A team led by UChicago Pritzker Molecular Engineering has discovered materials that defy convention, shrinking when heated and expanding under pressure, marking a breakthrough in fundamental science. What expands when crushed, shrinks when heated, and could both transform scientists’ fundamental
Category: physics
In a physics first, a team including scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has created a way to make beams of neutrons travel in curves. These Airy beams (named for English scientist George Airy), which the team created using a custom-built device, could enhance neutrons’ ability to reveal useful information about materials ranging from pharmaceuticals to perfumes to pesticides—in part because the beams can bend around obstacles.
“We’ve known about these strange, self-steering wave patterns for a while, but until now, no one had ever made them with neutrons,” said NIST’s Michael Huber, one of the paper’s authors. “This opens up a whole new way to control neutron beams, which could help us see inside materials or explore some big questions in physics.”
A paper announcing the findings appears in Physical Review Letters.
Researchers from the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw (IIMCB) have described a new mechanism that improves the efficiency of mRNA-based therapies. The research findings could facilitate the development of novel therapeutics against cancers and infectious diseases.
The scientific experiments were carried out at IIMCB, but important contributions also came from collaborators at the Faculty of Physics and Faculty of Biology of the University of Warsaw, the Medical University of Warsaw, and the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The study by the Polish researchers has just been published in Nature.
“mRNA vaccines played a key role in controlling the spread of the pandemic. However, mRNA itself is an exceptionally unstable molecule. This does not affect the safety of the therapy but limits its effectiveness—for example, by shortening the duration of action. A particularly important role in mRNA stability is played by its so-called poly(A) tail. In our research, we examined these limitations,” says Prof. Andrzej Dziembowski from the Laboratory of RNA Biology—ERA Chairs Group at the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw, one of the lead authors of the study.
IN A NUTSHELL 🌌 Kokoro Hosogi, an undergraduate student, contributed to a groundbreaking study published in Nature. 🔭 The research utilized observations from the XRISM telescope to explore the dynamics of intergalactic gas. 💫 Discovery revealed the Centaurus cluster gas exhibits a wave-like motion, challenging existing models. 🎓 Hosogi’s involvement highlights the essential role of.
A team of researchers has engineered a groundbreaking optical device that mimics the physics of black holes and their mysterious counterparts, white holes.
These “optical analogs” use a principle called coherent perfect absorption to either absorb or reflect light depending on its polarization, much like how black holes trap matter and white holes hypothetically expel it. Their success opens new doors not only for studying far-off cosmic phenomena in a lab setting but also for developing advanced technologies like energy conversion systems and stealth materials.
From cosmic phenomena to lab devices.
A pair of physicists at Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, in Argentina, have created a computer simulation of the famed Antikythera Mechanism and in so doing have found that manufacturing inaccuracies may have caused the device to jam so often it would have been very nearly unusable—if it was in the condition it is now. Esteban Szigety and Gustavo Arenas have posted a paper on the arXiv preprint server describing the factors that went into their simulation and what it showed.
In 1901, divers looking for sponges off the coast of the Greek island, Antikythera, discovered a mechanical device among the ruins of a sunken ship. The mysterious device was dated to the late second or early first century BCE, and from that time on there has been much debate in the scientific community regarding its purpose.
Some markings on the device suggest it could be used to track time and astronomical events and even predict some others, such as the arrival of a comet, courtesy of its intricate gears and pointing indicators, by turning its hand crank. Since only one of the devices has ever been found, some have suggested it had an otherworldly origin.
Scientists apply principles of math and physics to unravel the mystery of how the endoplasmic reticulum, an organelle vital to cellular life, constantly reshapes and reorganizes itself. As a second-year Ph.D. student and physicist, Zuben Scott hadn’t thought much about the endoplasmic reticulum s
Scientists in Korea achieved the first experimental realization of bound states in the continuum in a single resonator, opening doors to ultra-efficient wave control for future tech. A research team from POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology) and Jeonbuk National University has ach
Earth rotates, the Sun rotates, the Milky Way rotates – and a new model suggests the entire Universe could be rotating. If confirmed, it could ease a significant tension in cosmology.
The Universe is expanding, but exactly how fast is a contentious question. Two different methods of measurement return two very different speeds – and as the measurements become more precise, each becomes more certain. This discrepancy is known as the Hubble tension, and it’s reaching crisis levels in physics.
So for a new study, physicists in Hungary and the US added a small rotation to a model of the Universe – and this mathematical massage seemed to quickly ease the tension.
A paper published in 2024 theorizes that time may have existed before the Big Bang, but we’re still not entirely sure.