How stars form in galaxies remains a major open question in astrophysics. A new UZH study sheds new light on this topic with the help of a data-driven re-analysis of observational measurements. The star-formation activity of typical, nearby galaxies is found to scale proportionally with the amount of gas present in these galaxies. This points to the net gas supply from cosmic distances as the main driver of galactic star formation. Stars are born in dense clouds of molecular hydrogen…

New device detects which hand gesture you want to make The device, which combines wearable biosensors with artificial intelligence, could be used to control prosthetics or interact with electronic devices. Imagine typing on a computer without a keyboard, playing a video game without a controller or driving a car without a wheel. That’s one of the goals of a new device developed by engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, that can recognize hand gestures based on electrical signals detected…

As Chile and Argentina witnessed the total solar eclipse on Dec. 14, 2020, unbeknownst to skywatchers, a little tiny speck was flying past the Sun — a recently discovered comet. This comet was first spotted in satellite data by Thai amateur astronomer Worachate Boonplod on the NASA-funded Sungrazer Project — a citizen science project that invites anyone to search for and discover new comets in images from the joint European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or…

Researchers from the National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester and the University of Pennsylvania identify ultra-fast gas flows through atomic-scale apertures in 2D membrane and validate a century-old equation of fluid dynamics. Researchers from the National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester and the University of Pennsylvania have identified ultra-fast gas flows through the tiniest holes in one-atom-thin membranes, in a study published in Science Advances. The work – alongside another study from Penn on the creation…

Skyrmions are small magnetic objects that could revolutionize the data storage industry and also enable new computer architectures. However, before they can be utilized in such applications, there are still a number of challenges that need to be overcome. A team of Empa researchers has now succeeded for the first time in producing a tunable multilayer system in which two different types of skyrmions – the future bits for “0” and “1” – can exist at room temperature, as they…

An international team from Germany, Sweden, Russia and the USA, led by scientists from European XFEL, has published the results of an experiment that could provide a blueprint for the analysis of transitions states in atoms and molecules. This would open up new opportunities to gain insights into important processes such as photocatalysis, elementary steps in photosynthesis and radiation damage. It was the very first user experiment carried out at European XFEL’s Small Quantum System (SQS) instrument. The scientists used…

New simulations carried out in part on the ATERUI II supercomputer in Japan have found that the reason ions exist at higher temperatures than electrons in space plasma is because they are better able to absorb energy from compressive turbulent fluctuations in the plasma. These finding have important implications for understanding observations of various astronomical objects such as the images of the accretion disk and shadow of the M87 supermassive black hole captured by the Event Horizon Telescope. In addition…

Large droplets favoring creation of smaller ones Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS) reported their new findings on how precipitating large raindrops, ice particles can favor growth of aerosols to produce new cloud condensation nuclei or ice nucleating particles. The results were recently published in the Geophysical Research Letters. Atmospheric clouds play a crucial role in defining the local weather and global climate. When cloud aerosols grow to a certain size by collecting water, scientists…

The GERmanium Detector Array (GERDA) experiment at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) of INFN, Italy, has reported its final results on the search for the neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay of germanium-76 in the recent issue of Physical Review Letters [1]. No signal has been observed, but all goals of the final phase of the experiment have been achieved. According to the final result of GERDA, the lower limit for the half-life of the neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) of…

Combining various observational data of neutron-star collisions with nuclear-physics calculations, Tim Dietrich, Astrophysics Professor at the University of Potsdam, and an international science team made a breakthrough in constraining the size of a typical neutron star and in measuring the expansion rate of our Universe, determined by the Hubble constant. Their results have now been published in the high-ranking journal Science. In modern astrophysics, scientists combine different types of signals from space, in particular light, cosmic particles, and gravitational waves,…

Ultra-bright photon source brings scalable quantum photonics within reach. Super-fast quantum computers and communication devices could revolutionize countless aspects of our lives — but first, researchers need a fast, efficient source of the entangled pairs of photons such systems use to transmit and manipulate information. Researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology have done just that, not only creating a chip-based photon source 100 times more efficient that previously possible, but bringing massive quantum device integration within reach. “It’s long been…

JILA physicists have boosted the signal power of their atomic “tweezer clock” and measured its performance in part for the first time, demonstrating high stability close to the best of the latest generation of atomic clocks. The unusual clock, which uses laser tweezers to trap, control and isolate atoms, offers unique possibilities for enhancing clock performance using the tricks of quantum physics as well as future applications in quantum information processing, quantum simulation, and measurement science. Described in a Nature…

Astrophysicists led by the University of Bonn have for the first time observed a gas filament with a length of 50 million light years. Its structure is strikingly similar to the predictions of computer simulations. The observation therefore also confirms our ideas about the origin and evolution of our universe. The results are published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. More than half of the matter in our universe has so far remained hidden from us. However, astrophysicists had a…

The National Research Foundation, through its national facility the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), and the Max Planck Gesellschaft (MPG) welcome the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) as an additional partner on the MeerKAT extension project (MeerKAT+). The MeerKAT+ extension founded by SARAO and MPG will increase both, sensitivity and spatial resolution of the existing MeerKAT telescope array and thus provide a powerful instrument to study the formation and evolution of galaxies throughout the history of the universe. MeerKAT+…

14 partners from 5 nations begin research in EU-project COALA | 5.7 million Euro grant | Focus: Ethics guidelines for applied Artificial Intelligence Making the right information immediately available at the workplace without needing to look for it and getting help quickly even for complex problems – in the future, an intelligent voice assistant will support people in manufacturing. The system relies on artificial intelligence and will enable the exchange of knowledge between employees. 14 partners from 5 countries are…

CSL’s Systems and Networking Research Group (SyNRG) is defining a new sub-area of mobile technology that they call “earable computing.” The team believes that earphones will be the next significant milestone in wearable devices, and that new hardware, software, and apps will all run on this platform. “The leap from today’s earphones to ‘earables’ would mimic the transformation that we had seen from basic phones to smartphones,” said Romit Roy Choudhury, professor in electrical and computer engineering (ECE). “Today’s smartphones…