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Electrons in topological materials behave like massless particles (called Weyl fermions). They are either right- or left-handed (the spins are locked parallel or antiparallel to their velocity). In parallel applied electric and magnetic fields, one population grows while the other shrinks. This leads to a new kind of electrical current called an “axial” current. The Princeton MRSEC group has observed this new effect (called the chiral anomaly) in two distinct topological metals, Na3Bi and GdPtBi (1,2).

The  first  example  of  synthetic  living  material featuring   dissipative   behaviors   directly controlled  by  the  fuel  consumption  of  their constituent cells.

Materials  scientists  use  rules  that  hold  across  different kinds   of  materials   as  powerful  tools  to  understand material’s    fundamental    behavior,    to    predict    their properties   and   performance,   and   to   design   new materials.

Textbooks say that glasses are structurally disordered and  isotropic,  meaning  that  their  constituent molecules don’t’ form a repeating pattern and point in random directions.

The transport of energy and information in semiconductors is limited by scattering between electronic carriers and lattice phonons, resulting in diffusive and  lossy  transport  that  curtails  all  semiconductor  technologies.

One exciting application of magnetic materials is the use of coherent magnonsas energy-efficient information carriers in spintronicsand magnonicsor as interconnects in hybrid quantum systems.

Active composites obtained by merging   a   conventional   soft   matter actin    gel    with    energy    consuming microtubule   bundles   that   generate active   stresses   leads   to   emergent properties not present in the individual systems.

Pb(Hf0.2Zr0.2Ti0.2Nb0.2X0.2)O3, a high-entropy perovskite, undergoes an entropy-driven phase transformation when X=Mn while X=Al always contains minor second phases in bulk ceramics.

Inspired by the human eye, a team led by Clarke at the Harvard MRSEC has reported in Science Advances an adaptive metalens that is a flat, electronically-controlled artificial eye. This new lens which combines breakthroughs in artificial muscle and lens technologies simultaneously controls focus, astigmatism, and image shift.

The search for an unusual form of superconductivity known as topological superconductivity has attracted a great deal of attention of the quantum materials community because of its fundamental novelty and potential applications in fault-tolerant quantum computing technology.