Qian Wang

A patient with schizophrenia comes in for a procedure that feels like a mild tingling in the ear. The doctor switches on a small electrical stimulator attached to the earlobe, and after a few weeks, some people find their apathy and withdrawal receding, while others see no change at all. Until now, predicting this was impossible.

A solid electrolyte is not just a crystal lattice: it’s a bustling metropolis for ions. Each act of conduction resembles a trip through the city: there are wide highways with low energy barriers, gridlocks in bottlenecks, and tricky detours where an ion can get stuck.

At the center of every atom lies a nucleus — a dense ball of protons and neutrons. These particles don't just crowd together randomly; they fill strict energy levels, much like floors in a skyscraper. When a floor is completely filled, the nucleus becomes especially stable — physicists call this a magic number.