Mapping the universe"s earliest structures with COSMOS-webb
When NASA's James Webb Space Telescope begins science operations in 2022, one of its first tasks will be an ambitious program to map the earliest structures in the universe. Called COSMOS-Webb, this wide and deep survey of half a million galaxies is.....»»
A powerful technique for tracking a protein"s fleeting shape changes
Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine have developed a powerful, new technique to generate "movies" of changing protein structures and speeds of up to 50 frames per second......»»
Spintronics: A new path to room temperature swirling spin textures
In some materials, spins form complex magnetic structures within the nanometer and micrometer scale in which the magnetization direction twists and curls along specific directions. Examples of such structures are magnetic bubbles, skyrmions, and magn.....»»
James Webb Space Telescope data pinpoint possible aurorae on a cold brown dwarf
Using new observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered methane emission on a brown dwarf, an unexpected finding for such a cold and isolated world. Published in the journal Nature, the findings suggest that thi.....»»
Improved mid-infrared nanoscopy enables 30 times clearer view of the insides of bacteria
A team at the University of Tokyo have constructed an improved mid-infrared microscope, enabling them to see the structures inside living bacteria at the nanometer scale. Mid-infrared microscopy is typically limited by its low resolution, especially.....»»
Why figuring out how potassium is destroyed in stars is important to understanding the universe
If you want to know where elements come from, look to the stars. Almost every element heavier than helium is formed through nuclear reactions in stars. But which stellar processes are responsible for these elements? Can we find patterns in how much o.....»»
Study uses thermodynamics to describe expansion of the universe
The idea that the universe is expanding dates from almost a century ago. It was first put forward by Belgian cosmologist Georges Lemaître (1894–1966) in 1927 and confirmed observationally by American astronomer Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) two years l.....»»
Japan"s Sapporo sees earliest 25C day since records began
Temperatures in Japan's northern city of Sapporo—famous for skiing—on Monday passed 25 degrees Celsius at the earliest point of any year on record, a weather agency official said......»»
Saturday Citations: Listening to bird dreams, securing qubits, imagining impossible billiards
It's Saturday, which means that in a universe where the arrow of time moves backward, people have to go to work tomorrow. In such a hypothetical universe, Garfield hates Fridays—tough to imagine. This week, we looked at several hundred breaking sci.....»»
Chemists devise easier new method for making a common type of building block for drugs
Ring-shaped chemical structures called saturated heterocycles are found in most FDA-approved drugs but are often difficult to create. Scripps Research chemists have just developed a surprisingly easy method for making many of these sought-after compo.....»»
Physicists solve puzzle about ancient galaxy found by Webb telescope
Last September, the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, discovered JWST-ER1g, a massive ancient galaxy that formed when the universe was just a quarter of its current age. Surprisingly, an Einstein ring is associated with this galaxy. That's because.....»»
Fast radio bursts: Research introduces a novel approach to characterize their behavior
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) represent the most intense radio explosions in the universe. Since the first discovery in 2007, FRBs have garnered significant attention, culminating in the 2023 Shaw Prize in Astronomy. With yet unknown origin, these extreme.....»»
Researchers discover the secret of how termites build their giant nests
Termites are the architects of the natural world. The nests that they build can reach meters of height, with complex and elaborate structures, galleries that ensure efficient communication and that automatically ventilate the nest interior in a way t.....»»
Laser-patterned thin films that swell into kirigami-like structures offer new opportunities in hydrogel technology
New options for making finely structured soft, flexible and expandable materials called hydrogels have been developed by researchers at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT)......»»
Ghost roads speed destruction of Asia-Pacific tropical forests, finds study
Researchers mapping tropical forests have found many more roads than declared by official sources, which is raising fears of a huge increase in environmental degradation as the pace of road building increases......»»
ATLAS provides first measurement of the W-boson width at the LHC
The discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 slotted in the final missing piece of the Standard Model puzzle. Yet, it left lingering questions. What lies beyond this framework? Where are the new phenomena that would solve the universe's remaining mysteri.....»»
Scientists reconstruct assembly of the human centriole, image by image, for the first time
Cells contain various specialized structures—such as the nucleus, mitochondria or peroxisomes—known as "organelles." Tracing their genesis and determining their structure is fundamental to understanding cell function and the pathologies linked to.....»»
Mapping the world"s salted soils: A leap forward in combating land degradation
A team of researchers has developed an approach that maps the soil salt content around the world with an exceptional detail of 10 meters. This advance tackles the pressing need for accurate assessments of soil salinity, a formidable challenge that je.....»»
The sun was born when a dense gas cloud collapsed 4.6 billion years ago
While the upcoming total solar eclipse is a special moment to reflect on our place in the universe, scientists have been studying the birth of the sun and the formation of our solar system for a long time......»»
The universe"s accelerated expansion might be slowing down
The universe is still expanding at an accelerating rate, but it may have slowed down recently compared to a few billion years ago, early results from the most precise measurement of its evolution yet suggested Thursday......»»
Jurassic shuotheriids reveal earliest dental diversification of mammaliaforms
Paleontologists have presented a new insight into the initial dental variations across mammaliaforms, providing a fresh perspective on the evolutionary past of these ancient beasts......»»