Zhen Zhu

Testing molecules for solar cells is like trying a new sauce in a restaurant where the chef changes every five minutes. Disturbances (humidity, substrate cleanliness, deposition method) hide the true effect. To extract real benefit from noisy data, scientists created a 'smart sieve'—an algorithm that sifts through the results and leaves only reliable improvements.

A superconductor is like a city where electric current flows without traffic lights or jams. But the crystal UTe2 has a quirk: its surface follows different rules than its interior. On the tellurium atoms sitting at the surface, electrons found a 'loophole'—states with energies that are forbidden inside the crystal.