Month: May 2024

Over the last two years, scientists have used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (also called Webb or JWST) to explore what astronomers refer to as Cosmic Dawn — the period in the first few hundred million years after the big bang where…

Joint research led by Michiko Fujii of the University of Tokyo demonstrated a possible formation mechanism of intermediate-mass black holes in globular clusters, star clusters that could contain tens of thousands or even millions of tightly packed stars. The first ever star-by-star…

Quantum computers hold the promise of being able to quickly solve extremely complex problems that might take the world’s most powerful supercomputer decades to crack. But achieving that performance involves building a system with millions of interconnected building blocks called qubits. Making…

Joint research led by Yutaro Shuto, Ryoya Nakagawa, and Osamu Nureki of the University of Tokyo determined the spatial structure of various processes of a novel gene-editing tool called “prime editor.” Functional analysis based on these structures also revealed how a “prime…

Researchers at the School of Engineering of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have developed a sustainable and controllable strategy to manipulate interfacial heat transfer, paving the way for improving the performance of eco-friendly cooling in various applications such…

A study by researchers from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has found that Singaporeans are open to ride air taxis, which are small autonomous aircraft that carry passengers over short distances. Through a study of 1,002 participants, the NTU Singapore team…

Many of today’s quantum devices rely on collections of qubits, also called spins. These quantum bits have only two energy levels, the ‘0’ and the ‘1’. However, spins in real devices also interact with light and vibrations known as bosons, greatly complicating…

Boilers are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. In a recent study, researchers from Japan and Poland developed a method to convert CO2 emissions from small boilers into methane, which makes use of an optimized reactor design that evenly distributes the…

Researchers have developed a new technique to view living mammalian cells. The team used a powerful laser, called a soft X-ray free electron laser, to emit ultrafast pulses of illumination at the speed of femtoseconds, or quadrillionths of a second. With this…

Carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas, singlehandedly responsible for 78% of the change in energy balance in Earth’s atmosphere between 1990 and 2022. A byproduct of burning fossil fuels, carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere from car exhaust and coal-fired power plants. Even…

Undergoing surgery is seldom a pleasant experience, and it can sometimes be highly invasive. Surgical procedures have evolved steadily over the centuries, growing with the knowledge of anatomy and biology. Innovative methods have also been bolstered with new tools, and a growth…

Imagine if your dead laptop or phone could charge in a minute or if an electric car could be fully powered in 10 minutes. While not possible yet, new research by a team of CU Boulder scientists could potentially lead to such…

Nuclear physicists have long been working to reveal how the proton gets its spin. Now, a new method that combines experimental data with state-of-the-art calculations has revealed a more detailed picture of spin contributions from the very glue that holds protons together.…

Noise-canceling headphones have gotten very good at creating an auditory blank slate. But allowing certain sounds from a wearer’s environment through the erasure still challenges researchers. The latest edition of Apple’s AirPods Pro, for instance, automatically adjusts sound levels for wearers —…

Lighting a gas grill, getting an ultrasound, using an ultrasonic toothbrush — these actions involve the use of materials that can translate an electric voltage into a change in shape and vice versa. Known as piezoelectricity, the ability to trade between mechanical…

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, University of Copenhagen researchers have become the first to see the formation of three of the earliest galaxies in the universe, more than 13 billion years ago. The sensational discovery contributes important knowledge about the universe…

Astronomers at MIT, NASA, and elsewhere have a new way to measure how fast a black hole spins, by using the wobbly aftermath from its stellar feasting. The method takes advantage of a black hole tidal disruption event — a blazingly bright…

Researchers from the University of Cambridge have developed a method to produce very low emission concrete at scale — an innovation that could be transformative in the transition to net zero. The method, which the researchers say is “an absolute miracle,” uses…

University of Copenhagen astrophysicists help explain a mysterious phenomenon, whereby stars suddenly vanish from the night sky. Their study of an unusual binary star system has resulted in convincing evidence that massive stars can completely collapse and become black holes without a…

Researchers at the University of Bern have for the first time been able to pin down a prehistoric settlement of early farmers in northern Greece dating back more than 7,000 years to the year. For this they combined annual growth ring measurements…