#Running on empty: New affordable catalyst relies on nitrogen vacancies to produce ammonia

“#Running on empty: New affordable catalyst relies on nitrogen vacancies to produce ammonia” Nickel-loaded lanthanum nitride (LaN) enables stable and highly efficient ammonia synthesis. Nitrogen vacancies are generated on LaN with low formation energy, and efficiently bind and activate N2. Credit: Tokyo Tech Ammonia (NH3) is one of the most commonly produced chemicals worldwide, because…

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#Planetary scientist collaborates on first-ever Mars mission launched by Arab world

“#Planetary scientist collaborates on first-ever Mars mission launched by Arab world” An artist’s impression of the United Arab Emirates’ Hope spacecraft in orbit around Mars, where it will arrive in February 2021 after launching from Japan. Credit: MBRSC A veteran of multiple NASA missions to Mars, Northern Arizona University planetary scientist Christopher Edwards will closely…

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#Mystery about cause of genetic disease in horses

“#Mystery about cause of genetic disease in horses” Dark Ronald XX was a stallion who significantly influenced the breeding lines. Credit: University of Göttingen Warmblood fragile foal syndrome is a severe, usually fatal, genetic disease that manifests itself after birth in affected horses. Due to the defect, the connective tissue is unstable. Under force, for…

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#How do you measure innovation in sustainable development?

“#How do you measure innovation in sustainable development?” Credit: CC0 Public Domain In 2015, the United Nations established 17 Sustainable Development Goals as “a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.” The goals range from eliminating poverty and hunger to reducing inequality and tackling climate change. To solve these complex and…

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#Q&A: Coming soon? A brief guide to 21st-century megadisasters

“#Q&A: Coming soon? A brief guide to 21st-century megadisasters” Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain When it comes to calamities, Jeffrey Schlegelmilch thinks big. In his upcoming book, “Rethinking Readiness: A Brief Guide to Twenty-First-Century Megadisasters,” he explores menaces that potentially could change not just lives or communities, but entire societies. He groups these into five categories:…

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#Using magnetic worms to engineer nanoscale communication systems

“#Using magnetic worms to engineer nanoscale communication systems” Prof. Dirk Grundler and doctoral assistant Sho Watanabe with a broadband spin-wave spectroscopy set up. Credit: EPFL / Alain Herzog Researchers at EPFL have shown that electromagnetic waves coupled to precisely engineered structures known as artificial ferromagnetic quasicrystals allow for more efficient information transmission and processing at…

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#Higher-order topology found in 2-D crystal

“#Higher-order topology found in 2-D crystal” WTe2 Josephson junction: Green slabs are layers of WTe2, orange bars are niobium electrodes, and red and blue lines denote spin up and spin down electrodes traveling on two hinges of the samples. Credit: Gil-Ho Lee (POSTECH) Over the last decade, the field of condensed matter physics has experienced…

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#Chasing particles with tiny electric charges

“#Chasing particles with tiny electric charges” Computer simulation of the proposed milliQan detector. The light blue represents the flash of light that would be produced in the detector by the passage of a millicharged particle. Credit: The milliQan collaboration All known elementary particles have electric charges that are integer multiples of a third of the…

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