Heavy school bags, poor posture, one-handed sports are often blamed for the development of curved spine in teens. Known as adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), it affects those aged 10 to 19 but has no known cause. A team from Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) has now discovered that the answer to … Read more
Location State/Country Maximum Duration of Totality Mazatlán Mexico 3 minutes 50 seconds San Antonio Texas 3 minutes 38 seconds Dallas Texas 3 minutes 25 seconds Little Rock Arkansas 3 minutes 22 seconds St. Louis Missouri 3 minutes 12 seconds Indianapolis Indiana 3 minutes 25 seconds Toledo Ohio 3 minutes 16 seconds Cleveland Ohio 3 minutes … Read more
Quantum mechanics is one of the most profound and revolutionary theories in modern physics, unraveling the mysteries of the subatomic world and fundamentally transforming our understanding of matter, energy, and the fundamental forces of nature. Developed in the early 20th century through the works of pioneering physicists such as Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, … Read more
In the constellation Virgo, 700 light years away from Earth, the planet WASP-39b orbits the star WASP-39. The gas giant, which takes little more than four days to complete one orbit, is one of the best-studied exoplanets. Shortly after its commissioning in July 2022, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope turned its high-precision gaze on the … Read more
Researchers at the Quantum Machines Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) are studying levitating materials—substances that can remain suspended in a stable position without any physical contact or mechanical support. The most common type of levitation occurs through magnetic fields. Objects such as superconductors or diamagnetic materials (materials repelled by a … Read more
One of the great mysteries of modern science is dark matter. We know dark matter exists thanks to its effects on other objects in the cosmos, but we have never been able to directly see it. And it’s no minor thing—currently, scientists think it makes up about 85% of all the mass in the universe. … Read more
Iron screws and other so-called ferromagnetic materials are made up of atoms with electrons that act like little magnets. Normally, the orientations of the magnets are aligned within one region of the material but are not aligned from one region to the next. Think of packs of tourists in Times Square pointing to different billboards … Read more
A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration—which includes scientists from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA)— has uncovered strong and organized magnetic fields spiraling from the edge of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). Seen in polarized light for the first time, this new view of the … Read more
Weak fluctuations in superconductivity, a precursor phenomenon to superconductivity, have been successfully detected by a research group at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech). This breakthrough was achieved by measuring the thermoelectric effect in superconductors over a wide range of magnetic fields and over a wide range of temperatures, from much higher than the superconducting transition … Read more
Luminiferous aether, once proposed as the medium through which light waves propagate, represents a fascinating chapter in the history of physics. Despite being a prominent concept in the 19th century, subsequent scientific advancements have revealed its conceptual limitations and ultimately led to its dismissal. Exploring the origins, development, and eventual demise of the luminiferous aether … Read more
With time scheduled to use a certain beamline at the National Synchrotron Light Source-II (NSLS-II), scientists from NSLS-II and their partner institutions faced a challenge. They planned on researching a special type of region in magnetic materials that could be useful for next-generation computers. Regions in magnetic materials—called magnetic domains—determine a material’s magnetic properties. The … Read more
The identification and correction of decades-old errors in the mathematical models used to comprehend the scattering of electrons by electromagnetic waves within Earth’s magnetic fields herald a significant stride towards bolstering the protection of space technology. Greg Cunningham, a space scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, emphasized the pivotal role of rectifying these errors in … Read more
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) continues to revolutionize our understanding of planetary formation by shedding light on the intricate processes unfolding within the birthplaces of planets and the surrounding circumstellar disks. In a paper published in The Astronomical Journal, a collaborative team spearheaded by Naman Bajaj from the University of Arizona, alongside Dr. Uma … Read more
In the early hours of September 5, 2021, a groundbreaking achievement unfolded within the laboratories of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), marking a significant milestone in the realm of fusion energy research. Engineers successfully developed a new type of magnet using high-temperature superconducting material, achieving a world-record magnetic field strength of 20 tesla … Read more
Plate tectonics is not something most people would associate with Mars. In fact, the planet’s dead core is one of the primary reasons for its famous lack of a magnetic field. And since active planetary cores are one of the primary driving factors of plate tectonics, it seems obvious why that general conception holds. However, … Read more
Under extreme pressure, hydrogen, like many elements, exhibits peculiar behavior that defies conventional understanding. Theoretical predictions suggest that under pressures exceeding a million times that of our atmosphere, hydrogen transforms into a metal and, even more remarkably, a superconductor—a material capable of conducting electricity without resistance. Scientists have long sought to comprehend and harness the … Read more
When a star like our sun reaches the end of its life, it can ingest the surrounding planets and asteroids that were born with it. Now, using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) in Chile, researchers have found a unique signature of this process for the first time—a scar imprinted on the … Read more
For years, niobium was considered an underperformer when it came to superconducting qubits. Now, scientists supported by Q-NEXT have found a way to engineer a high-performing niobium-based qubit and take advantage of niobium’s superior qualities. When it comes to quantum technology, niobium is making a comeback. For the past 15 years, niobium has been sitting … Read more
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have shown for the first time that expensive aberration-corrected microscopes are no longer required to achieve record-breaking microscopic resolution.. The field of microscopy is in the middle of a great revolution. Since the 1800s and the invention of the compound light microscope, there have only been a … Read more
Fusion is a natural phenomenon that provides our planet with much of its energy—generated millions of miles away in the center of our sun. Here on Earth, scientists are trying to replicate the hot and dense conditions that lead to fusion. In the center of a star, gravitational pressures and high temperatures—around 200 million degrees … Read more