A team of New York University researchers has created a new way to visualize crystals by peering inside their structures, akin to having X-ray vision. Their new technique—which they aptly named “Crystal Clear”—combines the use of transparent particles and microscopes with lasers that allow scientists to see each unit that makes up the crystal and … Read more
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, University of Copenhagen researchers have become the first to see the formation of three of the earliest galaxies in the universe, more than 13 billion years ago. The sensational discovery contributes important knowledge about the universe and is now published in Science. For the first time in the history of astronomy, researchers … Read more
Dead stars known as white dwarfs, have a mass like the sun while being similar in size to Earth. They are common in our galaxy, as 97% of stars are white dwarfs. As stars reach the end of their lives, their cores collapse into the dense ball of a white dwarf, making our galaxy seem … Read more
California’s state fossil—are familiar to anyone who has ever visited Los Angeles’ La Brea Tar Pits, a sticky trap from which more than 2,000 saber-toothed cat skulls have been excavated over more than a century. Though few of the recovered skulls had sabers attached, a handful exhibited a peculiar feature: the tooth socket for the … Read more
Researchers Kazuaki Takasan and Kyogo Kawaguchi of the University of Tokyo with Kyosuke Adachi of RIKEN, Japan, have demonstrated that ferromagnetism, an ordered state of atoms, can be induced by increasing particle motility and that repulsive forces between atoms are sufficient to maintain it. The discovery not only extends the concept of active matter to … Read more
Galactic clusters, vast collections of galaxies bound together by gravity, are among the most intriguing and dynamic structures in the universe. These clusters contain thousands of galaxies, as well as vast amounts of dark matter, hot gas, and other cosmic phenomena. Probing the depths of galactic clusters offers valuable insights into the formation and evolution … Read more
Exoplanets, or extrasolar planets, are celestial bodies that orbit stars outside our solar system. These distant worlds have captivated the imagination of scientists and the public alike, offering tantalizing glimpses into the diversity of planetary systems beyond our own. The study of exoplanets has revealed a wealth of wonders, from rocky worlds resembling Earth to … Read more
Diamond is the strongest material known. However, another form of carbon has been predicted to be even tougher than diamond. The challenge is how to create it on Earth. The eight-atom body-centered cubic (BC8) crystal is a distinct carbon phase: not diamond, but very similar. BC8 is predicted to be a stronger material, exhibiting a … Read more
Betelgeuse is a well-known red supergiant star in the constellation Orion. Recently it has gained a lot of attention, not only because variations in its brightness led to speculations that an explosion might be imminent, but also because observations indicated that it’s rotating much faster than expected. This latter interpretation is now put into question … Read more
Astronomers can use supercomputers to simulate the formation of galaxies from the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago to the present day. But there are a number of sources of error. An international research team, led by researchers in Lund, has spent a hundred million computer hours over eight years trying to correct these. The … Read more
Physicists at Paderborn University have used complex computer simulations to develop a new design for significantly more efficient solar cells than previously available. A thin layer of organic material, known as tetracene, is responsible for the increase in efficiency. The results have now been published in Physical Review Letters. “The annual energy of solar radiation … Read more
California’s Silicon Valley and Utah’s Silicon Slopes are named for the element most associated with semiconductors, the backbone of the computer revolution. Anything computerized or electronic depends on semiconductors, a substance with properties that conduct electrical current under certain conditions. Traditional semiconductors are made from inorganic materials—like silicon—that require vast amounts of water and energy … Read more