Reporting world updates to you
The ATLAS Collaboration finds evidence of Higgs-boson decays to muons and improves sensitivity to Higgs-boson decays to a Z boson and a photon. Since the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, physicists have made major strides in exploring its properties. Does that mean the subject is done and dusted?…
The research, published in the academic journal Nature, represents an essential step in quantum computing and demonstrates its potential by directly simulating fundamental interactions with Google’s quantum processor. In the future, researchers could use this approach to gain deeper insights into particle physics, quantum materials, and even the nature of…
Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, have created a novel pathway into the study of the elusive quantum states in superconducting vortices. The existence of these was flouted in the 1960s, but has remained very difficult to verify directly because those states are squeezed into energy scales…
Eating animal-sourced protein foods is not linked to a higher risk of death and may even offer protective benefits against cancer-related mortality, new research finds. The study, published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, analyzed data from nearly 16,000 adults aged 19 and older using the National Health and Nutrition…
Some artificial sweeteners, such as saccharin and acesulfame K, have a bitter aftertaste that affects consumer acceptance of reduced-calorie foods and beverages. New research in FEBS Open Bio reveals the potential of compounds that inhibit bitter taste receptors to make artificial sweeteners more palatable. Saccharin and acesulfame K are detected…
It turns out those cellulose-based thickening agents found in common foods can be digested. Researchers at the University of British Columbia have shown that our gut bacteria can feed on these large molecules — something thought to not be possible — thanks to enzymes that normally help us break down…
Dr. Dong-Soo Han’s research team at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) Semiconductor Technology Research Center, in collaboration with the research teams of Prof. Jung-Il Hong at DGIST and Prof. Kyung-Hwan Kim at Yonsei University, has developed a device principle that can utilize “spin loss,” which was previously…
Researchers have uncovered the magnetic properties and underlying mechanisms of a novel magnet using advanced optical techniques. Their study focused on an organic crystal believed to be a promising candidate for an “altermagnet”- a recently proposed third class of magnetic materials. Unlike conventional ferromagnets and antiferromagnets, altermagnets exhibit unique magnetic…
Scientists have turned a longstanding challenge in electronics — material defects — into a quantum-enhanced solution, paving the way for new-generation ultra-low-power spintronic devices. Spintronics, short for “spin electronics,” is a field of technology that aims to go beyond the limits of conventional electronics. Traditional devices rely only on the…
In the quest for energy independence, researchers have studied solar thermoelectric generators (STEGs) as a promising source of solar electricity generation. Unlike the photovoltaics currently used in most solar panels, STEGs can harness all kinds of thermal energy in addition to sunlight. The simple devices have hot and cold sides…
A new study provides fresh evidence that ancient interbreeding with archaic human species may have provided modern humans with genetic variation that helped them adapt to new environments as they dispersed across the globe. The study, published in Science, focused on a gene known as MUC19, which is involved in…
The brain controls the release of glucose in a wide range of stressful circumstances, including fasting and low blood sugar levels. However, less attention has been paid to its role in day-to-day situations. In a study published in Molecular Metabolism, University of Michigan researchers have shown that a specific population…
People recovering from heart failure should consider improving the regularity of their sleep, a study led by Oregon Health & Science University suggests. The research team found that even moderately irregular sleep doubles the risk of having another clinical event within six months, according to a study published on August…
A collaborative team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Ajou University in South Koreahas revealed that the unique fan-like propellers of Rhagovelia water striders — which allow them to glide across fast-moving streams — open and close passively, like a paintbrush, ten…
Optical microscopy is a key technique for understanding dynamic biological processes in cells, but observing these high-speed cellular dynamics accurately, at high spatial resolution, has long been a formidable task. Now, in an article published in Light: Science & Applications, researchers from The University of Osaka, together with collaborating institutions,…
The mystery at Jupiter’s heart has taken a fresh twist – as new research suggests a giant impact may not have been responsible for the formation of its core. It had been thought that a colossal collision with an early planet containing half of Jupiter’s core material could have mixed…
On Mars, the past is written in stone — but the present is written in sand. Last week, Perseverance explored inactive megaripples to learn more about the wind-driven processes that are reshaping the Martian landscape every day. After wrapping up its investigation at the contact between clay and olivine-bearing rocks…
A fast radio burst is an immense flash of radio emission that lasts for just a few milliseconds, during which it can momentarily outshine every other radio source in its galaxy. These flares can be so bright that their light can be seen from halfway across the universe, several billion…
A new discovery of how bees use their flight movements to facilitate remarkably accurate learning and recognition of complex visual patterns could mark a major change in how next-generation AI is developed, according to a University of Sheffield study. iversity of Sheffield built a digital model of a bee’s brain…
Weight-loss interventions, including gastric bypass surgery and drugs that prevent dietary fat absorption, can be invasive or have negative side effects. Now, researchers have developed edible microbeads made from green tea polyphenols, vitamin E and seaweed that, when consumed, bind to fats in the gastrointestinal tract. Preliminary results from tests…
A new study finds that a high-salt diet triggers brain inflammation that drives up blood pressure. The research, led by McGill University scientist Masha Prager-Khoutorsky in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team at McGill and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, suggests the brain may be a missing…
Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital demonstrated for the first time that the protein midkine plays a preventative role against Alzheimer’s disease. Midkine is known to accumulate in Alzheimer’s disease patients. Now, researchers have connected it with amyloid beta, a protein that accumulates in the brain, causing assemblies that…
Physicists have developed a breakthrough concept in quantum encryption that makes private communication more secure over significantly longer distances, surpassing state-of-the-art technologies. For decades, experts believed such a technology upgrade required perfect optical hardware, namely, light sources that strictly emit one light particle (photon) at a time — something extremely…
Using a small bench-top reactor, researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) have demonstrated that electrochemically loading a solid metal target with deuterium fuel can boost nuclear fusion rates. Large-scale magnetic confinement fusion — which puts plasmas under extreme temperatures and pressure — is being widely explored as a…
For years, engineers have sought better ways to build tiny, efficient lasers that can be integrated directly onto silicon chips, a key step toward faster, more capable optical communications and computing. Today’s commercial lasers are mostly made from III-V semiconductors grown on specialized substrates — a process that makes them…
Quantum computers have the potential to solve problems far beyond the reach of today’s fastest supercomputers. But today’s machines are notoriously fragile. The quantum bits, or “qubits,” that store and process information are easily disrupted by their environment, leading to errors that quickly accumulate. One of the most promising approaches…
A new study led by the University of Oxford in collaboration with Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, University of Greenwich, and the Technical University of Denmark could provide a cost-effective and sustainable solution to help tackle the devastating decline in honeybees. An engineered food supplement, designed to provide essential compounds found…
The British evolutionary biologist JBS Haldane is said to have quipped that any divine being evidently had ‘an ordinate fondness for beetles’. This bon mot conveyed an important truth: the ‘tree of life’ – the family tree of all species, living or extinct – is very uneven. In places, it…
Approximately 4.6 billion years ago our solar system formed from a huge disk of gas and dust orbiting our Sun. The asteroids we see today are some of the most complete artifacts of this formation left for us to observe, like the screws, offcuts, and other debris leftover at a…
If an extraterrestrial intelligence were looking for signs of human communications, when and where should they look? In a new study, researchers at Penn State and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California analyzed when and where human deep space transmissions would be most detectable by an observer outside our…
