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A shimmering crystal gets its colorful appearance from the precise arrangement of its atoms in space. In 2012, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek proposed that a similar kind of order could exist not in space, but in time. He suggested that certain quantum systems could organize themselves into repeating patterns…
Light plays a central role in modern technology, powering everything from televisions and satellites to the fiber optic cables that carry internet data across the globe. Now, physicists at Stanford have developed a way to push light even further. They created a compact optical amplifier, about the size of a…
A group of professional and amateur astronomers in Japan has uncovered evidence that a small, distant object in the outer Solar System is surrounded by a thin atmosphere. The finding is surprising because the object is far too small to hold onto gas for long, raising new questions about how…
A biomaterial designed to travel through the bloodstream could offer a less invasive way to calm inflammation and help injured tissue repair itself. In animal studies, the injectable material improved tissue damage caused by heart attacks in both rodents and large animals. Early proof of concept experiments also suggested that…
Glucagonlike peptide-1 (GLP-1) medications are now a major part of the national conversation about weight loss. From celebrity stories to everyday discussions, drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy are often described as breakthroughs that can help people shed significant weight. However, new research from Rice University suggests the social experience…
Glucagonlike peptide-1 (GLP-1) medications are now a major part of the national conversation about weight loss. From celebrity stories to everyday discussions, drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy are often described as breakthroughs that can help people shed significant weight. However, new research from Rice University suggests the social experience…
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive brain disorder and a leading cause of dementia worldwide. Despite years of research, there is still no cure. New antibody-based treatments that target amyloid β (Aβ) have recently emerged, but their benefits have been modest. These therapies can also be expensive and may trigger…
Climate change is dramatically reshaping how Greenland’s ice sheet melts, according to a new study led by the University of Barcelona and published in Nature Communications. Researchers found that extreme melting events are now happening more often, covering larger areas, and producing significantly more meltwater than in the past. Since…
Scientists are developing a new way to tackle two major global problems at once: plastic pollution and the demand for clean energy. By using sunlight, they are finding ways to turn discarded plastic into useful fuels. A recent study led by Adelaide University PhD candidate Xiao Lu examines how solar-powered…
Materials known as relaxor ferroelectrics have played an important role for decades in technologies such as ultrasound imaging, microphones, and sonar. Their unusual performance comes from the way atoms are arranged inside them. However, that internal structure has been extremely difficult to measure directly, leaving scientists to rely on incomplete…
For more than 500 years, Leonardo da Vinci has been admired as a brilliant artist, inventor, and thinker whose talents seemed far ahead of his time. Now, an ambitious international effort known as the Leonardo DNA Project is bringing scientists closer than ever to uncovering the biological roots of his…
After NASA’s Artemis II mission ended with a successful splashdown, engineers began closely reviewing data from across the mission. Their goal is to evaluate how major systems performed, including the Orion spacecraft, the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, and ground infrastructure at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Early findings suggest…
On April 17, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California sent a command to turn off an instrument on Voyager 1 known as the Low-energy Charged Particles experiment, or LECP. The spacecraft, powered by a nuclear energy source, is gradually losing power, and shutting down this instrument…
Creatine is widely known as a go to supplement for athletes and gym enthusiasts, often linked to improved strength and performance. But beyond the fitness world, scientists have been taking a closer look at how this compound affects both the body and the brain. From helping cells produce energy to…
Blood tests that track how certain white blood cells age may help identify depression by focusing on emotional and cognitive symptoms rather than physical ones. The research, published in The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, moves scientists closer to finding a reliable biological marker for…
Medications used to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity, including well-known brands like Ozempic and Wegovy, may offer unexpected mental health benefits. These drugs belong to a class called GLP-1 receptor agonists, and a large new study found they are linked to fewer psychiatric hospital visits and less time off…
A major Cochrane review has found that drugs designed to target amyloid beta proteins in the brain are unlikely to provide meaningful benefits for patients. At the same time, these treatments appear to increase the risk of brain swelling and bleeding. Amyloid beta is a protein that builds up in…
Scientists have uncovered evidence that evolution has relied on the same genetic “cheat sheet” for more than 120 million years, raising the possibility that life on Earth may be more predictable than once believed. An international group of researchers led by the University of York and the Wellcome Sanger Institute…
Researchers at APC Microbiome Ireland, a leading research center at University College Cork, have taken a major step toward understanding how coffee benefits the body. For the first time, scientists have closely examined how coffee interacts with the gut-brain axis, the communication network that links the digestive system and the…
A growing body of research suggests that modern humans did not originate from a single location, but instead emerged through interactions among groups spread across different regions of Africa. Traditionally, scientists have explained where these populations lived based mainly on climate. New findings now point to another powerful influence: disease,…
Infrasound refers to extremely low-frequency sound waves, below 20 Hertz (Hz), which are generally beyond the range of human hearing. These vibrations can arise from natural events such as storms, as well as human-made sources like traffic and industrial equipment. In the animal world, some species rely on infrasound to…
Quantum mechanics is famous for its strange and often counterintuitive ideas. At very small scales, particles do not behave like everyday objects. Instead, they can exist in multiple states at once, a concept known as superposition. Physicists describe this behavior using a mathematical object called a wavefunction. Yet this picture…
The hippocampus plays a central role in how we form memories and navigate space. It helps convert short-term experiences into long-term memories, allowing us to store and build on what we learn. Scientists led by Magdalena Walz Professor for Life Sciences Peter Jonas at the Institute of Science and Technology…
In a new study, SFI Professor David Wolpert, SFI Fractal Faculty member Carlo Rovelli, and physicist Jordan Scharnhorst take a fresh look at a famous and unsettling idea in physics and cosmology known as the “Boltzmann brain” hypothesis. This concept suggests that our memories, perceptions, and observations might not reflect…
Have you ever felt your smartphone heat up after heavy use or watched the battery drop at the worst possible moment? A big reason is the electronic circuits and memory inside the device, which consume energy and release heat as they operate. At the most basic level, computer memory stores…
Astronomers at the University of Warwick have confirmed more than 100 exoplanets, including 31 newly identified worlds, using a new artificial intelligence system. The team applied this tool to data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a mission that scans the sky for slight dips in starlight that occur…
Scientists have discovered a tropical insect that can shift its color from bright hot pink to green in about two weeks. Researchers believe this dramatic transformation helps it resemble the young leaves of rainforest plants, which often start out pink before turning green. The discovery, reported this week in the…
Scientists have uncovered new clues about how crabs developed their distinctive sideways movement. A new study, released as a Reviewed Preprint in eLife, brings together the largest dataset yet on how crabs move. By comparing many species, the researchers traced this unusual walking style back to a shared ancestor that…
A mechanical artwork first imagined in 1775 to recreate the eruption of Italy’s Mount Vesuvius has been brought to life for the first time, 250 years after it was conceived. The revival was made possible through modern technology and the creativity of two engineering students at the University of Melbourne.…
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have uncovered a built in process that can remove existing amyloid plaques from the brains of mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease while also helping preserve memory and thinking ability. The discovery centers on astrocytes, star shaped support cells in the brain, which can be…
