They walk, they talk; they aren’t growing, but they squawk. They are the senescent cells, the tiny zombies living inside us. We all have senescent cells in our bodies, which are damaged body cells that don’t grow or divide as normal cells do. Before adulthood, senescence plays an important role in encouraging tissue development; as […]
Humanity is rarely satisfied with something that’s ‘good enough’. Some people, at least, always want improvements on the current standard. Electric vehicles are one such example, and rightly so; they are a more environmentally friendly alternative than combustion engines (provided they are made and powered renewably, but that’s a separate issue), but currently they simply […]
Sadly nowadays, you don’t have to talk to too many people to find someone with a grandparent or older friend that has suffered and/or died from a type of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or Parkinson’s disease (PD). In my case, I became aware of neurodegenerative disease via close relatives, working as part of […]
In the realm of mathematics, two-dimensional (2D) spaces are akin to an infinitely thin sheet of paper, confining existence and movement to a single plane. In the physical world, we find materials that closely emulate this concept. These 2D materials are typically a thousand times thinner than a human hair and as thin as a […]
By using computer vision and machine learning, computers can design and manufacture miniaturised detectors based on nanowires. This could make detectors more affordable, more reliable, and be used for a larger range of applications from security screening to medical diagnosis. Nanowires are very thin wires, so thin that you would not be able to see […]
Deep in the bowels of Cambridge lies a lab only accessible to a select few. There is no source of light down here, except the eerie green glow of a laser powerful enough to blind in an instant. Creaking open the door, a researcher enters and carefully places a sample in the path of a […]
In 2021, researchers in Japan made a significant breakthrough in the field of optoelectronics. Their achievement? Demonstrating a highly efficient, pure-blue organic light-emitting diode, or OLED for short. This remarkable discovery also boasts a relatively long lifetime and low cost, paving the way for the development of novel devices that are competitive with current commercial […]
The ability to 3D print metal represents a paradigm shift in the way metal parts can be made. Conventionally, blocks or sheets of metal are machined down to the desired shape and fastened together as required to form everything you see around you. 3D printing works in a radically different way, instead of removing material […]
As a child, many of us enjoyed playing with ‘Lego’ blocks, spending countless hours creating things. As an adult, I continue to indulge in building things, albeit on a nanoscale, much smaller than what you can see with your eyes or even standard microscopes. When we reach incredibly small sizes (one-thousandth of the width of […]
By freezing the perovskites in a glass host matrix, we can trap the active phase and improve stability to unlock the full potential of the next generation of photovoltaic and electronic devices. Since ancient times, glass has illuminated the world with its exquisite elegance and splendor. Whilst being known for its clarity and transparency, the […]