Cold Atom Laboratory Gallery - NASA Science (.gov)

Scientists in Japan have discovered that tiny steps just one atom high can act like microscopic railroad tracks, guiding the movement of quantum vortices inside an ultrathin superconductor. Under certain conditions, these vortices moved more than 1,000 times more easily along the steps than across them. Researchers also found that they could adjust this remarkable effect simply by changing the temperature or magnetic field. The discovery was made by researchers at the Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), part of Japan's National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS). Their findings offer a promising new approach to controlling quantum behavior and could eventually help engineers develop superconducting electronics that use far less energy while processing information more efficiently.

The U. S. National Science Foundation is pushing materials science beyond the state-of-the-art with an investment of $108 million in six advanced research centers. The centers will explore a broad range of scientific frontiers, such as exotic materials where light and matter are effectively fused together as hybrid particles, and soft materials that can potentially deliver medicines precisely within the human body. Each center will receive $18 million over six years from the NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers program. NSF has supported such centers since the 1970s when they were called the Materials Research Labs. Renamed as the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers in the 1990s, they are a discovery powerhouse for the U. S. The centers have collectively produced tens of thousands of published scientific findings, resulting in new and improved materials found in everything from dental fillings to rocket engines. "For more than fifty years, NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers have helped put America at the forefront of advanced materials discovery," says NSF Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate Head Tie Luo.

NASA's upgraded Cold Atom Lab is back in operation aboard the International Space Station, giving researchers a powerful new way to investigate the fundamental nature of matter and advance the development of future quantum technologies. Taking advantage of the station's microgravity environment, the facility enables experiments that cannot be performed on Earth. Quantum science focuses on the behavior of matter and energy at extremely small scales, including atoms, electrons, and particles of light. Although atoms are often pictured as tiny balls colliding with one another, the quantum world is far stranger. Atoms can behave like waves, appear in multiple locations at the same time, and even pass through one another under certain conditions.