Issues
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Cover Image
Cover Image
Cover: MicroLEDs produce light by the same process that their larger LED cousins use: When electrons and holes in a semiconductor material recombine, photons are emitted. But compared with conventional LEDs and other light emitters, microLEDs are much brighter—an advantage that has drawn the interest of makers of augmented- and virtual-reality headsets, whose displays need to compete with the Sun in outdoor environments. On page 30, Vikrant Kumar, Keith Behrman, and Ioannis Kymissis discuss the manufacturing challenges of microLEDs and highlight display-industry applications. (Image by J. Keisling.)
Readers' Forum
Supporting emerging astronomers across Africa
Roman Jackiw and the chiral anomaly
Search and Discovery
Slow-motion spectroscopy paves the way for a nuclear clock
For the first time, the energy level of an atomic nucleus has been directly manipulated with a laser.
Gravitational patterns reveal a tumultuous lunar past
Geophysical models and data analysis show that subsurface titanium causes anomalies in the Moon’s gravitational field.
Updates
Cosmic tau neutrinos uncovered
An image-scouring AI model assists researchers in finding signatures of the most elusive variety of neutrino.
Two new minerals found on the Moon
A glass bead containing an impact crater just 9 µm across is the source of otherworldly titanium oxide compounds.
Io was always extremely volcanic, evidence indicates
The Jovian moon’s abundance of a heavy sulfur isotope is higher than that of any other object in the solar system.
Designer proteins fit like a glove
The bespoke biomolecules interact with molecular targets in predictable, controllable ways.
Issues and Events
Advanced conductors could double power flows on the grid
Widespread reconductoring of the US transmission system could ease bottlenecks that are preventing renewable energy sources from hooking up to power grids.
Q&A: Ernest Moniz on the nuclear weapons threat
Nuclear and nonnuclear nations need to act to prevent the growing risk of accidental or deliberate use, says the former US secretary of energy.
Firearms forensics is becoming more quantitative
Science over subjectivity could increase juries’ confidence in gun identification.
Young physicists excited to network through the International Association of Physics Students
The student-run organization seeks to increase outreach in Asia, Latin America, and the US.
Articles
Putting microLED technology on display
After some two decades of advances in manufacturing processes, microLEDs have the quality and capabilities necessary for many display applications.
Electron microscopy for attosecond science
Some of the fastest processes in physical and biological systems can be studied by generating ultrashort electron pulses.
Deep convection drives oceanic overturning
Research that combines fluid dynamics and climate science is uncovering the inner workings of the North Atlantic’s overturning circulation. Future changes to that circulation system could trigger major disruptions to global weather patterns.
New Products
Quick Study
Comparing clocks by using pulses of light
Microwave atomic clocks can easily be synchronized across long distances using RF methods. Their more precise optical cousins require a subtler approach.
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