The arrival of the transistor revolutionized the electronics industry, allowing devices to be smaller, faster and more robust. However, the abandonment of vacuum tubes for solid-state devices also marked the move from ‘clean’ ballistic to ‘messy’ diffusive conduction. Subsequent...

Fractals are patterns that repeat at many magnifications.  These intricate patterns are found throughout nature, ranging from clouds, rivers and lightning through to our brains, blood vessels and lungs.  Due to their prevalence in nature and their growing impact on technology, fractals have assumed...

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The combination of molecular self-assembly and electron beam lithography is very useful to build supramolecular nanostructures. Our starting points are aromatic self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) that are modified by electrons. In nitrobiphenyl-SAMs, the impinging electrons dehydrogenate and cross-link...

I will describe a method for levitating micron-sized few layer graphene flakes in a quadrupole ion trap. Starting from a liquid suspension containing graphene, charged flakes are injected into the trap using the electrospray ionization technique and are probed optically. At micro-torr pressures,...

Computational models are increasingly at the center of public discourse on topics ranging from investment strategies to climate change. How can we help our students understand the basic structure, strengths, and limitations of such models? Computational models in introductory physics are not complex...