Although low-symmetry crystals exist in nature, their structures and properties are static; this has spurred interest in making synthetic low-symmetry colloidal crystals from nanomaterials with dynamic structures whose properties can be toggled over time. An international team of researchers expanded the potential for this fascinating class of materials.

Complex oxide thin films are considered fundamental for next-generation electronics. New research reveals that even the simple growth of such thin films does not follow the assumed layer-by-layer sequence. 

High throughput screening of candidate drug structures to inhibit “druggable” targets in disease seems like a perfect application of artificial intelligence. But does AI perform better than the modeling tools we already have? A research team recently published work that aimed to answer this question.

Researchers used optical and X-ray techniques at the Advanced Photon Source to reveal a previously unknown photoinduced phase transition in materials. Their results reveal a previously unreported mechanism by which light can induce long-lived metastable structural states in double perovskites, with lifetimes extending into the multi-millisecond regime.

In 2019, antimicrobial resistance was responsible for an estimated 5 million deaths, and about 30% of these were due to two pathogens, Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kp) and Acinetobacter baumannii (Ab). Recent research advanced work on identifying and optimizing new antibiotics to treat Kp and Ab infections.