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Understanding and tuning the insulating tunnel barrier layer in magnetic tunnel junctions is key to developing commercial spintronic devices. A naturally self-assembled insulating layer on bilayer manganites provides a highly sensitive model system.
Chemists have sent molecules to primary school in the past decade. Now individual molecules can carry out addition and subtraction using different chemicals as the input bits and two fluorescence colours as the output bits.
For centuries, cooks have been applying recipes without looking for the mechanisms of the culinary transformations. A scientific discipline that explores these changes from raw ingredients to eating the final dish, is developing into its own field, termed molecular gastronomy. Here, one of the founders of the discipline discusses its aims and importance.