Xiao Tang

The layered material (SnS)1.15(TaS2) resembles a stack of paper, where the sheets conduct electricity and the interlayers prevent them from sticking together. At ambient pressure, this material conducts current without resistance, making it a superconductor.

A sheet of graphene, a carbon lattice just one atom thick, under a powerful laser beam behaves like a road where a toll barrier suddenly appears. Electrons that were freely racing through the material suddenly hit a forbidden zone: an energy gap they cannot leap across. This was predicted theoretically before, but no one had ever seen it directly.

A huge pool of clear liquid is hidden deep underground. Inside, there is nothing but a pristine 'broth' that flashes with faint light when an invisible particle flies through. This is the JUNO detector—20,000 tons of liquid scintillator built to hunt for neutrinos. The main enemy of such a hunt is not darkness but its own noise.