The delocalized nature of chemical bonding at a catalytic metal surface.

October 29, 2026| Source: Science (New York, N.Y.)

Adsorbate bonding at metal surfaces requires hybridization of localized molecular orbitals with delocalized electronic bands of the metal; hence, the electronic wave function involved in bonding may extend far beyond the adsorption site. We revealed the consequence of this delocalization by determining the distance over which structural variations of the metal surface influence the molecule-metal bond strength. Velocity-resolved kinetics provided adsorption energies for three molecules bound at atomic steps of platinum (Pt), each exhibiting bond-strength changes of up to 0.2 electron volts as the step-step distance varied over 100 angstroms. We observed molecule-specific behavior reflecting the hybridization of molecule-specific orbitals with symmetry-selected orbital bands of the metal that respond differently to structural modifications of the solid. We discuss implications of these observations for adsorption on Pt nanoparticles.

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Historical trends show more declining than increasing species among European pollinators.

Anthropogenic global change presents a growing threat to insect pollinators. Yet, long-term, continental-scale assessments of their population trends remain limited. Here, we leveraged a curated database of over four million occurrence records, covering 88% of extant bee and hoverfly species in Europe, to assess persistence, richness, and occupancy trends over the past century. Species persistence at the European level was relatively high, with modern records available for 87% of bee and 89% of

Physical/TechNovember 3, 2026

The ABCD hypothesis.

If [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] are cardinals, then the cardinal exponentiation [Formula: see text] is the set of all functions from [Formula: see text] into [Formula: see text]. The ABCD hypothesis is the statement that for all infinite cardinals [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] if and only if [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. The Axiom of Determinacy, AD, states that every two-player infinite game on [Formula: see text] has a winning st

Physical/TechOctober 29, 2026

Chiral altermagnon in MnTe.

Altermagnetism has been recognized as a magnetic phase that bridges the properties of ferro- and antiferromagnetism. The momentum-dependent spin splitting observed in these materials reflects their distinctive symmetry characteristics, which also establish the conditions for chiral magnons to emerge. Here we provide direct experimental evidence for a chiral magnon in the altermagnetic candidate manganese telluride (MnTe) revealed by circular-dichroism resonant inelastic x-ray scattering. This mo

Physical/TechOctober 27, 2026

Extensive glacier loss in the coterminous United States.

Glaciers populate the mountain ranges of the western conterminous United States and despite their importance to alpine hydrology, their area and volume change have never been comprehensively evaluated. Our study shows that since the mid-twentieth century about one-quarter of the glaciers have disappeared and the overall area and volume are reduced by one-third. The pattern of glacier shrinkage suggests most glaciers in the conterminous United States are largely maintained by local topographic in

Physical/TechOctober 27, 2026

Scientists disrupt less but more persistently with career aging.

Disruption describes the extent to which a scientific work overturns the prior knowledge on which it builds and leads to a new line of research. A scientist's tendency to produce disruptive work has been found recently to decline over the career. However, the disruption index captures only how strongly a paper overturns prior work and ignores whether that disruption is later accepted or overturned by subsequent research. The persistent disruption (PD) framework adds this second perspective, iden