Particles of the material bismuth telluride have unique properties: the interior of the particle acts as an insulator, but its surface can conduct electricity. In their recent research, Professor Gabi Schierning at Bielefeld University, Germany, and her collaborators at the University of Duisburg-Essen and IFW Dresden, offer fascinating insights into the properties of bismuth telluride particles. The team’s work may pave the way for their use in technological applications.

In a recent paper, Dr Philip Norcott at the Australian National University proposes a new strategy to improve nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging, a technique widely used in biology, chemistry, and medical imaging. A difficultly in these applications of nuclear magnetic resonance is low sensitivity and the potential for multiple signals to overlap, and existing techniques may only improve one of these factors without addressing the other. Dr Norcott suggests and tests a novel technique that offers the best of both worlds.

The black holes found at the centres of most large galaxies are now found to be fundamental to galactic formation and evolution. Until recently, however, little was understood about how these massive bodies affect the behaviours of their host galaxies and beyond. Through their research, Dr Stefi Baum and Dr Christopher O’Dea at the University of Manitoba have made important strides towards untangling the many mysteries involved in this intriguing astronomical problem.

Discovering new phases of matter and classifying such phases are among the most important goals in physics. In a new study, Dr Tie-Cheng Guo and Professor Li You at Tsinghua University in Beijing present a new methodology to discover new quantum phases of matter, using the concept of ‘time order’. Through identifying and defining quantum phases from this perspective, time order could become a new paradigm in physics, helping researchers to gain more insight into quantum many-body systems.