This Is What a Solid Made of Electrons Looks Like

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October 07, 2021

Dear Reader,   Scientists have long predicted and even studied amazing microscopic structures made of electrons called Wigner crystals—but now, for the first time, physicists have actually imaged one. A scanning tunneling microscope captured electrons tidily arranged in a honeycomb pattern, just as atoms do in a normal solid material. The same technique could allow scientists to image other hard-to-capture phenomena. The Nobel Prizes were announced this week, and we have coverage of the science behind the winners. Also, astronomers are disappointed that NASA failed to rename the soon-to-launch James Webb Space Telescope after researchers protested that its namesake was involved in anti-LGBT+ harassment. And in lighter news, a Russian actress and director have arrived at the International Space Station to film the first movie in space.

Materials Science This Is What a Solid Made of Electrons Looks Like Physicists have imaged elusive ‘Wigner crystals’ for the first time By Davide Castelvecchi,Nature magazine

Planetary Science Physics Nobel Honors Breakthroughs in Understanding Climate and Other Complex Systems Half the award goes to Giorgio Parisi for his studies of disorder and chaos. The remainder is shared between Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann for modeling global warming and climate variability By Lee Billings,Nikk Ogasa

Astronomy NASA Won't Rename the James Webb Space Telescope--and Astronomers Are Angry The agency found no evidence that the flagship observatory’s namesake was involved in anti-LGBT+ activities, but some say that Webb bears responsibility By Alexandra Witze,Nature magazine

Space Exploration Russian Crew Arrives at Space Station for a Historic Film Shoot After a tense manual docking by a professional cosmonaut, the Soyuz spacecraft’s other occupants—an actress and a director—are set to make a first-of-its-kind movie in orbit By Tereza Pultarova,SPACE.com

Planetary Science NASA's Perseverance Rover Finds Signs of Epic Ancient Floods on Mars New results from the mission reveal that its landing site of Jezero Crater has a surprisingly dynamic and complex hydrologic history By Jonathan O'Callaghan

Quantum Physics Why the Physics Nobel Honored Climate Science and Complex Systems The prestigious award finally recognizes work that helped scientists understand climate change and, more broadly, find order in disorder By Daniel Garisto

Space Exploration Mercury Dazzles in New Close-up from BepiColombo Mission The European and Japanese spacecraft performed the first of six slingshot maneuvers around the planet. It will ultimately insert two probes into orbit in 2025 By Davide Castelvecchi,Nature magazine

FROM THE STORE Scientific American Space & Physics, Volume 4, Issue 5

QUOTE OF THE DAY "It was extremely emotional for everyone, from sadness to happiness. We're very proud of you." Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, to actress Yulia Peresild on the International Space Station

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FROM THE ARCHIVE 100 Years of General Relativity: Scientific American Special Issue By The Editors | September 2015

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