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Decoding the Origins of Mysterious Radiation Phenomena

Could black holes help explain high-energy cosmic radiation? The universe is full of different types of radiation and particles that can be observed here on Earth. This includes photons across the entire range of the electromagnetic spectrum, from the lowest radio frequencies all the way to the highest-energy gamma rays. It also includes other particles such as neutrinos and cosmic rays, which race through the universe at close to the speed of light. Curiously, “cosmic rays” are not actually rays…

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From left, Utah State University researchers Emily Calhoun, doctoral student, and Norah Saarman, assistant professor in the Department of Biology and USU Ecology Center, retrieve mosquito specimens from a lab freezer. Saarman is the recipient of a grant from the American Mosquito Association Research Fund to aid her efforts in developing AI-based species identification tools to mitigate the spread of mosquito-borne diseases. Credit: M. Muffoletto, USU
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AI-Driven Insights into Mosquito Disease Vectors

Norah Saarman receives American Mosquito Control Association Research Fund grant to develop improved species identification method Morphology is the study of the form and structure of organisms, including their physical characteristics such as shape, size and arrangement of parts. Morphology is key to taxonomy, the science of classifying organisms, as scientists use morphology to identify and study species, as well as to explore evolutionary processes. Identifying species is challenging — even with large animals and plants, says Utah State University…

Marcia O’Malley, the Thomas Michael Panos Family Professor in Engineering and professor and chair of mechanical engineering at Rice University. Credit: Rice University.
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Exploring the Future of Wearable Haptic Technology

From virtual reality to rehabilitation and communication, haptic technology has revolutionized the way humans interact with the digital world. While early haptic devices focused on single-sensory cues like vibration-based notifications, modern advancements have paved the way for multisensory haptic devices that integrate various forms of touch-based feedback, including vibration, skin stretch, pressure and temperature. Recently, a team of experts, including Rice University’s Marcia O’Malley and Daniel Preston, graduate student Joshua Fleck, alumni Zane Zook ’23 and Janelle Clark ’22 and other collaborators, published…

An artist's concept of NASA's Parker Solar Probe. Credit: NASA
Physics & Astronomy

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Team Wins 2024 Collier Trophy

The innovative team of engineers and scientists from NASA, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, and more than 40 other partner organizations across the country that created the Parker Solar Probe mission has been awarded the 2024 Robert J. Collier Trophy by the National Aeronautic Association (NAA). This annual award recognizes the most exceptional achievement in aeronautics and astronautics in America with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of air or space vehicles in the previous year….

A new type of quantum computer studies the dance of elementary particles. Image Credit: Harald Ritsch
Physics & Astronomy

New Quantum Computer Analyzes Elementary Particle Dance

The standard model of particle physics is our best theory of the elementary particles and forces that make up our world: particles and antiparticles, such as electrons and positrons, are described as quantum fields. They interact through other force-fields, such as the electromagnetic force that binds charged particles. To understand the behaviour of these quantum fields and with that our universe, researchers perform complex computer simulations of quantum field theories. Unfortunately, many of these calculations are too complicated for even…

An algorithm that learned from tens of thousands of nutrition prescriptions for premature babies could reduce medical errors and better identify what nutrients the smallest patients need. Image Credit: Emily Moskal/Stanford Medicine
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AI Enhances IV Nutrition Delivery for Preemies, Stanford Study

AI-enhanced IV nutrition for preemies Artificial intelligence can improve intravenous nutrition for premature babies, a Stanford Medicine study has shown. The study, which will publish March 25 in Nature Medicine, is among the first to demonstrate how an AI algorithm can enable doctors to make better clinical decisions for sick newborns. The algorithm uses information in preemies’ electronic medical records to predict which nutrients they need and in what quantities. The AI tool was trained on data from almost 80,000…

black hole galaxy. Image by markusgann, Envato
Physics & Astronomy

Black Holes: A Surprising Source for Nurturing Life

A new study co-led by Dartmouth researchers shows how radiation from black holes could have a nurturing effect on life. At the center of most large galaxies, including our own Milky Way, sits a supermassive black hole. Interstellar gas periodically falls into the orbit of these bottomless pits, switching the black hole into active galactic nucleus (AGN)-mode, blasting high-energy radiation across the galaxy. It’s not an environment you’d expect a plant or animal to thrive in. But in a surprising…

Students in the the Laboratory for Extreme Mechanics & Additive Manufacturing. (photo by Safa Jinje / University of Toronto Engineering). Image Credit: photo by Safa Jinje / University of Toronto Engineering
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New Machine Learning Framework Boosts Metal 3D Printing Efficiency

Research led by University of Toronto Professor Yu Zou aims to produce higher quality and more reliable metal parts for aerospace, automotive, energy and health-care applications Researchers at University of Toronto Engineering, led by Professor Yu Zou, are leveraging machine learning to improve additive manufacturing, also commonly known as 3D printing. In a new paper, published in the journal of Additive Manufacturing, the team introduces a new framework they’ve dubbed the Accurate Inverse process optimization framework in laser Directed Energy Deposition…

The modulator (in gold) transfers the information from an electrical wave to an optical one. Image Credit: Johannes Grewer / Polariton Technologies
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Tiny Component Unlocks Record-Breaking Bandwidth Potential

Plasmonic modulators are tiny components that convert electrical signals into optical signals in order to transport them through optical fibres. A modulator of this kind had never managed to transmit data with a frequency of over a terahertz (over a trillion oscillations per second). Now, researchers from the group led by Jürg Leuthold, Professor of Photonics and Communications at ETH Zurich, have succeeded in doing just that. Previous modulators could only convert frequencies up to 100 or 200 gigahertz – in…

