Ecologists have long searched for the rules that govern how individual species join together to form a community. Whether forest or desert, the problem is complex. Myriad factors influence a community’s composition and stability —from how strongly species compete to … Continue reading
Journal Club
Highlighting recently published papers selected by Academy members
Category Archives: Applied Physical Sciences
Journal Club: A physicist’s take on the age-old ecological puzzle of how species form communities
Categories: Animal Behavior | Applied Physical Sciences | Ecology | Journal Club | Mathematics | Physics
Tagged ecological community, ecosystem, Lotka-Volterra equation, species interactions
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Journal Club: A new, twisted topological insulator
About a decade ago, physicists began identifying and probing materials that suffer something of an identity crisis. On the surface of these crystals, electrons flow and form currents, like in a conductor. But in the interior, electrons are pinned and … Continue reading
Journal Club: Super-sensitive new microscope uses ultracold atoms to image magnetic fields at high precision
In recent years, physicists have developed an arsenal of sensitive, high-resolution tools to probe the smallest magnetic fields, revealing nanoscale subtleties lost in larger-scale measurements. An understanding of these structures can offer insights into exotic quantum materials. A new microscope … Continue reading
Journal Club: Finding new ways to store higher-density information with ferroelectric materials
Recent findings suggest early proof of principle for a new way to read, write and erase information in much smaller areas than conventional memory. The method entails ferroelectric thin films, which store information using the domains’ polarization directions like the … Continue reading
Categories: Applied Physical Sciences | Journal Club | Physics
Tagged domains, ferroelectric, memory, tem
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New simple theory developed of plastic deformation of metals
Scientists would like to design high-strength structural materials, but much about this work depends on laborious trial and error due to the complexity of plastic deformation — that is, how materials can deform irreversibly. Now researchers propose a unified theory … Continue reading
Categories: Applied Physical Sciences
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C. elegans synchronized swimming
When a group of nematodes gets together in any kind of liquid, they put on quite a show. Each worm waves its body rhythmically to propel itself along. But the waving isn’t all random—in a dense group of Caenorhabditis elegans, … Continue reading
Liquid metal powers a microfluidic pump
Increasingly researchers are developing lab-on-a-chip devices that can do the work of an entire lab on the area the size of a microchip. Pumps are needed to move tiny amounts of fluid from one chamber to another within these microfluidic … Continue reading
Categories: Applied Physical Sciences
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First images of electron orbitals in complex molecules
The areas where electrons in a molecule are likely to be found in space are known as molecular orbitals. These define the chemical and physical traits of matter, so researchers have long strived to image them, but were missing all … Continue reading
Categories: Applied Physical Sciences
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Naturally occurring melanin could be the future of edible electronics
Naturally occurring melanin possesses electronic properties that allow it to serve as a battery electrode, scientists report for the first time in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The electronics that power iPhones and laptops are optimized for … Continue reading
Categories: Applied Physical Sciences
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Nanoantennae might help view matter during ultrafast timeframes
As scientists grow more capable of analyzing events that zip by at ultrafast timeframes, they would love to investigate complex systems, such as how all the molecules in photosynthesis or the components in quantum computers interact. Now researchers have developed … Continue reading
Categories: Applied Physical Sciences
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