans to leap far beyond it using cutting-edge beams, targets, and detectors. A discovery would point to entirely new forces or particles operating at extreme energy scales.

A new light-based breakthrough could help quantum computers finally scale up. Stanford researchers created miniature optical cavities that efficiently collect light from individual atoms, allowing many qubits to be read at once. The team has already demonstrated working arrays with dozens and even hundreds of cavities. The approach could eventually support massive quantum networks with millions of qubits.

A newly detected gravitational wave, GW250114, is giving scientists their clearest look yet at a black hole collision—and a powerful way to test Einstein’s theory of gravity. Its clarity allowed scientists to measure multiple “tones” from the collision, all matching Einstein’s predictions. That confirmation is exciting—but so is the possibility that future signals won’t behave so neatly. Any deviation could point to new physics beyond our current understanding of gravity.

Researchers have discovered a hidden quantum geometry inside materials that subtly steers electrons, echoing how gravity warps light in space. Once thought to exist only on paper, this effect has now been observed experimentally in a popular quantum material. The finding reveals a new way to understand and control how materials conduct electricity and interact with light. It could help power future ultra-fast electronics and quantum technologies.

A strange, glowing form of matter called dusty plasma turns out to be incredibly sensitive to magnetic fields. Researchers found that even weak fields can change how tiny particles grow, simply by nudging electrons into new motions. In lab experiments, this caused nanoparticles to form faster and remain smaller. The discovery could influence everything from nanotechnology design to our understanding of space plasmas.

nside electrochemical devices, strong electric fields dramatically alter how water molecules behave. New research shows that these fields speed up water dissociation not by lowering energy costs, but by increasing molecular disorder once ions form. The reaction becomes entropy-driven—exactly the opposite of what happens in ordinary water. The findings also reveal that intense fields can push water from neutral to highly acidic, with major implications for hydrogen production.

Researchers have found a way to make ordinary aluminum tubes float indefinitely, even when submerged for long periods or punched full of holes. By engineering the metal’s surface to repel water, the tubes trap air inside and refuse to sink, even in rough conditions. The technology could eventually be scaled up into floating platforms, ships, or even wave-powered energy systems.

Order doesn’t always form perfectly—and those imperfections can be surprisingly powerful. In materials like liquid crystals, tiny “defects” emerge when symmetry breaks, shaping everything from cosmic structures to everyday technologies. Now, researchers have developed an AI-powered method that can predict how these defects will form and evolve in milliseconds instead of hours. By learning directly from data, the system accurately maps molecular alignments and complex defect behavior, even in situations where defects merge or split.

Scientists have created a device that captures carbon dioxide and transforms it into a useful chemical in a single step. The new electrode works with realistic exhaust gases rather than requiring purified CO2. It converts the captured gas into formic acid, which is used in energy and manufacturing. The system even functions at CO2 levels found in normal air.

Physicists have discovered that hidden magnetic order plays a key role in the pseudogap, a puzzling state of matter that appears just before certain materials become superconductors. Using an ultra-cold quantum simulator, the team found that even when magnetism seems disrupted, subtle and universal magnetic patterns persist beneath the surface. These patterns closely track the temperature at which the pseudogap forms, suggesting magnetism may help set the stage for superconductivity.

For years, scientists noticed that magnetic fields could improve steel, but no one knew exactly why. New simulations reveal that magnetism changes how iron atoms behave, making it harder for carbon atoms to slip through the metal. This slows diffusion at the atomic level and alters steel’s internal structure. The insight could lead to more efficient, lower-energy ways to make stronger steel.

When materials become just one atom thick, melting no longer follows the familiar rules. Instead of jumping straight from solid to liquid, an unusual in-between state emerges, where atomic positions loosen like a liquid but still keep some solid-like order. Scientists at the University of Vienna have now captured this elusive “hexatic” phase in real time by filming an ultra-thin silver iodide crystal as it melted inside a protective graphene sandwich.

Researchers have demonstrated that quantum entanglement can link atoms across space to improve measurement accuracy. By splitting an entangled group of atoms into separate clouds, they were able to measure electromagnetic fields more precisely than before. The technique takes advantage of quantum connections acting at a distance. It could enhance tools such as atomic clocks and gravity sensors.