Uranium is known as the heavy metal with an intricate chemistry and diverse bonding behaviors, as well as being radioactive. Now, an international team of scientists have utilized synchrotron light at the Rossendorf Beamline (ROBL) to explore the unique properties of low-valent uranium compounds. At the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) runs four experimental stations for radiochemical experiments.

Researchers at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) developed a new open-source software package that aims to significantly streamline the study of materials using scanning tunneling microscopes (STMs). The software, named Scanbot, automates the time-consuming probe optimization and data acquisition processes essential for STM experiments, helping to accelerate 2D materials research by enabling detailed investigation after the STM tip has been automatically optimized and sharpened.

Oxford Instruments Asylum Research (Santa Barbara, Calif.) announced that its next-generation Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), Vero, has received three prestigious awards.

Imagine a camera so powerful it could take freeze-frame photographs of a moving electron—an object traveling so fast it could circle the Earth many times in a matter of a second. Researchers at the University of Arizona have developed the world’s fastest electron microscope that can do just that.

The University of Sydney’s School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering has introduced a new way to decode the atomic relationships within materials. Their new microscopy method has allowed researchers to detect tiny changes in the atomic-level architecture of crystalline materials—like advanced steels for ship hulls and custom silicon for electronics. The technique could advance our ability to understand the fundamental origins of material properties and behavior.