Hydrogen doping, or hydrogenation, has been applied to many materials, including oxide compounds with complex crystalline structures. A research team recently demonstrated, for the first time, that transient polarization can spontaneously arise in H-NNO. The scientists also performed tantalizing experiments indicating the potential of H-NNO for neuromorphic computing, which mimics human brain processes.

A new class of medicines called PROTACs destroy disease-causing proteins by hijacking the cell’s degradation machinery. A team of scientists has engineered a PROTAC molecule that degrades two proteins that promote cancer, without causing off-target side effects. 

Lanthanides and other rare earth elements are quite difficult to separate and purify from the other materials with which they're usually found. Because of the great value and utility of these metals for many purposes, including electronics, computing, and various industrial processes that rely on their unique electronic and chemical properties, that difficulty is a major problem. Researchers using the Advanced Photon Source took inspiration from nature to examine a new possibility for lanthanide separation.

Scientists are always searching for new catalysts to enable fast, energy-efficient chemical reactions to transform wastes into useful chemical fuels, such as converting carbon dioxide to methane. Single-site catalysts are a promising new class of catalyst. Researchers using the Advanced Photon Source have demonstrated a design for single-site catalysts that resist aggregating and retain their high efficiency.

Scientists are exploring materials whose electronic properties could reduce the amount of resistive heating created by the transistors in computer chips. These new materials incorporate a one-dimensional electronic structure---meaning that the electrons which create current are confined to a single dimension---inside a three-dimensional crystal with insulating properties.