Half Metal, Full Spin

Spin injection from a half-metal at finite temperatures

Spin injection from a half-metallic electrode in the presence of thermal spin disorder is analyzed using a combination of random matrix theory, spin-diffusion theory, and explicit simulations for the tight-binding s-d model. It is shown that efficient spin injection from a half-metal is possible as long as the effective resistance of the normal metal does not exceed a characteristic value, whic...

Half empty or half full?

Half full or half empty VATS?

Cardiothoracic Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. Tom Treasure is responsible to the society for the collection and collation of these data and has a mandate from the society’s annual general meeting of its members to disseminate information based on the data. Contributors: AS, TT, and JvdM were responsible for study concept and design. TT and AS were responsible for acquisition of the data...

Synaptic Vesicles: Half Full or Half Empty?

The regulation of quantal size through pre- rather than postsynaptic mechanisms has recently received considerable attention as a potential mechanism for plasticity. Vesicular transporters catalyze the filling of synaptic vesicles with transmitter and are thus potential substrates for such presynaptic regulation. In this issue of Neuron, Prado et al. pursue this line of investigation and show t...

Ecological character displacement: glass half full or half empty?

Ecological character displacement (ECD), the evolutionary divergence of competing species, has oscillated wildly in scientific opinion. Initially thought to play a central role in community assembly and adaptive radiation, ECD recovered from a 1980s nadir to present-day prominence on the strength of many case studies compiled in several influential reviews. However, we reviewed recent studies a...