Lifeboat Foundation

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed modular nanoparticles that can be easily customized to target different biological entities such as tumors, viruses or toxins. The surface of the nanoparticles is engineered to host any biological molecules of choice, making it possible to tailor the nanoparticles for a wide array of applications, ranging from targeted drug delivery to neutralizing biological agents.

The beauty of this technology lies in its simplicity and efficiency. Instead of crafting entirely new nanoparticles for each specific application, researchers can now employ a modular nanoparticle base and conveniently attach proteins targeting a desired biological entity.

In the past, creating distinct nanoparticles for different biological targets required going through a different synthetic process from start to finish each time. But with this new technique, the same modular nanoparticle base can be easily modified to create a whole set of specialized nanoparticles.

In a quantum leap toward the future of unconventional computing technologies, a team of physicists made an advancement in spatial manipulation and energy control of room-temperature quantum fluids of light, aka polariton condensates, marking a pivotal milestone for the development of high-speed, all-optical polariton logic devices that have long held the key to next-generation unconventional computing, according to a recently published paper in Physical Review Letters.

Polaritons, hybrid particles formed by the coupling of light and matter, are usually described as a quantum fluid of light that one can control through its matter component. Now, researchers have taken a monumental step forward by introducing a novel approach for active spatial control of liquid light condensates at room temperature.

What sets this development apart is the ability to manipulate polariton condensates without relying on the commonly utilized excitation profiles of polaritons. The scientists accomplished this feat by introducing an additional layer of copolymer within the cavity—a weakly coupled layer that remains nonresonant to the cavity mode. This seemingly simple yet incredibly ingenious move has opened the door to a wealth of possibilities.

OpenAI is poised to revolutionize the realm of generative AI with the introduction of Multimodal GPT-4, featuring an array of groundbreaking features. The highlight of this eagerly anticipated development is the “All Tools” feature, which provides users seamless access to the full range of GPT-4 capabilities without the need for constant toggling. This game-changing update simplifies the user experience and empowers them to seamlessly transition between tasks, unlocking the true potential of GPT-4.

One of the standout features of Multimodal GPT-4 is the integration of DALL·E 3, allowing users to upload images and request creative responses. This integration not only expands the horizons of content creation but also enhances the system’s overall versatility. Users can now unleash their creativity in new and exciting ways.

It is important to note that the “All Tools” feature excludes ChatGPT plugins, a strategic decision by OpenAI to streamline the user experience within a single platform. This consolidation of tools eliminates the need for third-party additions that often duplicated similar functionalities.

Electrons can help infer laser intensities that are too high to measure using conventional methods.

The Large Hadron Collider’s ATLAS Collaboration observes, for the first time, the coincident production of a photon and a top quark.

In the ever-evolving landscape of particle physics, a field that explores the nature of the Universe’s fundamental building blocks, nothing generates a buzz quite like a world’s first. Such a first is exactly what CERN’s ATLAS Collaboration has now achieved with its observation of the coincident production of single top quarks and photons in proton–proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) [1] (Fig. 1). This discovery provides a unique window into the intricate nature of the so-called electroweak interaction of the top quark, the heaviest known fundamental particle.

The standard model of particle physics defines the laws governing the behavior of elementary particles. Developed 50 years ago [2, 3], the model has—to date—withstood all experimental tests of its predictions. But the model isn’t perfect. One of the model’s biggest problems is a theoretical one and relates to how the Higgs boson gives mass to other fundamental particles. The mechanism by which the Higgs provides this mass is known as electroweak symmetry breaking, and while the standard model gives a reasonable description of the mechanism, exactly how electroweak symmetry breaking comes about remains a mystery.

Researchers have engineered ultracold molecular transitions ideally suited for probing beyond-standard-model effects of symmetry violations.

High-temperature cuprate superconductors are a broad class of materials that exhibit some unique characteristics. Due to their distinctive properties, these materials exhibit the highest superconducting temperatures reported to date under ambient pressure.

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other institutes in China recently carried out a study aimed at better understanding the processes underpinning the high superconducting critical temperatures (T_c) observed in trilayer cuprates, a class of materials with three layers based on compounds containing copper. Their paper, published in Nature Physics, unveiled the electronic origin of the high T_c exhibited by these three-layered materials.

“Our group has been trying to understand the high temperature superconductivity mechanism in cuprate superconductors for many years,” Xingjiang Zhou, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Phys.org.

An interdisciplinary international research team has recently discovered that a massive anomaly deep within the Earth’s interior may be a remnant of the collision about 4.5 billion years ago that formed the moon.

This research offers important new insights not only into Earth’s internal structure but also its long-term evolution and the formation of the inner solar system.

The study, which relied on computational fluid dynamics methods pioneered by Prof. Deng Hongping of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was published as a featured cover in Nature on Nov. 2.

In a world filled with endless connections and constant communication, the relationship between loneliness and aloneness is not always clear. Now, University of Arizona researchers have analyzed that relationship—and found that they are two different things that are not closely correlated.

People don’t feel lonely until they spend three-quarters of their time alone, the study found. However, when their alone time goes beyond 75%, it becomes difficult for them to avoid feelings of loneliness.

Published in the Journal of Research in Personality in September, the study also concludes that among older adults, there is a particularly strong association between time spent alone and feeling lonely. The study was led by Alex Danvers, a former postdoctoral associate at UArizona, and Liliane Efinger, a former visiting graduate student.