Electrons

Japanese scientists have created what may be the world’s smallest video game. Using a regular controller, players can control a tiny digital ship, firing nanoscale bullets to push around a physical polystyrene ball just a few microns wide.

Scientists have found that a “superatomic” material is the fastest and most efficient semiconductor ever. Taking advantage of a tortoise-and-hare mechanism, the new material can transport energy much faster than silicon.

Everybody’s favorite wonder material, graphene, continues to surprise. MIT physicists have discovered yet another brand new electronic state hiding in this overachieving little material – something they give the bizarre name of “ferro-valleytricity.”

A brand new form of silicon might help extend its use into the future. Engineers at North Carolina State University have discovered a material called Q-silicon, with new properties that could have important uses in quantum computers and spintronics.

Water is usually something you’d want to keep away from electronic circuits, but engineers in Germany have now developed a new concept for water-based switches that are much faster than current semiconductor materials.

A new solar cell packs a record voltage and (arguably) a record efficiency for its kind. The tandem solar cell uses two layers of perovskite that tap into different wavelengths of light, plus a special surface treatment reduces wasted energy.

Many quantum effects can only be produced at extremely cold temperatures, which limits how useful they would be in real-world tech. Now, Princeton researchers have demonstrated a strange quantum state taking place in a material at room temperature.

Traditional computer chips run on electricity, while the emerging photonic chips use light. Now, scientists at Harvard have demonstrated a new kind of chip that transmits data in the form of sound waves.

It may seem like electronics will always get faster, but at some point the laws of physics intervene. Scientists have now calculated the absolute speed limit – the point at which quantum mechanics prevents microchips from getting any faster.

Researchers have discovered a material that can switch between an insulator and a conductor freely, even at room temperature. The material, a compound of manganese and sulfide (MnS2), starts off as an insulator but becomes conductive under pressure.

Researchers have for the first time managed to use electricity to switch on magnetism in a material that’s normally non-magnetic. This could be a step towards making electronic components out of common materials that might not otherwise be suitable.

It’s not unusual to find rust around salt water, but now the pairing might be more useful. Researchers have found that electricity can be produced when salt water flows over the top of thin films of rust. The process was previously seen in – what else – graphene, but rust is far easier to scale up.