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Categories: Offbeat: Plants and Animals, Physics: General
Published Laser light hybrids control giant currents at ultrafast times
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The flow of matter, from macroscopic water currents to the microscopic flow of electric charge, underpins much of the infrastructure of modern times. In the search for breakthroughs in energy efficiency, data storage capacity, and processing speed, scientists search for ways in which to control the flow of quantum aspects of matter such as the 'spin' of an electron -- its magnetic moment -- or its 'valley state', a novel quantum aspect of matter found in many two dimensional materials. A team of researchers has recently discovered a route to induce and control the flow of spin and valley currents at ultrafast times with specially designed laser pulses, offering a new perspective on the ongoing search for the next generation of information technologies.
Published Backscattering protection in integrated photonics is impossible with existing technologies
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers raise fundamental questions about the proposed value of topological protection against backscattering in integrated photonics.
Published Better understanding the physics of our universe
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers from around the world have sought to answer important questions about the most basic laws of physics that govern our universe. Their experiment, the Majorana Demonstrator, has helped to push the horizons on research concerning one of the fundamental building blocks of the universe: neutrinos.
Published Male yellow crazy ants are real-life chimeras
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers discovered that males of the yellow crazy ant have maternal and paternal genomes in different cells of their body and are thus chimeras.
Published Merons and antimerons
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Sliding and twisting of van der Waals layers can produce fascinating physical phenomena. Scientists show that moiré polar domains in bilayer hBN give rise to a topologically non-trivial winding of the polarization field, forming networks of merons and antimerons.
Published This elephant's self-taught banana peeling offers glimpse of elephants' broader abilities
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Elephants like to eat bananas, but they don't usually peel them first in the way humans do. A new report however, shows that one very special Asian elephant named Pang Pha picked up banana peeling all on her own while living at the Berlin Zoo. She reserves it for yellow-brown bananas, first breaking the banana before shaking out and collecting the pulp, leaving the thick peel behind.
Published New textile unravels warmth-trapping secrets of polar bear fur
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Engineers have invented a fabric that concludes the 80-year quest to make a synthetic textile modeled on polar bear fur. The results are already being developed into commercially available products.
Published How to see the invisible: Using the dark matter distribution to test our cosmological model
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astrophysicists have measured a value for the 'clumpiness' of the universe's dark matter (known to cosmologists as 'S8') of 0.776, which does not align with the value derived from the Cosmic Microwave Background, which dates back to the universe's origins. This has intriguing implications for the standard cosmological model.
Published New atomic-scale understanding of catalysis could unlock massive energy savings
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source In an advance they consider a breakthrough in computational chemistry research, chemical engineers have developed a model of how catalytic reactions work at the atomic scale. This understanding could allow engineers and chemists to develop more efficient catalysts and tune industrial processes -- potentially with enormous energy savings, given that 90% of the products we encounter in our lives are produced, at least partially, via catalysis.
Published Two-dimensional nanoparticles with great potential
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A research team has discovered how catalysts and many other nanoplatelets can be produced in an environmentally friendly way from readily available materials and in sufficient quantities.
Published Researchers create embryo-like structures from monkey embryonic stem cells
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Human embryo development and early organ formation remain largely unexplored due to ethical issues surrounding the use of embryos for research as well as limited availability of materials to study. Investigators now report on the creation of embryo-like structures from monkey embryonic stem cells. The investigators also transferred these embryo-like structures into the uteruses of female monkeys and determined that the structures were able to implant and elicit a hormonal response similar to pregnancy.
Published Discovery of ferroelectricity in an elementary substance
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have discovered a new single-element ferroelectric material that alters the current understanding of conventional ferroelectric materials and has future applications in data storage devices.
Published Random matrix theory approaches the mystery of the neutrino mass
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists analyzed each element of the neutrino mass matrix belonging to leptons and showed theoretically that the intergenerational mixing of lepton flavors is large. Furthermore, by using the mathematics of random matrix theory, the research team was able to demonstrate, as much as is possible at this stage, why the calculation of the squared difference of the neutrino masses are in close agreement with the experimental results in the case of the seesaw model with the random Dirac and Majorana matrices. The results of this research are expected to contribute to the further development of particle theory research, which largely remains a mystery.
Published A new type of photonic time crystal gives light a boost
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have developed a way to create photonic time crystals and shown that these bizarre, artificial materials amplify the light that shines on them. These findings could lead to more efficient and robust wireless communications and significantly improved lasers.
Published Looking at magnets in the right light
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Unlocking the secrets of magnetic materials requires the right illumination. Magnetic x-ray circular dichroism makes it possible to decode magnetic order in nanostructures and to assign it to different layers or chemical elements. Researchers have succeeded in implementing this unique measurement technique in the soft-x-ray range in a laser laboratory. With this development, many technologically relevant questions can now be investigated outside of scientific large-scale facilities for the first time.
Published How were amino acids, one of the key building blocks of life, formed before the origin of life on Earth?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The amino acid abundances of two Ryugu particles were measured and compared with their rocky components. The results demonstrate the important role that water plays in the formation of amino acids on the giant precursors of asteroids like Ryugu. Our solar system formed from a molecular cloud, which was composed of gas and dust that was emitted into the interstellar medium (ISM), a vast space between stars. On collapse of the molecular cloud, the early sun was formed, with a large disk of gas and dust orbiting it. The dusty material collided to produce rocky material that would eventually grow in size to give large bodies called planetesimals.
Published DMI allows magnon-magnon coupling in hybrid perovskites
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An international group of researchers has created a mixed magnon state in an organic hybrid perovskite material by utilizing the Dzyaloshinskii--Moriya-Interaction (DMI). The resulting material has potential for processing and storing quantum computing information.
Published Absolute zero in the quantum computer
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Absolute zero cannot be reached -- unless you have an infinite amount of energy or an infinite amount of time. Scientists in Vienna (Austria) studying the connection between thermodynamics and quantum physics have now found out that there is a third option: Infinite complexity. It turns out that reaching absolute zero is in a way equivalent to perfectly erasing information in a quantum computer, for which an infinetly complex quantum computer would be required.
Published A miniature heart in a petri dish: Organoid emulates development of the human heart
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A team has induced stem cells to emulate the development of the human heart. The result is a sort of 'mini-heart' known as an organoid. It will permit the study of the earliest development phase of our heart and facilitate research on diseases.
Published Sleight-of-hand magic trick only fools monkeys with opposable thumbs
(via sciencedaily.com) An illusion involving a hidden thumb confounds capuchin and squirrel monkeys for the same reason it does humans -- it misdirects expected outcomes of actions they can carry out. However, marmosets have five equidistant digits, and were rarely fooled by the magician. The research adds to evidence that animals struggle to predict movements outside of their own 'biomechanical ability'.