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Chemists make major strides in organic semiconductors

Ursula Mazur

Washington State University chemists have created new materials that pave the way for the development of inexpensive solar cells. Their work has been recognized as one of the most influential studies published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry in 2016.

Professors Ursula Mazur and K.W. Hipps, postdoctoral researcher Bhaskar Chilukuri and graduate students Morteza Adinehnia and Bryan Borders grew chain-like arrangements of organic nanostructures in the laboratory and then used mathematical models to determine which arrangements were the best conductors of light and electricity.

Journal editors recognized the WSU study as an important step in the advancement of organic semiconductors that perform on par with metal- and silicon-based electronics. They included the work in a collection of 2016’s most influential research publications, or “Hot Papers.”

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WSU News

 

Metallic hydrogen finally made in lab at mind-boggling pressure

Jeffrey McMahon

Metallic hydrogen has been created in the lab for the first time, by squeezing a sample of the element to pressures beyond what exists at the centre of the Earth. The creation of a substance first predicted more than 80 years ago could one day lead to superfast computers or souped-up rocket fuel.

“If this experiment is reproducible, it solves experimentally one of the major outstanding problems in all of physics,” says Jeffrey McMahon at Washington State University in Pullman.

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New Scientist

 

Ripples in spacetime: Science’s 2016 Breakthrough of the Year

LIGO Hanford Observatory

Washington State University researchers and adjunct faculty were part of the international research team that discovered gravitational waves in 2016. Science Magazine recently named the discovery its 2016 Breakthrough of the Year. The achievement fulfilled a prediction made 100 years ago by Albert Einstein and capped a 40-year quest to spot the ripples in spacetime.

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Science Magazine

Is ‘eDNA’ The Next Big Thing For Wildlife Science?

Caren Goldberg
Caren Goldberg

Occasionally a big idea comes along that promises to revolutionize the world – think about things like self-driving cars.  For biologists – especially those who work with fish and other aquatic plants and animals – eDNA is one of those big ideas. While scientists are only really beginning to understand the uses of eDNA, the technology is beginning to prove its worth.

“We don’t have to know everything about it [eDNA] to make it useful – as long as we’re accounting for errors,” says Caren Goldberg, an ecologist at Washington State University.

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Herald and News

Building a better microscope

Matt McCluskey
Matt McCluskey

A little more than 60 years after the invention of the first confocal microscope in 1955, two WSU researchers launched Klar Scientific, a company focused on finishing the final details of their own new and improved microscope that uses photoluminescence.

“Klar is German for clear,” said co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Matthew McCluskey, who is also a professor of physics and astronomy. “It’s like we are seeing things more clearly.”

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Daily Evergreen