Astronomers scan the skies for nanosecond pulses of light from interstellar civilizations
In 2015, Russian-Israeli billionaire Yuri Milner and his non-profit organization, Breakthrough Initiatives, launched the largest Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project. Known as Breakthrough Listen, this SETI effort relies on the mos.....»»
New insights into grain boundary kinetics challenge traditional views
Researchers from City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK), in collaboration with experts from local and overseas universities, have reshaped scientists' fundamental understanding of the kinetic processes in crystalline materials, throwing light on new.....»»
A new Tron game is coming next year, and it’s got Light Cycles
Big Fan Games' first licensed project is Disney Tron: Catalyst, a top-down adventure game set in the Arq Grid......»»
Two comets will be visible in the night skies this month
Halloween visitors from the distant Oort Cloud. The human mind may find it difficult to conceptualize: a cosmic cloud so colossal it surrounds the Sun and eight planets as it exte.....»»
Astronomers observe a strong superflare from giant star
Using the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) and various ground-based telescopes, an international team of astronomers have performed observations of a strong X-ray superflare which occurred in 2022 on a giant star known as HD 251108......»»
Researchers develop a laser that produces the strongest ultra-short laser pulses to date
The word laser usually conjures up an image of a strongly concentrated and continuous light beam. Lasers that produce such light are, in fact, very common and useful. However, science and industry often also require very short and strong pulses of la.....»»
Saturday Citations: All that sparkles is plastic; woke tree diversity; the gravitational basin in which we reside
This week, astronomers considered whether dark energy varies over cosmic timescales. Via neutron analysis, physicists revealed that some Early Iron Age swords were altered recently by swindlers in order to be more historically exciting. And a profess.....»»
Powerful and compact optical frequency combs provide unique opportunities
Remember those big, clunky machines needed for super precise light measurements? Those days are fading thanks to tiny devices called microcombs. These chips can do the same job, but on a much smaller scale, opening doors for new applications......»»
What"s behind the northern lights that dazzled the sky farther south than normal
Another in a series of unusually strong solar storms hitting Earth produced stunning skies full of pinks, purples, greens and blues farther south than normal, including into parts of Germany, the United Kingdom, New England and New York City......»»
Intra-molecular distances in biomolecules measured optically with Ångström precision
A team led by physicists Steffen Sahl and Stefan Hell at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen and the MPI for Medical Research in Heidelberg has succeeded in measuring distances within biomolecules using a light.....»»
Scientists use light to visualize magnetic domains in quantum materials
When something draws us in like a magnet, we take a closer look. When magnets draw in physicists, they take a quantum look. Scientists from Osaka Metropolitan University and the University of Tokyo have successfully used light to visualize tiny magne.....»»
A quantum material could be the future of high-energy X-ray imaging and particle detection
Scintillators are detectors that make high-energy X-rays or particles visible through flashes of light to form an image. Their many applications include particle physics, medical imaging, X-ray security and more......»»
Why Hurricane Milton Turned the Sky Purple
The strange, apocalyptic skies during the storm reveal how light behaves in the atmosphere when it’s filled with an unusual amount of water vapor, dust, and debris......»»
"Inside-out" galaxy growth observed in the early universe
Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe the 'inside-out' growth of a galaxy in the early universe, only 700 million years after the Big Bang......»»
Asteroid mining: A potential trillion-dollar industry
Earth's newest celestial neighbor has finally arrived. Astronomers using a powerful telescope in Sutherland, South Africa, first detected the 33-foot-long asteroid in August, reporting their discovery in Research Notes of the American Astronomical So.....»»
Astronomers find Webb data conflict with reionization models
Reionization is a critical period when the first stars and galaxies changed the physical structure of their surroundings, and eventually the entire universe. Established theories state that this epoch ended around 1 billion years after the Big Bang......»»
Novel visible light communication encryption technology uses chiral nanoparticles
A research team has developed a novel visible light communication encryption technology with high security using chiral nanoparticles......»»
World"s highest-voltage gun accelerates electrons from zero to 80% the speed of light
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have designed and tested the world's highest voltage polarized electron gun, a key piece of technology needed for building the world's first fully polarized Electron-I.....»»
Scientists explore whether smaller chromosomes lead to more segregation errors during egg cell division
Three RIKEN researchers have shed light on the cellular mechanisms underlying chromosomal abnormalities that can cause miscarriages and congenital disorders such as Down syndrome......»»
Jupiter"s Great Red Spot shows unexpected size changes
Astronomers have observed Jupiter's legendary Great Red Spot (GRS), an anticyclone large enough to swallow Earth, for at least 150 years. But there are always new surprises—especially when NASA's Hubble Space Telescope takes a close-up look at it......»»
Astronomers race to capture image of exoplanet near star
Planet AF Lep b is a world of firsts. In 2023, it was the lowest-mass planet outside our solar system to be directly observed and have its mass measured using astrometry. This is a technique that charts the subtle movements of a host star over many y.....»»