Reference Terms
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Electricity generation
Electricity generation is the first process in the delivery of electricity to consumers. The other three processes are electric power transmission, electricity distribution and electricity retailing. The demand for electricity can be met in two different ways. The primary method thus far has been for public or private utilities to construct large scale centralized projects to generate and transmit the electricity required to fuel economies. Many of these projects have caused unpleasant environmental effects such as air or radiation pollution and the flooding of large areas of land.
Distributed generation creates power on a smaller scale at locations throughout the electricity network. Often these sites generate electricity as a byproduct of other industrial processes such as using gas from landfills to drive turbines.
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Matter & Energy News
September 19, 2025
Sep. 18, 2025 — Scientists at Michigan State University have discovered how to use ultrafast lasers to wiggle atoms in exotic materials, temporarily altering their electronic behavior. By combining cutting-edge microscopes with quantum simulations, they created a ...
Sep. 18, 2025 — America already mines all the critical minerals it needs for energy, defense, and technology, but most are being wasted as mine tailings. Researchers discovered that minerals like cobalt, germanium, and rare earths are discarded in massive amounts, ...
Sep. 18, 2025 — Faint hydrogen signals from the cosmic Dark Ages may soon help determine the mass of dark matter particles. Simulations suggest future Moon-based observatories could distinguish between warm and cold dark matter, providing long-sought answers about ...
Sep. 17, 2025 — Scientists at Harvard have discovered how salts like lithium bromide break down tough proteins such as keratin—not by attacking the proteins directly, but by altering the surrounding water ...
Sep. 14, 2025 — Scientists in Korea have engineered magnetic nanohelices that can control electron spin with extraordinary precision at room temperature. By combining structural chirality and magnetism, these nanoscale helices can filter spins without complex ...
Sep. 13, 2025 — Quantum materials, defined by their photon-like electrons, are opening new frontiers in material science. Researchers have synthesized organic compounds that display a universal magnetic behavior tied to a distinctive feature in their band ...
Sep. 13, 2025 — Scientists have finally unlocked a way to identify the elusive W state of quantum entanglement, solving a decades-old problem and opening paths to quantum teleportation and advanced quantum ...
Sep. 12, 2025 — Physicists have achieved a breakthrough by using a 58-qubit quantum computer to create and observe a long-theorized but never-before-seen quantum phase of matter: a Floquet topologically ordered state. By harnessing rhythmic driving in these quantum ...
Sep. 12, 2025 — For the first time, scientists have observed electrons in graphene behaving like a nearly perfect quantum fluid, challenging a long-standing puzzle in physics. By creating ultra-clean samples, the team at IISc uncovered a surprising decoupling of ...
Sep. 10, 2025 — Physicists have unveiled a new superconducting detector sensitive enough to hunt dark matter particles smaller than electrons. By capturing faint photon signals, the device pushes the search into uncharted ...
Sep. 10, 2025 — Researchers in Germany and Australia have created a simple but powerful tool to detect nanoplastics—tiny, invisible particles that can slip through skin and even the blood-brain barrier. Using an "optical sieve" test strip viewed under a regular ...
Sep. 9, 2025 — Artificial intelligence is consuming enormous amounts of energy, but researchers at the University of Florida have built a chip that could change everything by using light instead of electricity for a core AI function. By etching microscopic lenses ...
Latest Headlines
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Sep. 17, 2025 — Scientists from the University of St Andrews have discovered that ions in solar flares can reach scorching temperatures more than 60 million degrees—6.5 times hotter than previously believed. This ...
Sep. 17, 2025 — A strange “Einstein Cross” with an extra, impossible fifth image has revealed the hidden presence of a massive dark matter halo. An international team of astronomers, including Rutgers ...
Sep. 16, 2025 — QROCODILE has set record-breaking sensitivity in the search for dark matter, detecting signals at energy levels once thought impossible. These results may be just the first step toward finally ...
Sep. 14, 2025 — Researchers at UBC have found a way to mimic the elusive Schwinger effect using superfluid helium, where vortex pairs appear out of thin films instead of electron-positron pairs in a vacuum. Their ...
Sep. 14, 2025 — Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have uncovered mysterious “little red dots” that may not be galaxies at all, but a whole new ...
Sep. 12, 2025 — For centuries, people believed ice was slippery because pressure and friction melted a thin film of water. But new research from Saarland University reveals that this long-standing explanation is ...
Sep. 12, 2025 — Scientists have, for the first time, successfully studied liquid carbon in the lab by combining a powerful high-performance laser with the European XFEL x-ray laser. The experiment captured fleeting ...
Sep. 12, 2025 — Gravitational-wave astronomy has exploded since 2015, capturing hundreds of black hole and neutron star collisions. With ever-clearer signals, researchers are testing Einstein’s relativity and ...
Sep. 11, 2025 — Physicists may soon witness a cosmic fireworks show: the explosive death of a primordial black hole. Once thought to be unimaginably rare, new research suggests there’s up to a 90% chance of ...
Sep. 9, 2025 — Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus has long fascinated scientists with its spectacular water plumes, which NASA’s Cassini spacecraft once revealed to contain organic molecules. Many hoped these ...