Latest News Releases 14 April

Through satellite gravimetry analysis of Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) mass changes from 2002 to 2023, striking mass change rates have been identified. The study reveals the most significant mass loss occurred during 2011-2020, primarily driven by accelerated ice loss in Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica and four key glacier basins in Wilkes Land-Queen Mary Land, East Antarctica. Remarkably, an unprecedented reversal was observed during 2021-2023, with the AIS exhibiting anomalous mass gain - a phenomenon never before recorded in the satellite observation era.

Growing cells in the laboratory is an art that humans have mastered decades ago. Recreating entire three-dimensional tissues is much more challenging. Empa researchers are developing a new hydrogel-based material that makes it possible to engineer artificial skin tissues, which can serve as living three-dimensional models of human skin for better understanding and treating skin diseases.

The origin and the central engine of GRBs have long been pending for identification. Now a joint observation by LEIA and GECAM gives new clues.

Artificial intelligence could help monitor and reverse the damage done to marine life – and improve women's healthcare by making it easier to diagnose diseases such as endometriosis – according to researchers from universities in the UK and Australia. 

Novel physical effects based on chiral structural materials or materials with chiral interactions are being discovered and are becoming the cornerstone for constructing new spintronic devices. A Recent collaborative study published in Science Bulletin discovered a new way to deliberately control spin orientation in a more sophisticated manner. The approach enables the engineered ‘smart’ material, an oxide heterostructure of SrRuO₃-SrTiO₃, to decide when to halt its spin rotation.

Quasicrystals are intriguing materials with long-range atomic order that lack periodicity. It has been a longstanding question whether antiferromagnetism, while commonly found in regular crystals, is even possible in quasicrystals. In a new study, researchers have finally answered this question, providing the first definitive neutron diffraction evidence of antiferromagnetism in a real icosahedral quasicrystal. This discovery opens a new research area of quasiperiodic antiferromagnets, with potential applications in spintronics.

In a breakthrough that brings nanoscience one step closer to precise control of chemical reactions, a team of researchers from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has consecutively removed the innermost atom and the outermost electron of a gold nanoparticle—without disturbing its overall structure. This precise manipulation allowed them to probe how the magnetic spin of the material influences its catalytic activity.

In a new study, a series of zirconium-based metal-organic frameworks (Zr-MOFs) were successfully synthesized in aqueous environments by researchers, followed by precise enzyme immobilization achieved through ligand-exchange strategies. A fully green technological system spanning material preparation to biocatalyst construction was established, with the developed immobilized enzyme formulations demonstrating remarkable enhancements in both catalytic activity and operational stability.