Nanostructured layers boast countless potential properties—but how can the most suitable one be identified without any long-term experiments? A team from the Materials Discovery Department at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) has ventured a shortcut: using a machine learning algorithm, the researchers were able to reliably predict the properties of such a layer. Their report was published in the new journal Communications Materials from 26 March 2020.