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Actinide
The actinide series encompasses the 15 chemical elements that lie between actinium and lawrencium on the periodic table with atomic numbers 89 - 103. The actinide series is named after actinium. All actinides are f-block elements except lawrencium.
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Matter & Energy News
September 9, 2026
Sep. 7, 2026 A more realistic quantum model has revealed evidence that strange, nearly immobile quasiparticles called fractons could exist in solid materials. Their inability to move freely could make them promising building blocks for unusually robust quantum ...
Sep. 6, 2026 Scientists have devised a new way to switch magnetic computer memory while using far less energy than today's leading technologies. By mathematically optimizing the pulses used to flip digital bits, ...
Sep. 6, 2026 Princeton researchers have tested an AI system that can monitor and control fusion plasma in milliseconds, reacting far faster than a human operator. In one experiment, it predicted a damaging instability about 200 milliseconds before it appeared ...
Sep. 3, 2026 Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have discovered an unexpected form of the Hall effect, overturning the long-held assumption that this electrical response only appears when a magnetic field points perpendicular to a material. Beyond ...
Sep. 2, 2026 Solar sails pushed by powerful lasers could reach incredible speeds, but relativity may eventually make the light itself work against them. At around 75% of the speed of light, scattered photons can begin creating drag, adding a surprising obstacle ...
Aug. 31, 2026 Scientists have uncovered hidden complexity inside two ultrathin superconductors that seemed much simpler than they really are. Niobium diselenide and tantalum disulfide appeared to have a single superconducting state, but highly sensitive ...
Aug. 31, 2026 Diamond was thought to be incapable of producing electricity through mechanical deformation, but ultrathin flexible diamond membranes have now shown a strong and repeatable piezoelectric effect. The unexpected discovery could open the door to ...
Aug. 30, 2026 Scientists have cracked a long-standing chemistry problem, creating nanocrystals from tough metal nitrides that were previously extremely difficult to produce at this scale. The breakthrough could ...
Aug. 29, 2026 Researchers have discovered a way to turn notoriously difficult-to-recycle PVC plastic into a key ingredient used in high-performance lubricants such as engine oil. The technique could give mountains ...
Aug. 29, 2026 Researchers have discovered that Western Australia’s iron-rich rocks can naturally generate hydrogen and that the process may be boosted to produce much larger amounts. If it can be scaled up, the vast formations beneath the Pilbara could become a ...
Aug. 27, 2026 Researchers used AI to search through more than 100 million possible settings for 3D-printing a high-performance NASA alloy. After only 40 experiments, the system identified six successful ...
Aug. 27, 2026 Scientists have found a surprising way to potentially switch on an unusual form of magnetism in ruthenium dioxide, a material that normally appears nonmagnetic. When the material was made into an ...
Latest Headlines
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Sep. 9, 2026 Scientists found that a tiny atomic structure that forms on nickel oxide during methane conversion is more effective than the metallic nickel long believed to drive the reaction. The discovery ...
Sep. 8, 2026 Physicists have directly observed a long-predicted quantum effect of gravity, putting one of Einstein’s foundational ideas to a striking new test. ...
Sep. 5, 2026 Scientists used Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere as a planet-sized detector to search for some of the lightest proposed forms of dark matter. The approach dramatically improved limits on ...
Sep. 5, 2026 Scientists have uncovered an unusual form of electron behavior in zirconium pentatelluride, a quantum material that can act as both an insulator and a conductor. Under temperatures near absolute zero ...
Sep. 4, 2026 The LUX-ZEPLIN experiment has detected a rare particle interaction that looks unusually difficult to explain as ordinary background noise and appeared where dark matter might be expected. Scientists ...
Sep. 2, 2026 A search for one mysterious particle unexpectedly revealed evidence for two different structures that may belong to the bizarre family of exotic subatomic particles known as XYZ states. The findings ...
Aug. 30, 2026 Physicists have mathematically captured a bizarre “spacetime crystal” that can either dissolve or collapse into a microscopic black hole after only a tiny change in energy. Their breakthrough ...
Aug. 29, 2026 Quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of gravity explain almost everything we see in nature, yet physicists still do not know how to unite them. A new theoretical framework suggests that some ...
Aug. 29, 2026 A major new analysis challenges recent claims that the universe's expansion is slowing, finding that the evidence for cosmic acceleration remains strong. The findings preserve the leading role of ...
Aug. 27, 2026 Today’s mysterious gravitational-wave background may preserve clues about how the Universe’s first supermassive black holes formed. Descendants of hypothetical Dark Stars could be responsible for ...