Nickel-based superalloys, which remain strong and corrosion-resistant at high temperatures, are popular for making aerospace components such as turbine engines. New research has shown how in-situ X-ray diffraction can explain thermomechanical behaviors in such alloys during laser processing.

Both nonclassical and classical pathways can produce crystals with structural defects and lattice strain, as well as impurities in the solution, but how these preserved defects and strain affect crystal growth and their overall reactivity has been unclear. To answer this question, researchers compared the formation of two different types of crystal grown from supersaturated solutions. Their findings shed light on crystal nucleation and growth mechanisms. 

Recent studies have shown that bacterial protein synthesis is not completely blocked in the presence of macrolides. This interesting discovery that, rather than being indiscriminate blockers of protein synthesis, macrolides act in a context-specific fashion, has been recently built upon by researchers who sought to elucidate the structural basis for this new understanding of the mechanism of action of macrolides.

Scientists created a custom machine learning program to analyze the three-dimensional mappings of lattice strain and orientation in slightly deformed samples of stainless steel. The research findings demonstrate that 3D imaging techniques can be integrated with machine learning analysis to determine the self-organized dislocation structures within deformed crystals, providing new insights into the mechanisms governing the plastic deformation of metals.

Researchers have developed a hyperspectral imaging system that enables simultaneous measurement of both the spatial and spectral distribution of thermal radiation emitted from laser-heated samples. This approach produces a two-dimensional radiance map, allowing researchers to visualize how temperature varies across an entire hotspot while also identifying wavelength-dependent optical artifacts that can bias conventional measurements.