Research lab
International synchrotron X-ray facility in Grenoble, France, whose beamlines serve materials science, geoscience, life science and cultural heritage research.
CEA physicists formed hexagonal close-packed superionic ice from ultrapure water at 130-200 GPa and above 1800 K. The team says the finding gives a rationale for adding the phase to models of Uranus and Neptune, though confirming it exists inside either planet is the next step.
Reality
Researchers using X-rays from PETRA III and ESRF plus machine learning told two palm genera apart across 160 palm-leaf samples. The npj Heritage Science authors say regional origin cannot yet be attributed, since some provenance groups were small and aging effects were only partly assessed.
Reality
Portsmouth-led researchers found the mantle recorded surface oxygen 3.4 to 3 billion years ago, up to 1.1 billion years before the Great Oxidation Event. Sulfur chemistry in apatite sealed inside zircon indicates oxidized surface material was already being carried down by some form of subduction, according to the Nature Geoscience study.
Reality
Bar-Ilan University researchers mapped 3D elemental composition 43 times faster than conventional approaches, using more than 97% less measurement data. The team says biological and geological samples come next, so the speedup has so far been shown on metals only.
Reality
A Leibniz University Hannover and HZDR team found six Chernobyl hot particles kept their reactor-fuel structure 40 years on, more stable than assumed. It eases worries about soil and water, but the team says six grains cannot speak for the region's health risks.
Perspective Coverage
3 publishersReality
A Warwick-led team imaged the interior of a 214 cuprate crystal at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and found two slightly different atomic arrangements. The boundaries between them are hundreds of times wider than expected.
Reality
A team led by the Universitat Politecnica de Barcelona found copper and silver ions swapping into the glaze during firing and reducing to metal nanoparticles. Separating the parameters that set each color will take mock-ups.
Reality