Measurements and data collected from space can be used to better understand life on Earth. An ambitious, multinational research project funded by NASA and co-led by UC Merced civil and environmental engineering Professor Erin Hestir demonstrated that Earth’s biodiversity can be monitored and measured from space, leading to a better understanding of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Hestir led the team alongside University of Buffalo geography Professor Adam Wilson and Professor Jasper Slingsby from the University of Cape Town on BioSCape, which collected data over six…
For the first time astronomers have succeeded in observing the magnetic field around a young star where planets are thought to be forming. The team was able to use dust to measure the three-dimensional structure “fingerprint” of the magnetic field. This will help improve our understanding of planet formation. Planets form in turbulent disks of gas and dust called protoplanetary disks around young stars. It is thought that the first step in planet formation is dust grains colliding and sticking…
Physicists have performed a groundbreaking simulation they say sheds new light on an elusive phenomenon that could determine the ultimate fate of the Universe. Pioneering research in quantum field theory around 50 years ago proposed that the universe may be trapped in a false vacuum – meaning it appears stable but in fact could be on the verge of transitioning to an even more stable, true vacuum state. While this process could trigger a catastrophic change in the Universe’s structure,…
International research team led by Göttingen University develops new method for ultrafast imaging of dark excitons How can the latest technology, such as solar cells, be improved? An international research team led by the University of Göttingen is helping to find answers to questions like this with a new technique. For the first time, the formation of tiny, difficult-to-detect particles – known as dark excitons – can be tracked precisely in time and space. These invisible carriers of energy will…
Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have created a new thermometer using atoms boosted to such high energy levels that they are a thousand times larger than normal. By monitoring how these giant “Rydberg” atoms interact with heat in their environment, researchers can measure temperature with remarkable accuracy. The thermometer’s sensitivity could improve temperature measurements in fields ranging from quantum research to industrial manufacturing. Unlike traditional thermometers, a Rydberg thermometer doesn’t need to be first adjusted…
A UMD geologist helped develop advanced dating methods to track geological changes on the far side of the moon and found evidence of relatively recent activity. Scientists have studied the moon’s surface for decades to help piece together its complex geological and evolutionary history. Evidence from the lunar maria (dark, flat areas on the moon filled with solidified lava) suggested that the moon experienced significant compression in its distant past. Researchers suspected that large, arching ridges on the moon’s near…
Ammonia Air Pollution as Seen from Space. Image Credit: Sally PusedeA groundbreaking study led by researchers from the University of Virginia has used satellite measurements to show the long-term persistence of air pollution inequalities tied to industrialized swine facilities in Eastern North Carolina. Using satellite data spanning a 15-year period from 2008–2023, the study quantifies disparities in ammonia (NH₃) — an air pollutant emitted by swine operations — for Black, Hispanic and Indigenous communities. These inequalities, exacerbated by hot and…
Student project uncovers superconductivity in polycrystalline iron nickel zirconide Zirconide: A New Transition Metal Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have discovered a new superconducting material. They combined iron, nickel, and zirconium, to create a new transition metal zirconide with different ratios of iron to nickel. While both iron zirconide and nickel zirconide are not superconducting, the newly prepared mixtures are, exhibiting a “dome-shaped” phase diagram typical of so-called “unconventional superconductors,” a promising avenue for developing high temperature…
Joule-Thomson optical expansion. Left: The expansion of a dense, warm gas leads to a rapid drop in temperature, in which interactions between the gas particles cause an irreversible energy conversion. Right: Against a similar mathematical background, intense laser beams can ‘clean’ their profile on their own and can even be efficiently combined if they are allowed to propagate into a larger system such as a multi-core optical fiber. (Image Credit: University of Southern California / Giorgos Pyrialakos).Inspired by ideas from…
Scientists at the University of Stuttgart have succeeded in controlling the structure and function of biological membranes with the help of “DNA origami”. The system they developed may facilitate the transportation of large therapeutic loads into cells. This opens up a new way for the targeted administration of medication and other therapeutic interventions. Thus, a very valuable instrument can be added to the toolbox of synthetic biology. Prof. Laura Na Liu and her team published their findings in the journal…
From the persistent droughts of southern Africa and Central America in the early part of the year to the more recent devastating extreme rainfall in Spain and the deadly Hurricane Helene along America’s east coast, 2024 has been a year of climate events that affected the lives of billions of people. A “Climate-Resilient” Future In a recent paper published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, an international team of scientists led by Dr Wenxia Zhang at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese…
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, in collaboration with Chongqing University and the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, have achieved a breakthrough in topological thermoelectrics. In their study, published in “Nature Materials”, they demonstrate a groundbreaking development in thermoelectrics: By applying a weak magnetic field, the cooling performance of topological materials at low temperatures can be significantly improved. It marks a significant advance in magneto-thermoelectrics, which can be a cost-effective and energy-efficient alternative to…
Operations teams have confirmed NASA’s mission to “touch” the Sun survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024. Breaking its previous record by flying just 3.8 million miles above the surface of the Sun, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe hurtled through the solar atmosphere at a blazing 430,000 miles per hour — faster than any human-made object has ever moved. A beacon tone received late on Dec. 26 confirmed the spacecraft had made it through the…
At the Berlin synchrotron radiation source BESSY II, the largest magnetic anisotropy of a single molecule ever measured experimentally has been determined. The larger this anisotropy is, the better a molecule is suited as a molecular nanomagnet. Such nanomagnets have a wide range of potential applications, for example, in energy-efficient data storage. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Kohlenforschung (MPI KOFO), the Joint Lab EPR4Energy of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion (MPI CEC) and the Helmholtz-Zentrum…
LSU quantum researchers uncover hidden quantum behaviors within classical light, which could make quantum technologies robust. Understanding the boundary between classical and quantum physics has long been a central question in science. While thermal light fields have traditionally been viewed as classical, the team fragmented these fields into smaller multiphoton subsystems. Surprisingly, they uncovered quantum coherence—features such as particle interference previously thought unique to quantum systems—within a classical light source. By using a sophisticated technique involving photon-number-resolving detection and orbital…
One of the biggest mysteries in science – dark energy – doesn’t actually exist, according to researchers looking to solve the riddle of how the Universe is expanding. For the past 100 years, physicists have generally assumed that the cosmos is growing equally in all directions. They employed the concept of dark energy as a placeholder to explain unknown physics they couldn’t understand, but the contentious theory has always had its problems. Now a team of physicists and astronomers at…
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