Aalto University

After decades of physics-based theorizing, researchers have succeeded in creating a novel optical metamaterial using conventional materials. Its enhanced electromagnetic effect may make true one-way glass a reality and solar panels more efficient.

Scientists have developed what they call the most water-repellent surface ever. By giving it a liquid-like coating that defies usual designs, water will roll off the surface at angles 500 times shallower than other superhydrophobic materials.

Researchers have turned lignin into nanoparticles that can create a transparent coating with antifog properties or a colorful antireflective surface, transforming this abundant waste product into a useful material with diverse applications.

Researchers have mapped where and how strongly we experience different kinds of love, covering everything from romantic love to love for strangers. The findings shed light on how context and the object of love affects our subjective feelings of it.

Adoption of wireless charging has been fairly slow, but it could pick up if it worked over longer distances. Now Aalto University engineers have developed a new system that can allow more efficient wireless power transmission over longer distances.

Using a newly developed VR game, researchers believe they have created a tool that can objectively diagnose ADHD. The system tracks a user's eye movements and has also been proposed as a way of monitoring the efficacy of certain therapeutic interventions.

Ordinarily, wireless chargers emit an electromagnetic field in just one direction, limiting the number of devices they can charge at once. A new charger, however, produces a donut-shaped field, for the simultaneous charging of multiple gadgets.

Researchers in Europe have developed an entirely new form of carbon, one that bears similarities to the wonder material graphene but with some useful differences that could open up new possibilities in electronics and advanced lithium batteries.

Time crystals are strange phases of matter that appear to break time-translation symmetry. Now scientists have observed two time crystals interacting for the first time, which could be a step towards practical applications like quantum computing.

Researchers have developed a photovoltaic device that has an external quantum efficiency of 132 percent. This impossible-sounding feat was achieved using nanostructured black silicon, and could represent a major breakthrough for solar cells.

Among other things, hydrophobic (water-repelling) surfaces can be used to keep medical devices germ-free, to help airplane wings shed ice, and to keep solar panels clean. A new process could soon make those surfaces much more durable.

For many cavity-prone people, tooth-brushing often just isn't enough. It was with such folks in mind that a new mouthwash-based system was recently developed, which reportedly uses light to kill problematic bacteria.