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Harnessing atomic structure to advance next-generation memory storage

The growth of artificial intelligence has increased demand for more efficient data storage. Instead of adding bulk to satiate this appetite, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are working to increase memory capacity by manipulating materials’ characteristics at the atomic level.

Rohan Mishra, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at the McKelvey School of Engineering, and his team of researchers have been pursuing this challenge. Through computational modeling, advanced microscopy and experimental collaboration with researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and other institutions, Mishra and his team have gained exciting insights into material behavior.

Atom-scale model could help improve material growth for advanced electronics

Penn State researchers have refined an atom-scale model of how silicon carbide changes from a solid into vapor during crystal growth, work that could help manufacturers produce higher-quality material for advanced electronics while reducing costly trial-and-error experiments.

The study, published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, is the first publication from Penn State’s Silicon Carbide Innovation Alliance, or SCIA, an industry-university research partnership.

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a crystalline material used in high-power electronics, including electric vehicles and clean-energy systems. As opposed to other crystals, which can be grown by melting the material and then cooling it into a solid, silicon carbide is grown using physical vapor transport (PVT). In this process, solid silicon carbide is heated until it turns directly into vapor, which then settles onto a seed crystal and builds a larger crystal.

Paired but out of step: Why electron pairing alone is not enough for room-temperature superconductivity

Levitating trains, ultra-efficient energy storage, and quantum computers: superconductivity could unlock a wealth of possibilities for the future. New research led by scientists from Utrecht, Leiden, and Munich has now shed light on one of the key requirements for achieving superconductivity at room temperature. Their findings, published in Science, bring scientists a step closer to understanding how this might be achieved.

When you turn on a toaster, electricity flows through a metal wire. The wire heats up until it glows red-hot, toasting your bread. This happens because the wire resists the flow of electric current, converting electrical energy into heat.

That is exactly what you want in a toaster. But for most other applications, resistance is undesirable. For example, when you want to charge your phone, resistance causes valuable energy to be lost.

Scientists Find a Clever Way to Read Quantum Information Without Destroying It

Simulations suggest that one type of qubit could reveal its state through its own electric current, helping researchers monitor quantum computers with less disturbance and fewer components.

Like a bit in an ordinary computer, a qubit stores information using states labeled 0 and 1. A qubit can also be prepared in a superposition, a quantum combination of the two. These states belong to a physical system that researchers build and control. In the design explored here, that system is a tiny wire connected to superconducting materials.

The aim of quantum computing is to use quantum behavior to perform certain calculations more efficiently than conventional computers. That requires control: researchers must prepare qubits and change their states deliberately. Unwanted interactions with the surroundings can disrupt them, and measuring a qubit can alter it, too.

Earthquake Faults Can Suddenly Become Almost As Fluid as Water, Study Finds

Scientists have uncovered evidence of an unexpected process that may allow earthquake faults to slip enormous distances.

Rocks along Japan’s Boso Peninsula have preserved evidence of an extraordinary process that may occur during powerful earthquakes. Researchers discovered ancient fault structures suggesting that clay trapped between moving rock surfaces became nearly as fluid as water, potentially allowing the fault to slip enormous distances with little resistance.

The findings, from a research team led by Professor Tetsuro Hirono of Osaka Metropolitan University, could help explain how some earthquakes produce the massive seafloor movements capable of triggering devastating tsunamis.

Scientists Reveal How a Mysterious Brain Structure Keeps Memories From Fading

Memories that last only seconds shape everyday thinking, and research in mice is revealing how a small brain structure supports an ability impaired in ADHD and schizophrenia.

To understand a sentence, the brain has to keep earlier words in mind as new ones arrive. Working memory makes that possible, holding information for a few seconds so we can compare it with new information, manipulate it, and use it to guide our behavior.

We rely on it to follow conversations, solve problems, and decide what to do next. Yet sensory information fades within moments once a stimulus ends, leaving the brain with the demanding task of maintaining a usable representation of something that is no longer there.

Installing the Fix for an Exploited WordPress Flaw Can Expose Some Sites One Last Time

Some WordPress sites can still be attacked while they install the fix for an actively exploited flaw, according to Umut Bayram, the Picus Security researcher who found it.

The update that installs the fix still unpacks its files using the site’s old, unpatched code, so an attacker who strikes at the right moment can run code on the server. The researcher advises blocking web access to the site’s wp-content/upgrade folder before updating.

The flaw, tracked as CVE-2026–119977, affects WordPress 4.7 through 7.1.3. During a core update that uses a complete package, WordPress unpacks a copy of the new version into a temporary folder inside wp-content/upgrade. That copy includes the WordPress installer, and the web server can usually reach it.

Hackers Target OpenSSH SSHole Flaw Within Hours of Disclosure, Gain Root on Honeypot

“The observed source IP, 89.116.89[.]18, used oversized passwords to bypass authentication and ran reconnaissance commands including id, uname and hostname through non-interactive SSH sessions,” Ryan Dewhurst, founder and CEO of Previdian, said in a statement shared with The Hacker News.

Affected users are advised to install OpenSSH 10.6p2 or their distribution’s patched package, and then restart sshd. Alpine is also recommending that users investigate “Accepted password for” log entries involving accounts that should not accept password logins.

“Look in /var/log/messages for sshd lines reading Accepted password for an account that has no password (alpine, root, or any key-only user),” Alpine said. “Review doas use and recently created users, files and authorized keys on exposed machines. If you cannot rule out a login, treat the machine as compromised.”