News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

If aerosol transmission of COVID-19 is confirmed to be significant, we will need to reconsider guidelines on social distancing, ventilation systems and shared spaces. Researchers in the U.K. believe a better understanding of droplet behaviors and their different dispersion mechanisms is also needed. In Physics of Fluids, the group presents a model that demarcates differently sized droplets. This has implications for understanding airborne diseases, because the dispersion tests revealed the absence of intermediate-sized droplets.

Researchers have been working for decades on improving the anti-icing performance of functional surfaces and work published in AIP Advances investigates a unique nanostructure, modeled on moth eyes, that has anti-icing properties. Moth eyes are of interest because they have a distinct ice-phobic and transparent surface. The researchers fabricated the moth eye nanostructure on a quartz substrate that was covered with a paraffin layer to isolate it from a cold and humid environment.

A novel mathematical modeling method has been developed to estimate operation models of biomolecular motors from single-molecule imaging data of motion with the Bayesian inference framework. The operation mechanism of a linear molecular motor "chitinase", which moves one-way on a chitin chain with degrading the chain passed by, was elucidated by mathematical modeling of experimental imaging data with the method.

A material composed of two one-atom-thick layers of carbon has grabbed the attention of physicists worldwide for its intriguing -- and potentially exploitable -- conductive properties. University of Texas at Dallas physicists are studying how the ability of twisted bilayer graphene to conduct electrical current changes in response to mid-infrared light.

"Core-shell" clusters pave the way for new efficient nanomaterials that make catalysts, magnetic and laser sensors or measuring devices for detecting electromagnetic radiation more efficient.

Scientists have found that a physical property called 'quantum negativity' can be used to take more precise measurements of everything from molecular distances to gravitational waves.