Lifeboat Foundation

A group of international researchers led by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian (CfA) achieved the once-unimaginable four years ago: using a groundbreaking telescope to capture an image of a black hole.

Last month some of those researchers, engineers, and physicists convened at Harvard to consider and begin drawing up plans for the next step: a closer study of the photon rings that encircle black holes in glowing orange. The mission has been dubbed the Event Horizon Explorer (EHE), and the group hopes it will offer additional insight into black holes, which sit at the center of galaxies.

The $300 million project examining the nature of space and time builds on the success of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project of 2019, when researchers took the first-ever picture of a black hole, a focal point so tiny “the biggest ones on the sky are only about the same size as an atom held at arm’s length,” said Michael Johnson, an astrophysicist at the CfA.

Structured light waves with spiral phase fronts carry orbital angular momentum (OAM), attributed to the rotational motion of photons. Recently, scientists have been using light waves with OAM, and these special “helical” light beams have become very important in various advanced technologies like communication, imaging, and quantum information processing. In these technologies, it’s crucial to know the exact structure of these special light beams. However, this has proven to be quite tricky.

Interferometry—superimposing a light field with a known reference field to extract information from the interference—can retrieve OAM spectrum information using a camera. As the camera only records the intensity of the interference, the measurement technique encounters additional crosstalk known as “signal-signal beat interference” (SSBI), which complicates the retrieval process. It’s like hearing multiple overlapping sounds, making it difficult to distinguish the original notes.

In a recent breakthrough reported in Advanced Photonics, researchers from Sun Yat-sen University and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) used a powerful mathematical tool called the Kramers-Kronig (KK) relation, which helps with understanding and solving the problem. This tool enabled them to untangle the complex helical light pattern from the camera’s intensity-only measurements for single-shot retrieval in simple on-axis interferometry. Exploring the duality between the time-frequency and azimuth-OAM domains, they apply the KK approach to investigate various OAM fields, including Talbot self-imaged petals and fractional OAM modes.

Quantum emission is pivotal to realizing photonic quantum technologies. Solid-state single photon emitters (SPEs), such as hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) defects, operate at room temperature. They are highly desirable due to their robustness and brightness.

The conventional way to collect photons from SPEs relies on a high numerical aperture (NA) objective lens or micro-structured antennas. While photon collection efficiency can be high, these tools cannot manipulate quantum emissions. Multiple bulky optical elements, such as polarizers and phase plates, are required to achieve any desired structuring of the emitted quantum light source.

In a new paper published in eLight, an international team of scientists led by Drs Chi Li and Haoran Ren from Monash University have developed a new multifunctional metalens for structuring quantum emissions from SPEs.

While the device is still in the patent stage, it has the potential to completely change the VR/AR experience.

Korro Bio plans a reverse merger with Frequency Therapeutics to fund clinical studies of its lead candidate, designed to treat alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) in the liver.

The transfer of a neurotransmitter from one type of skin cell to another (melanocytes to keratinocytes) altered electrical activity and promoted melanoma initiation in preclinical models, according to results published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Melanoma is a deadly form of skin cancer that develops in melanin-containing skin cells known as melanocytes. An intrinsic feature of melanocytes is their ability to secrete melanin-containing vesicles to surrounding skin cells called keratinocytes to give skin its color.

While approximately half of all melanomas harbor mutations in the BRAF gene, these mutations are present in many benign skin lesions as well.

Are watery eyes a symptom of cancer?

Watery eyes can be a sign of cancer, says Gombos. “Cancer can involve the system producing tears, but more commonly the cancer involves the drainage system, so the tears don’t drain properly,” he adds.

However, watery eyes alone don’t correspond directly to a particular type of cancer, and the presence of watery eyes doesn’t predict the severity or stage of cancer, say both Al-Zubidi and Gombos.

Weird things happen on the quantum level. Whole clouds of particles can become entangled, their individuality lost as they act as one.

Now scientists have observed, for the first time, ultracold atoms cooled to a quantum state chemically reacting as a collective, rather than haphazardly forming new molecules after bumping into each other by chance.

“What we saw lined up with the theoretical predictions,” says Cheng Chin, a physicist at the University of Chicago and senior author of the study. “This has been a scientific goal for 20 years, so it’s a very exciting era.”

There are many microbes in our environment; many are harmless, some perform important functions, and some may pose a threat. Aspergillus fumigatus, for example, is a fungus that can be often be found in soil, as well as decaying organic matter; it has a crucial role in recycling carbon and nitrogen on our planet. A. fumigatus is also widely distributed in the air, so on average, people probably inhale a few hundred spores of A. fumigatus every day. This fungus is highly adaptive, and it can also evade weakened immune defenses in immunocompromised individuals to cause lung infections, called Aspergillosis. There are limited treatment options for this disease, and it’s difficult to treat effectively.

Scientists have now analyzed genetic data from about 250 strains of this fungus, and data from 40 Aspergillosis patients that characterized the lung microbiomes of these individuals. This showed that when people are infected with A. fumigatus, the composition of their lung microbiome begins to change dramatically. The findings have been reported in Nature Communications.