Perovskites are currently a hot topic in materials science due to their remarkable properties and potential applications, including sustainable energy technologies, catalysis, and optoelectronics, to name a few.

By kindergarten age, most children have been taught that "please" is a magic word. "Please" is an expression of politeness that shows courtesy and respect, turning a potential demand into a request that will—poof!—magically be granted.

Just as the US economy runs on the dollar, the cellular economy runs on adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The energy-carrying molecule fuels nearly all processes inside the cell, making ATP critical for cellular life.

Sea otters are one of the few animals that use tools to access their food, and a new study has found that individual sea otters that use tools—most of whom are female—are able to eat larger prey and reduce tooth damage when their preferred prey becomes depleted.

Organic solid-state lasers (OSLs) hold immense promise for a wide range of applications due to their flexibility, color tunability, and efficiency. However, they are difficult to make, and with over 150,000 possible experiments required to conduct to find successful new materials, discovering them all would be the work of several lifetimes. In fact, in the previous few decades, only 10–20 new OSL materials have been tested.

A team of chemists from the University of Vienna, led by Nuno Maulide, has achieved a significant breakthrough in the field of chemical synthesis, developing a novel method for manipulating carbon-hydrogen bonds. This discovery provides new insights into the molecular interactions of positively charged carbon atoms.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has numerous applications in health care, from analyzing medical imaging to optimizing the execution of clinical trials, and even facilitating drug discovery.

If you zoom in on a chemical reaction to the quantum level, you'll notice that particles behave like waves that can ripple and collide. Scientists have long sought to understand quantum coherence, the ability of particles to maintain phase relationships and exist in multiple states simultaneously; this is akin to all parts of a wave being synchronized. It has been an open question whether quantum coherence can persist through a chemical reaction where bonds dynamically break and form.

Most systems used to detect toxic gases in industrial or domestic settings can be used only once, or at best a few times. Now, researchers at MIT have developed a detector that could provide continuous monitoring for the presence of these gases, at low cost.

CRISPR-Cas systems have revolutionized biotechnology by offering ways to edit genes like a pair of programmable scissors. In nature, bacteria use these systems to fight off deadly viruses. A recent international collaboration led by the University of Copenhagen has shed light on the most enigmatic CRISPR-Cas systems; the type IV system. While these atypical systems do not cut genes, their unique functions show promise in our fight against antibiotic resistance.