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From smart textiles to self-driving cars: researchers are developing new types of detectors for infrared radiation that are more sustainable, flexible and cost-effective than conventional technologies. The key to success is not (only) the composition of the material, but also its size. The ubiquity of infrared detectors What do motion detectors, self-driving cars, chemical analyzers and satellites have in common' They all contain detectors for infrared (IR) light.

A French-Swiss team tests the famous physicist's predictions by calculating the distortion of time and space. Gravitational lensing of distant galaxies by the galaxy cluster Abell 2390, observed by the Euclid satellite . ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi Why is the expansion of our Universe accelerating' Twenty-five years after its discovery, this phenomenon remains one of the greatest scientific mysteries.

Hydrogen-powered planes are set to take wing around the world in the future. To make this possible, engineers have to develop the jet engines that will power them. Experiments by researchers at ETH Zurich are now providing the necessary basis for making these engines powerful and durable. Europe is preparing for climate-neutral flight powered by sustainably produced hydrogen.

Quantum technologies exploit the unusual properties of the most fundamental building blocks of matter. They promise breakthroughs in communication, computing, sensors and much more. However, quantum states are fragile, and their effects are difficult to grasp, making research into real-world applications challenging.

For the first time, researchers have exclusively observed molecules participating in hydrogen bonds in liquid water, measuring electronic and nuclear quantum effects that were previously accessible only via theoretical simulations. Water is synonymous with life, but the dynamic, multifaceted interaction that brings H2O molecules together - the hydrogen bond - remains mysterious.

Predicting the behavior of many interacting quantum particles is a complicated process but is key to harness quantum computing for real-world applications. A collaboration of researchers led by EPFL has developed a method for comparing quantum algorithms and identifying which quantum problems are the hardest to solve.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a laser that produces the strongest ultra-short laser pulses to date. In the future, such high power pulses could be used for precision measurements or materials processing. The word laser usually conjures up an image of a strongly concentrated and continuous light beam.

Catalysts belonging to the zeolite family help to remove toxic nitrogen oxides from industrial emissions. Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have now discovered that their complex nano porous structure is crucial. Specifically, individual iron atoms sitting in certain neighbouring pores communicate with each other, thereby driving the desired reaction.

Geneva, 25 September 2024. At a seminar held at CERN this week, the NA62 collaboration reported the unequivocal confirmation of the ultra-rare decay of a positively charged kaon into a positively charged pion and a neutrino-antineutrino pair. Experiments including NA62 have previously measured and seen evidence of this process, but this is the first time it has been measured with a statistical significance of five standard deviations , crossing the threshold traditionally required to claim a discovery in particle physics.

The experiment at CERN is the latest to weigh in on the mass of the W boson - an elementary particle that, along with the Z boson , mediates the weak force, which is responsible for a form of radioactivity and initiates the nuclear fusion reaction that powers the Sun. At a seminar held at CERN today, the CMS collaboration reported how it has analysed proton-proton collision data from the second run of the Large Hadron Collider , the Laboratory's flagship particle accelerator, to make its first mass measurement of this fundamental particle.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have managed to make sound waves travel only in one direction. In the future, this method could also be used in technical applications with electromagnetic waves. Be it water, light or sound: waves usually propagate in the same way forwards as in the backward direction. As a consequence, when we are speaking to someone standing some distance away from us, that person can hear us as well as we can hear them.

Previously thought to be negligible, the Sun-s magnetic activity is influencing the determination of its seismic age, as shown by a study published by an international team led by a researcher from the University of Geneva. An international team of astronomers, led by a researcher from the University of Geneva , has shown that the Sun-s magnetic activity has a significant influence on its seismic characterisation, contrary to predictions in the literature.

In the USA, the world's most extensive neutrino experiment, DUNE, is being built at Fermilab. The University of Bern is playing a key role in this by developing the "ND-LAr" detector, which features new technology and an innovative design to observe neutrinos. The prototype of the "ND-LAr" has now been successfully tested and has detected its first neutrinos.

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have been improving the resolution of a process known as photolithography. They hope to use their technique to help advance the miniaturisation of computer chips. Miniaturising computer chips is one of the keys to the digital revolution. It allows computers to become ever smaller and, at the same time, more powerful.

Scientists have developed an AI-based technique to improve chemical analysis of nanomaterials, overcoming challenges of noisy data and mixed signals. "Nanomaterials" is a broad term used to describe chemical substances or materials in which a single unit is sized between 1 and 100 nanometers (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter).

Researchers have published a programmable framework that overcomes a key computational bottleneck of optics-based artificial intelligence systems. In a series of image classification experiments, they used scattered light from a low-power laser to perform accurate, scalable computations using a fraction of the energy of electronics.

In a collaboration with EPFL Lausanne, ETH Zurich and the University of Southern California researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have used X-rays to look inside a microchip with higher precision than ever before. The image resolution of 4 nanometres marks a new world record. The high-resolution three-dimensional images of the type they produced will enable advances in both information technology and the life sciences.

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI and the Australian National University have re-determined the half-life of samarium-146 with great precision. The result fits perfectly with the data astrophysicists and geochemists have obtained from extraterrestrial samples. The study appears today in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.

A team including researchers from the Laboratory for High Energy Physics at the University of Bern has successfully measured the interaction rates of neutrinos at unprecedented energies using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. A better understanding of these elusive elementary particles can help answer the question of why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe.

Researchers from the University of Basel have looked at how the ferromagnetic properties of electrons in the two-dimensional semiconductor molybdenum disulfide can be better understood. They revealed a surprisingly simple way of measuring the energy needed to flip an electron spin. Ferromagnetism is an important physical phenomenon that plays a key role in many technologies.