Matter & Energy

Photo: The solution of Polish researchers makers it possible to prepare 3D maps of almost any material taking into account the spatial arrangement of individual molecules. Source: authors' materials (SOLARIS centre)

Polish researchers show how to create 3D maps of molecular orientation in materials

A Polish team has shown how, by measuring the vibrations of molecules, it is possible to determine the spatial orientation of the molecules and prepare an unprecedentedly accurate 3D map of almost any material. This can be useful in work on new materials, electronic devices, and even in cancer therapy.

  • Ichiro Inoue working in the control room of SACLA (Japanese X-ray free-electron laser facility), where he is controlling the machine to generate twin XFEL pulses. He is holding an X-ray mirror for focusing the X-ray beam to micrometer size. (Credit: SACLA / IFJ PAN)

    Beneficial delay in crystal atoms' reaction to avalanche of photons

    X-ray laser pulses can be used to study the structure of matter with unprecedented accuracy, but the pulses destroy the sample. Physicists from the Polish-Japanese team believe that with sufficiently short laser pulses, it will be possible to view an undisturbed structure of matter. They have demonstrated that atoms of certain crystal react to an avalanche of photons with a delay.

  • Credit: Adobe Stock

    Scientists find another difference between antimatter and matter

    Here's the scientific equivalent of 'Look at the images and find 10 differences': finding the differences between matter and antimatter. There is a lot at stake: it is the answer to the question of why we exist. Now, physicists, working as part of the LHCb experiment at the European nuclear facility CERN, has made another (but not yet the last) difference.

  • Credit: Adobe Stock

    Polish-Pakistani research on molecules for medicine

    Scientists from Pakistan and Polish researchers from the Nuclear Methods in Solid State Physics Division of the National Centre for Nuclear Research (NCBJ) have investigated the biological potential of molecules.

  • A new entangled state presented by scientists in the solution to Euler's 36 officers puzzle would assume a set of four dice entangled in such a way that observing the result of any two dice allows to predict the result of the throw with the remaining two dice. Photo: Authors' materials

    Scientists find quantum solution to Euler’s classically unsolvable problem

    An ‘impossible-to-solve’ problem from the 18th century has been cracked by scientists in Poland and India with the help of quantum mechanics.

  • ALICE detector at CERN. Credit: Julien Ordan, CERN

    ALICE shows that free charm quark has mass

    Do you have a problem finding out how much you really weigh, because the bathroom scale shows a slightly different result every time you step on it? Scientists from the ALICE experiment at CERN determined the mass of the charm quark - an elementary particle that weighs about half a million billion billionth part of gram and is released only for a fraction of a second at huge temperatures in the collisions of particles inside the Large Hadron Collider.

  • Molecules in liquids are in constant motion and can flow freely. However, even a drop or bubble can create complex structures that make scientists' heads spin. Photo: Grzegorz Krzyzewski

    Unexpected bubbleology

    Water is a fantastic liquid that has inspired scientists for centuries, and despite intensive studies of its complex nature, it still evades full understanding. When two droplets are brought together, they eventually settle into each other, merging and forming a larger, yet simpler, structure—a bigger droplet, while uniformly mixing. The same happens in foams, where tiny bubbles connect and eventually form larger bubbles. These phenomena occur because water tends to minimize its surface energy. A new study conducted by researchers from the Institute of the Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, led by dr. Guzowski shows how droplets, instead of merging, unexpectedly form increasingly complex structures. Let's take a closer look at their discovery.

  • Attosecond phenomena can be studied with free electron lasers such as SwissFEL (the photo presents its research station Alvra). X-ray chronoscopy, which analyzes the shape of laser pulses before and after interaction with the sample, can potentially provide the most accurate image of these phenomena. (Source: IFJ PAN / Paul Scherrer Institut / SwissFEL Alvra)

    A new window into the world of attosecond phenomena

    They are everywhere, around us and within us. Phenomena lasting trillionths of a second form the core of chemistry and biology. It is only recently that we have begun to try to accurately record their actual course, with moderate success. However, physicists from Cracow have proven that the new window to the world of attophysics can be built, offering a very promising view.

  • Credit: Adobe Stock

    Polish researchers recycle chemical waste into drugs

    A powerful computer algorithm has analysed billions of possible chemical reactions and revealed how around 300 drugs can be produced from chemical compounds previously treated as industrial waste.

  • Credit: Fotolia

    Krakow scientists create magnetic molecule with ‘unique properties’

    A quantum nanomagnet that can ‘get closer to the valued properties of large, macroscopic magnets’ has been created by scientists from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.

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Credit: Adobe Stock

Shaking nanotubes

The properties of nanomaterials depend on how these structures vibrate, among other things. Scientists, including a Polish researcher, investigated the vibrations occurring in various types of carbon nanotubes.