Our galaxy is not alone. Swirling around the Milky Way are several smaller, dwarf galaxies — the biggest of which are the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, visible in the night sky of the Southern Hemisphere. During their dance around the Milky Way over billions of years, the Magellanic Clouds’ gravity has ripped from each of them an enormous arc of gas — the Magellanic Stream. The stream helps tell the history of how the Milky Way and its closest…

The launch readiness date for the James Webb Space Telescope is moving to no earlier than Dec. 22 to allow for additional testing of the observatory, following a recent incident that occurred during Webb’s launch preparations. The incident occurred during operations at the satellite preparation facility in Kourou, French Guiana, performed under Arianespace overall responsibility. Technicians were preparing to attach Webb to the launch vehicle adapter, which is used to integrate the observatory with the upper stage of the Ariane…

To address the growing threat of cyberattacks on industrial control systems, a KAUST team including Fouzi Harrou, Wu Wang and led by Ying Sun has developed an improved method for detecting malicious intrusions. Internet-based industrial control systems are widely used to monitor and operate factories and critical infrastructure. In the past, these systems relied on expensive dedicated networks; however, moving them online has made them cheaper and easier to access. But it has also made them more vulnerable to attack,…

– thanks to a spiderweb… A team of researchers from TU Delft managed to design one of the world’s most precise microchip sensors; the device can function at room temperature – a ‘holy grail’ for quantum technologies and sensing. Combining nanotechnology and machine learning inspired by nature’s spiderwebs, they were able to make a nanomechanical sensor vibrate in extreme isolation from everyday noise. This breakthrough, published in Advanced Materials’ Rising Stars Issue, has large implications for the study of gravity…

Research team develops for the first time a light field that reflects the structure of four-dimensional space. Researchers have developed a method for structuring light in such a way that a projection from four-dimensional space is created. The results have now been published in the journal Nature Communications. Light is used for various purposes in nowadays applications. For example, data can be transmitted with light and nanoscopic structures can be created by light. To enable such applications, light must be…

Terahertz (THz, 1011~1013 Hz) related technology, with its superior spectral performance, has wide application potential in communication, security, sensing fields and so on. Its engineering applications highly depend on a variety of THz components. Recently, a collaborated team from Hefei Institutes of physical science (HFIPS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and University of Science and Technology (USTC) successfully developed a highly efficient magneto-tunable and phonon-based monochromatic THz generator with a frequency of ~0.9 THz by utilizing a 2D ferromagnetic Cr2Ge2Te6 crystal. “Benefiting from the bosonic…

Scientists at the University of Birmingham have succeeded in creating an experimental model of an elusive kind of fundamental particle called a skyrmion in a beam of light. The breakthrough provides physicists with a real system demonstrating the behaviour of skyrmions, first proposed 60 years ago by a University of Birmingham mathematical physicist, Professor Tony Skyrme. Skyrme’s idea used the structure of spheres in 4-dimensional space to guarantee the indivisible nature of a skyrmion particle in 3 dimensions.  3D particle-like…

As a kid, were you ever curious to know what lice looked like from really close by? Or even a mosquito? To do this you would definitely need to use a microscope, in order to observe all the complex structures of these insects. Invented more than 350 years ago and considered a ground breaking discovery, this instrument is now omnipresent in many fields of science. Chemists, biologists, clinicians, physicists, and even engineers rely on the capabilities of different types of…

FRM II research group develops new processing method for image data. Technology could not only improve the resolution of neutron measurements but could also reduce radiation exposure during x-ray imaging. An international research team at the Research Neutron Source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II) of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a new imaging technology. In the future this technology could not only improve the resolution of neutron measurements by many times but could also reduce radiation exposure during…

Liquids containing ions or polar molecules are ubiquitous in many applications needed for green technologies such as energy storage, electrochemistry or catalysis. When such liquids are brought to an interface such as an electrode – or even confined in a porous material –  they exhibit unexpected behavior that goes beyond the effects already known. Recent experiments have shown that the properties of the employed material, which can be insulating or metallic, strongly influence the thermodynamic and dynamic behavior of these…

… homogeneity leads to stability. Scientists from The University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science used computer simulations to study the aging mechanism that can cause an amorphous glassy material to turn into a crystal. They find that removing tiny irregularities in local densities help prevent the atomic “avalanches” that trigger ordered structure formation. This work may lead to more stable glassy materials, including for pharmaceutical applications. Glasses are highly unusual solids in that they lack an organized crystal structure….

Device can see around corners and through scattering media like fog and human tissue. Northwestern University researchers have invented a new high-resolution camera that can see the unseen — including around corners and through scattering media, such as skin, fog or potentially even the human skull. Called synthetic wavelength holography, the new method works by indirectly scattering coherent light onto hidden objects, which then scatters again and travels back to a camera. From there, an algorithm reconstructs the scattered light…

Physicists from Exeter and Zaragoza have created a theory describing how non-reciprocity can be induced at the quantum level, paving the way for non-reciprocal transport in the next generation of nanotechnology. A pair of theoretical physicists, from the University of Exeter (United Kingdom) and the University of Zaragoza (Spain), have developed a quantum theory explaining how to engineer non-reciprocal flows of quantum light and matter. The research may be important for the creation of quantum technologies which require the directional…

A team of scientists has forecast the scientific impact of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s High Latitude Wide Area Survey on critical questions in cosmology. This observation program will consist of both imaging, which reveals the locations, shapes, sizes, and colors of objects like distant galaxies, and spectroscopy, which involves measuring the intensity of light from those objects at different wavelengths, across the same enormous swath of the universe. Scientists will be able to harness the power of a…

A new technique developed in part by University of Hawaiʻi astronomer Nader Haghighipour has allowed scientists to quickly detect a transiting planet with two suns. Termed circumbinary planets, these objects orbit around a pair of stars. For years, these planets were merely the subject of science fiction, like Tatooine in Star Wars. However, thanks to NASA’s successful planet-hunting Kepler and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) missions, a team of astronomers, including Haghighipour, have found 14 such bodies so far. Kepler…

Researchers from Osaka University have improved the transfer efficiency between quantum information carriers, in a manner that’s based on well-established nanoscience and is compatible with upcoming advanced communication technologies. Information storage and transfer in the manner of simple ones and zeros—as in today’s classical computer technologies—is insufficient for quantum technologies under development. Now, researchers from Japan have fabricated a nanoantenna that will help bring quantum information networks closer to practical use. In a study recently published in Applied Physics Express,…