Earth’s core could contain lots of primordial helium, experiments suggest
Helium deep with the Earth could bond with iron to form stable compounds – according to experiments done by scientists in Japan and Taiwan. The work was done by Haruki Takezawa and Kei Hirose at the...
View ArticleHow would an asteroid strike affect life on Earth?
How would the climate and the environment on our planet change if an asteroid struck? Researchers at the IBS Center for Climate Physics (ICCP) at Pusan National University in South Korea have now tried...
View ArticleMagnetically launched atoms sense motion
Researchers in France have devised a new technique in quantum sensing that uses trapped ultracold atoms to detect acceleration and rotation. They then combined their quantum sensor with a conventional,...
View ArticleQuantum behaviour in brain neurons looks theoretically possible
A new study probing quantum phenomena in neurons as they transmit messages in the brain could provide fresh insight into how our brains function. In this project, described in the Computational and...
View ArticleCO2 laser enables long-range detection of radioactive material
Researchers have demonstrated that they can remotely detect radioactive material from 10 m away using short-pulse CO2 lasers – a distance over ten times farther than achieved via previous methods....
View ArticleD-Wave Systems claims quantum advantage, but some physicists are not convinced
D-Wave Systems has used quantum annealing to do simulations of quantum magnetic phase transitions. The company claims that some of their calculations would be beyond the capabilities of the most...
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Cell sorting device could detect circulating tumour cells
Cell separation Illustration of the fabricated optimal acousto-microfluidic chip. (Courtesy: Afshin Kouhkord and Naserifar Naser) Analysing circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in the blood could help...
View ArticleQuantum computers extend lead over classical machines in random circuit sampling
Researchers in China have unveiled a 105-qubit quantum processor that can solve in minutes a quantum computation problem that would take billions of years using the world’s most powerful classical...
View ArticleNovel zinc alloys could make bone screws biodegradable
Orthopaedic implants that bear loads while bones heal, then disappear once they’re no longer needed, could become a reality thanks to a new technique for enhancing the mechanical properties of zinc...
View ArticleThe enigma of Trappist-1 b: a thick atmosphere or airless rock?
Located about 40 light years from us, the exoplanet Trappist-1 b, orbiting an ultracool dwarf star, has perplexed astronomers with its atmospheric mysteries. Recent observations made by the James Webb...
View ArticleAtomic anomaly explained without recourse to hypothetical ‘dark force’
Physicists in Germany have found an alternative explanation for an anomaly that had previously been interpreted as potential evidence for a mysterious “dark force”. Originally spotted in ytterbium...
View ArticleSterile neutrinos are a no-show (again)
New data from the NOvA experiment at Fermilab in the US contain no evidence for so-called “sterile” neutrinos, in line with results from most – though not all – other neutrino detectors to date. As...
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Electron and proton FLASH deliver similar skin-sparing in radiotherapy of mice
FLASH irradiation, an emerging cancer treatment that delivers radiation at ultrahigh dose rates, has been shown to significantly reduce acute skin toxicity in laboratory mice compared with conventional...
View ArticleBrillouin microscopy speeds up by a factor of 1000
Researchers at the EMBL in Germany have dramatically reduced the time required to create images using Brillouin microscopy, making it possible to study the viscoelastic properties of biological samples...
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Radioactive gold nanoparticles could track drug distribution in the body
Neutron-activated gold Novel activation imaging technique enables real-time visualization of gold nanoparticles in the body without the use of external tracers. (Courtesy: Nanase Koshikawa from Waseda...
View ArticleAI speeds up detection of neutron star mergers
A new artificial intelligence/machine learning method rapidly and accurately characterizes binary neutron star mergers based on the gravitational wave signature they produce. Though the method has not...
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Solar cell greenhouse accelerates plant growth
Agrivoltaics is an interdisciplinary research area that lies at the intersection of photovoltaics (PVs) and agriculture. Traditional PV systems used in agricultural settings are made from silicon...
View ArticleZwitterions make medical implants safer for patients
A new technique could reduce the risk of blood clots associated with medical implants, making them safer for patients. The technique, which was developed by researchers at the University of Sydney,...
View ArticleEpithelial cells send electrical signals, possibly to communicate
The nervous system is often considered the body’s wiring, sending electrical signals to communicate needs and hazards between different parts of the body. However, researchers at the University of...
View ArticleOperating system for quantum networks is a first
Researchers in the Netherlands, Austria, and France have created what they describe as the first operating system for networking quantum computers. Called QNodeOS, the system was developed by a team...
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