Test tubes containing DNA encoding the information. Image Credit: Rami Shlush
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DNAformer: Merging Nature and AI for Innovative Solutions

Technion researchers develop a technology for encoding, retrieving, and rapidly reading data stored in DNA Researchers from the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science have developed an AI-based method that accelerates DNA-based data retrieval by three orders of magnitude while significantly improving accuracy. The research team included Ph.D. student Omer Sabary, Dr. Daniella Bar-Lev, Dr. Itai Orr, Prof. Eitan Yaakobi, and Prof. Tuvi Etzion. DNA data storage is an emerging field that leverages DNA as a platform for…

Dr. Mustapha Ishak-Boushaki is a professor ofphysicsat The University of Texas at Dallas and is co-chair of theDark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument(DESI) collaboration's working group that interprets cosmological survey data gathered by the international collaboration, which includes more than 900 researchers from over 70 institutions around the world. Image Credit: University of Texas at Dallas
Physics & Astronomy

New DESI Results Reveal Insights on Dark Energy Evolution

A new analysis of data collected over three years by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) collaboration provides even stronger evidence than the group’s previous datasets that dark energy, long thought to be a “cosmological constant,” might be evolving over time in unexpected ways. Dr. Mustapha Ishak-Boushaki, professor of physics at The University of Texas at Dallas, is co-chair of the DESI working group that interprets cosmological survey data gathered by the international collaboration, which includes more than 900 researchers…

The visualisation of a simulated event in the KM3NeT/ORCA detector. Image Credit: CC BY-NC 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licences/by-nc/4.0 Credits KM3NeT
Physics & Astronomy

Exploring Quantum Gravity in the Mediterranean Depths

A study published in JCAP places new limits on quantum gravity using data from the underwater detector KM3NeT Quantum gravity is the missing link between general relativity and quantum mechanics, the yet-to-be-discovered key to a unified theory capable of explaining both the infinitely large and the infinitely small. The solution to this puzzle might lie in the humble neutrino, an elementary particle with no electric charge and almost invisible, as it rarely interacts with matter, passing through everything on our…

A computer-aided detection (CADe) device spots a 4-mm adenoma in the hepatic flexure. Image Credit: Gastroenterology
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AI Technology Enhances Colon Cancer Detection for Future Use

American Gastroenterological Association guideline concludes that it is not clear whether computer-aided detection systems (CADe) for colonoscopy should be recommended for routine widespread use The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) released a new clinical guideline making no recommendation — for or against — the use of computer-aided detection systems (CADe) in colonoscopy. A rigorous review of evidence showed that artificial intelligence-assisted technology helps identify colorectal polyps. However, its impact on preventing colorectal cancer — the third most common cancer worldwide —…

Geologic map of the asteroid belt.Circles identify the asteroid families from which our meteorites originate and letters mark the corresponding meteorite type. The horizontal axis ranges from short orbits moving just inside the asteroid belt (left) to longer orbits just outside (right). The vertical axis shows how much the asteroid orbits are tilted relative to the plane of the planets. Blue lines are the delivery resonances. Image Credit: From: Jenniskens & Devillepoix (2025) Meteoritics & Planetary Science.
Physics & Astronomy

Geologic Map Unveils Secrets of the Asteroid Belt Meteorites

Knowing from what debris field in the asteroid belt our meteorites originate is important for planetary defense efforts against Near Earth Asteroids. Where do meteorites of different type come from? In a review paper in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science, published online this week, astronomers trace the impact orbit of observed meteorite falls to several previously unidentified source regions in the asteroid belt. “This has been a decade-long detective story, with each recorded meteorite fall providing a new clue,”…

Coffee-making robot pours water from a kettle into a cup. Image Credit: Ruaridh Mon-Williams
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Coffee-Making Robot Innovates AI Technology in Automation

An AI-powered robot that can prepare cups of coffee in a busy kitchen could usher in the next generation of intelligent machines, a study suggests. Using a combination of cutting-edge AI, sensitive sensors and fine-tuned motor skills, the robot can interact with its surroundings in more human-like ways than ever before, researchers say. The new technology, developed by a team at the University of Edinburgh, could transform robots’ ability to carry out tasks that previously could only be done by…

Graduate student Trevor Ollis fills a camera with liquid nitrogen to cool it to -120 degrees Celsius in order to examine monolayer materials developed in the laboratory of Nickolas Vamivakas. Image Credit: University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster
Physics & Astronomy

Twisting Atomically Thin Materials Could Boost Quantum Computing

Placing two layers of special 2D materials together and turning them at large angles creates artificial atoms with intriguing optical properties By taking two flakes of special materials that are just one atom thick and twisting them at high angles, researchers at the University of Rochester have unlocked unique optical properties that could be used in quantum computers and other quantum technologies. In a new study published in Nano Letters, the researchers show that precisely layering nano-thin materials creates excitons—essentially, artificial atoms—that can act…

A thorium-doped calcium fluoride crystal's temperature is continually monitored while a VUV frequency comb is used to directly resolve individual quantum states of the nuclear transition. Image Credit: Steven Burrows/JILA
Physics & Astronomy

Precise Nuclear Timekeeping: The Role of Temperature Control

For decades, atomic clocks have been the pinnacle of precision timekeeping, enabling GPS navigation, cutting-edge physics research, and tests of fundamental theories. But researchers at JILA, led by JILA and NIST Fellow and University of Colorado Boulder physics professor Jun Ye, in collaboration with the Technical University of Vienna, are pushing beyond atomic transitions to something potentially even more stable: a nuclear clock. This clock could revolutionize timekeeping by using a uniquely low-energy transition within the nucleus of a thorium-229…

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