Sometimes the simplest things hold the key to understanding complex effects. It turns out that a humble metal pull-chain-just like those used on ceiling fans-can be a pretty good model for complex ...

IT was reported earlier that long-chain polymers could form single crystals in which the molecules have a regularly folded configuration 1,2. Polyethylene in particular can have a paraffin-like ...

Rule mapping The researchers' algorithm encodes the rules of polymer conformations (bottom layer) onto quantum spins in an annealer (upper layers). (Courtesy: Cristian Micheletti) The sheer length and ...