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(Phys.org) -- Strange new materials experimentally identified just a few years ago are now driving research in condensed-matter physics around the world. First theorized and then discovered by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and their colleagues in other institutions, these “strong 3-D topological insulators” – TIs for short – are seemingly mundane semiconductors with startling properties. For starters, picture a good insulator on the inside that’s a good conductor on its surface – something like a copper-coated bowling ball.

The new Tourbillon 24 Secondes Contemporain from Greubel Forsey is technically very close to the fast rotating tourbillon the brand released in 2007. However, the new $480,000 model makes a completely different appearance than the original. With new materials and finishes on the plates and bridges, including a sapphire tourbillon ...

The new Tourbillon 24 Secondes Contemporain from Greubel Forsey is technically very close to the fast rotating tourbillon the brand released in 2007. However, the new $480,000 model makes a completely different appearance than the original. With new materials and finishes on the plates and bridges, including a sapphire tourbillon ...

The new Tourbillon 24 Secondes Contemporain from Greubel Forsey is technically very close to the fast rotating tourbillon the brand released in 2007. However, the new $480,000 model makes a completely different appearance than the original. With new materials and finishes on the plates and bridges, including a sapphire tourbillon ...

The new Tourbillon 24 Secondes Contemporain from Greubel Forsey is technically very close to the fast rotating tourbillon the brand released in 2007.

The new Tourbillon 24 Secondes Contemporain from Greubel Forsey is technically very close to the fast rotating tourbillon the brand released in 2007. However, the new $480,000 model makes a completely different appearance than the original. With new materials and finishes on the plates and bridges, including a sapphire tourbillon ...

The new Tourbillon 24 Secondes Contemporain from Greubel Forsey is technically very close to the fast rotating tourbillon the brand released in 2007. However, the new $480,000 model makes a completely different appearance than the original

A team of MIT researchers has developed a way of making a high-temperature version of a kind of materials called photonic crystals, using metals such as tungsten or tantalum.

A little piece of iron wire is magnetic – just like a huge iron rod.

Laser plasma accelerators offer the potential to create powerful electron beams within a fraction of the space required by conventional accelerators – and at a fraction of the cost.

(PhysOrg.com) -- The world economy is becoming ever more reliant on high tech electronics such as computers featuring fingernail-sized microprocessors crammed with billions of transistors. For progress to continue, for Moore’s Law---according to which the number of computer components crammed onto microchips doubles every two years, even as the size and cost of components halves---to continue, new materials and new phenomena need to be discovered.

It can take years for a new engineering feat to go from concept to commercialization. The rechargeable batteries in your phone took 20 years to develop. So the federal government is launching a project to speed up invention and hopefully save U.S