Michael Lawler, Eun-Ah Kim and Seamus Davis close in on the secret recipe for high-temperature superconductors. Their year-long research into the pseudogap transition to superconductors is published in the current issue of Science.

Details in the Chronicle article, from Brookhaven National Lab, and in the May 9 issue of Science.

The April 30, 2014 Quanta Magazine feature article highlights inter-related efforts among researchers at the leading edge of high-temperature superconductivity. The Cornell research team of Eun-Ah Kim, Michael Lawler, and J.C. Séamus Davis play a key role in advancing theoretical models and developing methods to directly observe superconductors on the atomic scale.

Check out the article in Quanta: http://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20140430-decoding-the-secrets-of-...

Michelle Wang and her lab have developed a new optical trap that allows them to study multiple molecules at once. Previous studies had used such traps to look at single molecules, such as DNA. This new device, called a nanophotonic standing wave array trap (nSWAT), can potentially trap hundreds of molecules at once. This allows researchers to complete experiments in a few days that used to take months.

Read more in the Chronicle.

Funding provided by the American Cancer Society, National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Kyle Shen and a team from Cornell and Brookhaven National Lab have discovered a new property of metal oxides that can act like a switch. Using a unique laboratory setup that allows for precision growth and measurement of the materials, the group discovered that varying how thick the layers of atoms are can determine whether the material acts as a metal or an insulator. This has exciting potential applications in atomic-scale electronics and superconductivity.

Read more in the Chronicle.

A new understanding of quantum mechanics restores the balance between scientists and the objects they study, says David Mermin, the Horace White professor of physics emeritus, in this article in Nature.

“They call their new point of view ‘QBism’: Q is for quantum and B is for Bayesian — a view of probability that includes an agent who makes bets and updates odds. QBism attributes the muddle at the foundations of quantum mechanics to our unacknowledged removal of the scientist from the science,” Mermin says.

Prof Jane Wang has developed an explination for the path Tiger Beetles take as they chase their prey. What looks like a messy looping path can be defined by physical rules that affect the beetles motion.

Read more in the Chronicle. Or the full article in Interface.