Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed

National targets for solar and wind power will see reliance on natural gas plummet, reducing electricity price volatility across Europe, with major beneficiaries including the UK and Ireland, the Nordics, and the Netherlands.

Tiny copper 'nano-flowers' have been attached to an artificial leaf to produce clean fuels and chemicals that are the backbone of modern energy and manufacturing.

Researchers have developed a way to print nanoparticles like ink, creating inexpensive sweat sensors that can continuously monitor multiple molecules.

Electrochemical reaction-based stimuli-responsive materials are shaping up the era of innovative display devices. By embedding luminescent europium(III) complexes and color-changing viologen derivatives in a layered clay matrix, the device achieves simultaneous control of light emission and color at low voltage. The use of clay-based materials also highlights an eco-friendly approach to enhancing electronic device performance. This innovation could revolutionize display technology and the development of sensors, adaptable to changing light conditions.

Most metals expand when their temperature rises. This effect is extremely undesirable for many technical applications. Now, scientists have created a new material that hardly changes in length over an extremely wide temperature range.

Engineers developed a training method for multiagent systems, such as large numbers of drones, that can guarantee their safe operation in crowded environments.

Researchers have explored how integrating machine and deep learning techniques can create a standardized system for evaluating rock climbing routes to provide a difficulty grading scale that promotes inclusivity, accuracy and accessibility for all experience levels. The study found that the most successful approach for determining the difficulty of a rock-climbing route used route-centric, natural language processing methods.

A recent study by management scholars underscores the importance of organizations' dynamic capabilities for greener business practices. Analyzing data from 139 manufacturing companies, the research reveals that financial and technological expertise combined with adaptability to regulations and evolving consumer demands, are key to advancing the green transition.

Early detection of earthquakes could be vastly improved by tapping into the world's internet network with a groundbreaking new algorithm, researchers say. Fiber optic cables used for cable television, telephone systems and the global web matrix now have the potential to help measure seismic rumblings thanks to recent technological advances, but harnessing this breakthrough has proved problematic. A new paper seeks to address these challenges by adapting a simple physics-based algorithm to include fiber optic data that can then be used hand-in-hand with traditional seismometer measurements.

Chemists have found a new way to determine 3D genome structures, using generative AI, that can predict thousands of genome structures in minutes, making it much speedier than existing methods for analyzing the structures.

Researchers compared the environmental impacts of lithium-ion battery recycling to mining for new materials and found that recycling significantly outperforms mining in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and energy use.

A new study of satellite imagery and high-resolution climate model data upends previous assumptions and provides insight about how the atmosphere and ocean weather patterns interact. The new research reveals the surprising ways atmospheric winds influence ocean eddies, shaping the ocean's weather patterns in more complex ways than previously believed.

A carnation-like nanostructure could someday be used in bandages to promote wound healing. Researchers report that laboratory tests of their nanoflower-coated dressings demonstrate antibiotic, anti-inflammatory and biocompatible properties. They say these results show these tannic acid and copper(II) phosphate sprouted nanoflower bandages are promising candidates for treating infections and inflammatory conditions.

A team of scientists has made the first experimental measurements of laser-induced motions of miniature lightsails in the lab.

A study assessed the impact of electric fans on the body core temperature and heart rate of 18 participants aged 65-85 years, who were exposed to a simulated extreme indoor environment of 36 degrees Celsius with 45 percent relative humidity for eight hours. The results showed participants were unaffected by fan use, with all three of the experimental conditions resulting in an average body core temperature of 38.3 C and heart rate of 100 beats per minute.

It's been known for some time that radiation impacts the structural integrity of concrete. However, until now the details of this were unknown. Researchers can finally demonstrate what properties of concrete affect its structural characteristics under different neutron radiation loads. Their findings raise some concerns whilst reducing others; for example, quartz crystals in concrete can heal themselves, potentially allowing some reactors to run for longer than initially thought possible.

Researchers measured very precisely atomic masses of radioactive lanthanum isotopes and found an interesting feature in their nuclear binding energies. The discovery provides essential data for understanding how elements heavier than iron are produced in the Cosmos and triggers new research to elucidate the underlying nuclear structure causing this unexpected change in nuclear binding energies.

Researchers are breaking limits by increasing the temperature multiferroics can operate at, from room temperature up to a blistering 160 degrees Celsius.

The development of vehicle components is a lengthy and therefore very costly process. Researchers have developed a method that can shorten the development phase of the powertrain of battery electric vehicles by several months. A team is combining simulation models of components with evolutionary optimization algorithms. This AI system automatically optimizes the entire powertrain -- from the power electronics to the electric machine through to the transmission -- in line with the manufacturer's technical requirements, taking into account targets such as production costs, efficiency and package space requirements in the vehicle.

Skyrmions are nanometer- to micrometer-sized magnetic whirls that exhibit particle-like properties and can be moved efficiently by electrical currents. These properties make skyrmions an excellent system for new types of data storage or computers. However, for the optimization of such devices, it is usually too computationally expensive to simulate the complicated internal structure of the skyrmions. One possible approach is the efficient simulation of these magnetic spin structures as particles, similar to the simulation of molecules in biophysics. Until now, however, there has been no conversion between simulation time and experimental real time.