Central part of a resistive coil, used to subject samples to a powerful magnetic field. Superconductivity: another piece of the puzzle By subjecting a high-critical-temperature superconductor to a strong magnetic field, physicists at CNRS have shown that its electrons are arranged in long stripes. It remains to be seen whether charges’ tendency to line up helps these materials, whose electrons appear to behave as one, to conduct electric current without resistance. No theoretical explanation for this phenomenon has been found over the past 25 years. Nature September 2011 ‘Unnatural’ boron for new applications in chemistry Amazingly, boron, an electron-hungry chemical element, can be turned into an electron-rich form. A French-German-US team of researchers has succeeded in synthesizing a completely novel borane Micro-objects propelled by gas bubbles pair on the boron atom. Today, boron is used in washing powders(a molecule made up of boron and hydrogen) with an extra electron Researchers have found a new way of propelling micro-objects. and glass-based materials. Its electron-doped compounds could find Conducting objects are placed in an aqueous solution between two new applications in catalysis, as well as in medicine and raw material electrodes, and chemical reactions are set off on two opposite sides manufacturing. of the item: oxidation on one side, and reduction on the other. By tweaking the parameters of the reaction, it is possible to selectively Science July 2011 trigger the asymmetrical release of gas bubbles on one part of the object, which causes it to move. This method could find applications in micromechanics and microfluidics. Nature Communications November 2011 A molecule that changes shape ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CNRS researchers in Toulouse have achieved a high degree of sophistication in the manipulation of nanometer-scale objects. Specifically, they have shown that by adding a single electron to a particular molecule, they can modify its shape: the flat, square atomic structure takes the more voluminous shape of a pyramid. The transformation is completely reversible, which means that the molecule can be switched back and forth at will. Depending on its charge state, in other words on whether it contains an extra electron or not, the molecule can be thought of as a tiny bit of binary information coding either for the value 0 or the value 1. This could pave the way for ultra-dense data storage. Moreover, the change in geometry that takes place when the charge state of the molecule is altered could allow it to be used as a component in a molecular machine, such as a motor whose different states would be driven by simple electron transfer. Physical Review Letters May 2011 33 2011 A year at CNRS
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