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Condensed matter physics
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Room-Temperature Superconductivity Claim Falls Apart [Update]
In 2020, researchers reported that they had created a room-temperature superconductor. That paper has now been retracted.
Alchemy Arrives in a Burst of Light
Researchers have shown how to effectively transform one material into another using a finely shaped laser pulse.
How Mathematical ‘Hocus-Pocus’ Saved Particle Physics
Renormalization has become perhaps the single most important advance in theoretical physics in 50 years.
The Shape-Shifting Squeeze Coolers
Push or crush a new class of materials, and they’ll undergo record-breaking temperature changes.
Why Is Glass Rigid? Signs of Its Secret Structure Emerge.
At the molecular level, glass looks like a liquid. But an artificial neural network has picked up on hidden structure in its molecules that may explain why glass is rigid like a solid.
The Cartoon Picture of Magnets That Has Transformed Science
One hundred years after it was proposed, the Ising model is used to understand everything from magnets to brains.
‘Milestone’ Evidence for Anyons, a Third Kingdom of Particles
Anyons don’t fit into either of the two known particle kingdoms. To find them, physicists had to erase the third dimension.
To Make the Perfect Mirror, Physicists Confront the Mystery of Glass
Sometimes a mirror that reflects 99.9999% of light isn’t good enough.
Ideal Glass Would Explain Why Glass Exists at All
Glass is anything that’s rigid like a crystal, yet made of disordered molecules like a liquid. To understand why it exists, researchers are attempting to create the perfect, still-hypothetical “ideal glass.”