Eutectic systems have shaped mankind for millennia — bronze, solder, casting alloys — and yet, for all their industrial pedigree, the nanoscale mechanics of how they actually melt has remained stubbornly out of reach. Experimental resolution simply could not keep up with the physics. A new preprint from our group closes that gap, using in … Continue reading The nanoscale secrets of melting in eutectic systems
As the world accelerates its transition to electric vehicles and renewable energy, the pressure to recycle lithium-ion batteries efficiently has never been greater. At the heart of most recycling processes sits a fine black powder called black mass — a mixture of cathode and anode materials, binder residues, and metallic fragments recovered from spent batteries. … Continue reading Battery waste is worth billions!
A Chinese research team at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics has announced what could prove to be a remarkable leap forward in scientific instrumentation: an intelligent transmission electron microscope (TEM) capable of fully autonomous operation. The device, named Yuanyan-1, reportedly harnesses artificial intelligence to overcome longstanding limitations of conventional TEMs, which have depended on … Continue reading When electron microscopes think for themselves: has China just changed science forever?
I am deeply humbled and grateful to the American Chemical Society and the editors of ACS Materials Au for selecting me as part of the 2025 class of Rising Stars in Materials Science. This recognition came as a wonderful surprise, and I am truly thankful to be included alongside 13 other outstanding early-career researchers from … Continue reading Grateful to be among the 2025 Rising Stars in Materials Science
There are scientists whose work is best understood through instruments, and there are those whose work is best understood through time. Gerhard Sperl – who passed away on Easter Monday, 5 April 2021, at the age of 84 — belonged firmly to the second kind, though he was thoroughly at home with the first. Born … Continue reading Prof. Gerhard Sperl: a lifetime connecting metallurgy’s past and present
Problems in academic/scientific environments are not dirt to be swept under the carpet. Scientists in formation — especially young ones like masters and doctoral students — are human beings, and deserve to be treated as such. Fairly. Integrity cannot be taught by those who do not practise it. A problem buried under the carpet is … Continue reading Leadership is not a carpet…
The sustainability debate in materials science sometimes asks the wrong questions. How do we recycle more aluminium & steel? These are legitimate — but they treat recyclability/sustainability as an afterthought, forcing materials never designed for circularity back into something useful at considerable cost and energy penalty: facts that Europe, specially, cannot anymore afford. The presence … Continue reading New recycling processes or new materials?
"I choose my friends not by their skin or other archetype, but by the pupil.They have to have questioning shine and unsettled tone.I'm not interested in the good spirits or the ones with bad habits.I'll stick with the ones that are made of me being crazy and blessed.From them, I don't want an answer, I … Continue reading Crazy & Saints – Oscar Wilde
Throughout history, humanity has poured its greatest minds, resources, and energy into two competing endeavours — the pursuit of knowledge, and the pursuit of conflict. The choice between them could not be more consequential. War destroys. It consumes lives, erases cultures, and sets civilisations back by generations. Whatever political aims it serves, its legacy is … Continue reading An Humanist Perspective in 2026
We are pleased to share our latest preprint, now available on arXiv: Unlocking nanoscale microstructural detail in aluminium alloys through differential phase contrast segmentation in STEM (arXiv:2603.11643). In this work, we show how differential phase contrast (DPC) imaging in scanning transmission electron microscopy can be turned into a powerful, quantitative tool for characterising the microstructures … Continue reading New Preprint: Unlocking Nanoscale Detail in Aluminium Alloys with DPC Segmentation
Materials at Extremes 