Probing the tau and tubulin protein molecules behind Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Tau and tubulin proteins are one of the leading causes of many neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Most of neurodegenerative disease progression is related to the aggregation of these proteins in the brain. Inspired by one of her doctoral students who wanted to explore tau and tubulin proteins, Jiali Li, a physics professor at the University of Arkansas, and her group created a special silicon nitride nanopore-based…
Researchers identified the shortest-period, low-mass stellar binary system ever observed The stars take less than one Earth day to revolve around each other Researcher: ‘It’s amazing to see something happen in the universe on a human time scale’ Northwestern University and the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego) astrophysicists have discovered the tightest ultracool dwarf binary system ever observed. The two stars are so close that it takes them less than one Earth day to revolve around each…
Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, scientists have identified an Earth-size world, called TOI 700 e, orbiting within the habitable zone of its star – the range of distances where liquid water could occur on a planet’s surface. The world is 95% Earth’s size and likely rocky. Astronomers previously discovered three planets in this system, called TOI 700 b, c, and d. Planet d also orbits in the habitable zone. But scientists needed an additional year of TESS…
Distant star’s dimming was likely a ‘dusty’ companion getting in the way, astronomers say. By their own admission, Anastasios “Andy” Tzanidakis and James Davenport are interested in unusual stars. The University of Washington astronomers were on the lookout for “stars behaving strangely” when an automated alert from the Gaia survey pointed them to Gaia17bpp. Survey data indicated that this star had gradually brightened over a 2 1/2-year period. As Tzanidakis will report on Jan. 10 at the 241st meeting of…
Juno spacecraft discovered magnetospheric fireworks as magnetic field lines merge and snap between the gas giant and its largest moon. In June 2021, NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew close to Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, observing evidence of magnetic reconnection. A team led by Southwest Research Institute used Juno data to examine the electron and ion particles and magnetic fields as the magnetic field lines of Jupiter and Ganymede merged, snapped and reoriented, heating and accelerating the charged particles in the region….
Astronomers studying archival observations of powerful explosions called short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have detected light patterns indicating the brief existence of a superheavy neutron star shortly before it collapsed into a black hole. This fleeting, massive object likely formed from the collision of two neutron stars. “We looked for these signals in 700 short GRBs detected with NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory,” explained Cecilia Chirenti, a researcher at the University of Maryland, College…
The project, which aims to increase the safety and economy of nuclear reactors, brings together Virginia Tech faculty members from the College of Engineering and the College of Science. Three Virginia Tech professors from nuclear engineering, physics, and industrial engineering are bringing together their expertise and inventions to create a highly innovative technology for high-fidelity, real-time monitoring of nuclear power plant cores. The project would increase the safety and economy of nuclear reactors and has received funds from the National…
A new plasma operation scenario Super I Mode was discovered and demonstrated on Experiment Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). The new high-confinement and self-organizing mechanism represents the reliability and advancement of the machine itself but also offers insights into how to better maintain the plasma operating stably and for long duration. The team from Institute of Plasma Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, CAS reported their finding in a recent published paper in Science Advances. The exciting discovery was made during…
MASPEX will analyze gases around Jupiter moon to understand its potential habitability. A groundbreaking new mass spectrometer designed and built by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has been delivered for integration onto NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft. Scheduled to launch in 2024 and arrive in the Jovian system by 2030, Europa Clipper will conduct a detailed science investigation of the moon Europa and study whether it could harbor conditions suitable for life. The MAss Spectrometer for Planetary EXploration (MASPEX) instrument will be one…
A team from Nagoya University in Japan has observed, for the first time, the energy transferring from resonant electrons to whistler-mode waves in space. Their findings offer direct evidence of previously theorized efficient growth, as predicted by the non-linear growth theory of waves. This should improve our understanding of not only space plasma physics but also space weather, a phenomenon that affects satellites. When people imagine outer space, they often envision it as a perfect vacuum. In fact, this impression…
As anyone who drinks their coffee with milk knows, it’s much easier to mix liquids together than to separate them. In fact, the second law of thermodynamics would seem to dictate that a mixture would never be able to separate again if there are no attractive forces between similar particles. However, investigators from the Institute of Industrial Science at The University of Tokyo showed the mechanism by which a mixture of actively spinning particles, such as bacteria, in a fluid…
A new method can produce a hundredfold increase in light emissions from a type of electron-photon coupling, which is key to electron microscopes and other technologies. The way electrons interact with photons of light is a key part of many modern technologies, from lasers to solar panels to LEDs. But the interaction is inherently a weak one because of a major mismatch in scale: A wavelength of visible light is about 1,000 times larger than an electron, so the way…
A high-contrast grating structure for direction-tunable lasing. A novel laser cavity enables precise adjustment of the lasing direction over a wide range, with applications in LiDAR sensing. Lasers find applications across several fields ranging from telecommunications and remote sensing to medicine. There are many ways in which one can generate laser emission, or lasing, from a device or material. Consequently, there are many types of lasers with different principles of operation. One emerging and promising method to achieve lasing with…
Evidence shows strong outflowing winds responsible for the “Fermi bubbles”. A scientist from Tokyo Metropolitan University has shown that large gamma-ray emitting bubbles around the center of our Galaxy were produced by fast blowing outward winds and the associated “reverse shock.” Numerical simulations successfully reproduced the temperature profile observed by an X-ray telescope. Such outflows have been observed in other galaxies; this finding suggests similar winds may have been blowing in our own Galaxy until quite recently. The universe is…
Two CubeSats, or small satellites, are on a quest to provide insight on space weather disturbances and the subsequent impact on communication signals. The dynamic duo, the Plasma Enhancements in the Ionosphere-Thermosphere Satellite (petitSat) and Scintillation Prediction Observations Research Task (SPORT), arrived at the International Space Station on Nov. 27, 2022, as part of SpaceX’s 26th commercial resupply mission for NASA. Both CubeSats deployed from the space station on Dec. 29, 2022, at 8:55 a.m. EST. Scientists on both missions are most…
Researchers demonstrated high-visibility quantum interference between two independent semiconductor quantum dots — an important step toward scalable quantum networks. This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics celebrated the fundamental interest of quantum entanglement, and also envisioned the potential applications in “the second quantum revolution” — a new age when we are able to manipulate the weirdness of quantum mechanics, including quantum superposition and entanglement. A large-scale and fully functional quantum network is the holy grail of quantum information sciences. It will…
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