Astronomers Discover Evidence for Substance on Liquid-Gas Boundary on Exoplanet WASP-31b
One of the properties that make a planet suitable for life is the presence of a weather system. Exoplanets are too far away to directly…
University of Groningen News
Green Chemistry Creates Coatings From Nature: Turning Biomass Into High-Quality Coatings
Organic chemists from the University of Groningen and the Dutch multinational company AkzoNobel, a major global producer of paints and coatings, developed a process that…
Spider Silk Inspires New Class of Functional Synthetic Polymers for Bio-Electronics, Sensors, and Batteries
Synthetic polymers have changed the world around us, and it would be hard to imagine a world without them. However, they do have their problems….
Tabletop Quantum Experiment – 4000x Smaller Than Current Devices – Could Detect Gravitational Waves
Tiny diamond crystals could be used as an incredibly sensitive and small gravitational detector capable of measuring gravitational waves, suggests new UCL-led research. Predicted by…
Summer Intern Helps Develop New Model to Describe Defects and Errors in Quantum Computers
A summer internship in Bilbao, Spain, has led to a paper in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters for Jack Mayo, a Master’s student in…
Year 777: Radiocarbon Dating Pinpoints Date for Construction of Mysterious Por-Bajin Complex
At the border between the Russian Federation and Mongolia stands a large clay complex of buildings called Por-Bajin. Archaeologists are not sure who built it…
Bombardment by Asteroids and Comets in Another Planetary System Predicted by Astronomers
The planetary system around star HR8799 is remarkably similar to our Solar System. A research team led by astronomers from the University of Groningen and…
Active Galactic Nuclei Core Ignition Triggered by Galaxy Mergers
Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) play a major role in galaxy evolution. Astronomers from the University of Groningen and Netherlands Institute for Space Research have now…
New Self-Assembled Monolayer Is Resistant to Air – Buckyballs Can Pave the Way for Molecular Electronics
Organic self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) have been around for over forty years. The most widely used form is based on thiols, bound to a metal surface….
First View of Hydrogen Atoms at the Metal-to-Metal Hydride Interface
University of Groningen physicists have visualized hydrogen at the titanium/titanium hydride interface using a transmission electron microscope. Using a new technique, they succeeded in visualizing…
15% Chance North Atlantic Current Partially Collapses in Next 100 Years
Total collapse in the next 1,000 years unlikely. The North Atlantic Current transports warm water from the Gulf of Mexico toward Europe, providing much of…
Harvesting Hot Electrons Without Tricks Could Increase Solar Panel Efficiency
The efficiency of solar panels is hampered by a ‘Goldilocks’ problem: the light needs to have just the right amount of energy to be converted…
Map to the Stars – Astronomers Trace Most Common Molecule in the Universe
Molecular hydrogen (H2) makes up 99% of the cold dense gas in galaxies. So mapping where stars are born basically means measuring H2, which lacks…
New Type of Transistor One Step Closer As Double Layer of Graphene Helps to Control Spin Currents
a Electrons have a negative charge, but they also behave like tiny magnets. This property of electrons, called spin, can be used to transport or…
Energy Production Unit for a Synthetic Cell Constructed by Scientists
Scientists at the University of Groningen have constructed synthetic vesicles in which ATP, the main energy carrier in living cells, is produced. The vesicles use…
Powerful New Electronics Could Be Created at the Edge of Chaos
Study shows how ferroic materials could be used to create adaptable neuromorphic electronics. A phenomenon that is well known from chaos theory was observed in…
New GAIA Data Reveal Relics of Merger Events in the Milky Way
University of Groningen astronomers have discovered relics of merger events in the Milky Way halo. Five small groups of stars appear to represent mergers with…
Hybrid Perovskites Improve Solar Cell Efficiency
Photons with energy higher than the ‘band gap’ of the semiconductor absorbing them give rise to what are known as hot electrons. The extra energy…