MIT researchers developed a lightweight 2D polyaramid polymer (2DPA-1) that is nearly impenetrable to gas molecules, with permeability at least 1/10,000 that of existing polymers. Published in Nature, the film made from melamine building blocks is stronger than steel with one-sixth the density. A 60-nanometer-thick coating extended perovskite crystal lifetime by weeks, with bubbles created in 2021 still inflated, according to Michael Strano, Carbon P. Dubbs Professor at MIT,

Researchers at City University of New York and University of Texas at Austin made previously invisible dark excitons shine by amplifying light emission 300,000 times using gold nanotubes and tungsten diselenide (WSe₂) just three atoms thick. Published in Nature Photonics, the breakthrough enables nanoscale control through electric and magnetic fields, according to Andrea Alù, Distinguished and Einstein Professor at CUNY Graduate Center. First author Jiamin Quan says the disco

Scientists have packed the light-analyzing power of an entire lab onto a fingernail-sized chip. Discover how this breakthrough, set for testing on the world's largest telescope, could map the Milky Way in years, not millennia, and revolutionize everything from medicine to autonomous cars.