Phase separation in otherwise chemically homogenous, strongly correlated electron systems is a crucial parameter, leading to fascinating tunable functional properties, such as high-Tc superconductivity in cuprates and giant magnetoresistance in manganites.

A new distinction for FORTH comes from the European Research Council (ERC) which approved the research program submitted by Dr. Andreas Zezas, researcher of the Astrophysics Group at the Institute of Electronic Structure and LASER (IESL) of FORTH. The approved program is entitled: "Accreting binary populations in Nearby Galaxies: Observations and Simulations" (A-BINGOS), and was submitted in the first ERC "Consolidator Grants" call. The goal of the ERC Consolidator Grants is to "enable already independent excellent researchers to consolidate their own research teams and to develop their most innovative ideas". In this call were approved 312 programs out of 3637 submitted proposals (a success rate of 8.5%). The program A-BINGOS is one of the only 2 programs awarded to Greek Institutions, and the first one to be awarded to a Greek Astrophysicist.

Many animals – such as crabs, octopuses and salamanders – have the ability to regenerate parts of their body that are severely injured or amputated. Just as we are able to replace a broken part of our car, these animals can replace lost limbs by new ones with the same form and function. Contrary to cars, animals do not possess spare parts and cannot suspend their functions in order to be repaired; they generate their new limbs in situ, while going about in their normal lives.

Controlling the propagation of high-intensity light beams as they travel through transparent media is a challenging task, but IESL scientists have now shown that a relatively new type of light beam called a ring-Airy beam can self-focus into intense light bullets that propagate over extended distances. These highly focused, high-intensity ring-Airy beam light bullets offer a very unique level of control that cannot be achieved with equivalent Gaussian beams, making them ideal for a variety of optical applications ranging from precision materials processing and nanosurgery to attosecond pulse drivers.

Thousands of proteins are produced inside our cells. More than a third of these proteins can fulfill their function only after migrating to the outside of the cell, becoming anchored to the cell membrane or being targeted to specific subcellular compartments. How cells regulate trafficking of their proteins is a fundamental problem in biology andis essential for life. Examples of migrating proteins are insulin (whose absence leads to diabetes), antibodies (that combat infections), membrane channels (essential amongst other for neuronal cell function) and toxin-proteins secreted by pathogenic microorganisms.