Observations with the South Pole Telescope have revealed an independent addition to the biggest problem in cosmology.
T Coronae Borealis (T CrB) is a binary star system comprising two stars at very different stages of their life cycles: a red giant and a white dwarf. The red giant, an aging star, is expanding as it nears the end of its life, shedding layers of material into space. Meanwhile, the white dwarf, a stellar remnant that has burned through its fuel, is steadily cooling. This system draws the red giant’s expelled material toward the white dwarf’s surface. When enough accumulates, it triggers a thermonuclear explosion, creating a dramatic outburst of energy and light.
Astronomers know about the “Blaze Star” because it’s had sudden outbursts before. They even know there is usually a decade-long uptick in brightness before the explosion, preceded by a noticeable dip in brightness. That 10-year uptick was reported in a paper in 2023, while the American Association of Variable Star Observers announced T CrB’s pre-eruption dip in April 2024.
Something to bear in mind is that this is a rare astronomical event, but only committed stargazers are likely to get much out of it.
Galaxies are not islands in the cosmos. While globally the universe expands—driven by the mysterious “dark energy”—locally, galaxies cluster through gravitational interactions, forming the cosmic web held together by dark matter’s gravity. For cosmologists, galaxies are test particles to study gravity, dark matter and dark energy.
For the first time, MPA researchers and alumni have now used a novel method that fully exploits all information in galaxy maps and applied it to simulated but realistic datasets. Their study demonstrates that this new method will provide a much more stringent test of the cosmological standard model, and has the potential to shed new light on gravity and the dark universe.
From tiny fluctuations in the primordial universe, the vast cosmic web emerged: galaxies and galaxy clusters form at the peaks of (over)dense regions, connected by cosmic filaments with empty voids in between. Today, millions of galaxies sit across the cosmic web. Large galaxy surveys map those galaxies to trace the underlying spatial matter distribution and track their growth or temporal evolution.
Summary: Researchers have developed a Genetic Progression Score (GPS) using artificial intelligence to predict the progression of autoimmune diseases from preclinical symptoms to full disease. The GPS model integrates genetic data and electronic health records to provide personalized risk scores, improving prediction accuracy by 25% to 1,000% over existing models.
This method identifies individuals at higher risk earlier, enabling timely interventions and better disease management. The framework could also be adapted to study other underrepresented diseases, offering a breakthrough in personalized medicine and health equity.
Gray matter is made up of neuron cell bodies and dendrites and is responsible for processing and interpreting information, such as sensation, perception, learning, speech, and cognition. White matter is made up of axons, which are long nerve fibers that connect neurons together from different parts of the brain.
In the study, male brains tended to be greater in volume than female brains. When adjusted for total brain volume, female infants on average had significantly more gray matter, while male infants on average had significantly more white matter in their brains.
Yumnah Khan, a Ph.D. student at the Autism Research Center at the University of Cambridge, who led the study, said, Our study settles an age-old question of whether male and female brains differ at birth. We know there are differences in the brains of older children and adults, but our findings show that they are already present in the earliest days of life.
Farewell, hydraulic Atlas. Hello, fully electric Atlas. Boston Dynamics just showed off the next generation of Atlas and it’s… electric⚡🔋 #bostondynamics #atlas #humanoidrobot #tech #robot #electric.
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Illinois is one of a handful of emerging quantum hubs, competing with regions like Silicon Valley and Boston. Chalsani told Chicago that the state is well-positioned to lead in the quantum race, citing the presence of institutions such as the University of Illinois, University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory, and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
“The number of STEM graduates we produce here is the third most in the country,” she said. “Microsoft hires more people from University of Illinois than any other school. I love stats like that.”
Chalsani acknowledged the challenge of retaining this talent, much of which traditionally leaves the area.
A study from the University of Minnesota Medical School links social stress to accelerated aging, finding that stress damages DNA
DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a molecule composed of two long strands of nucleotides that coil around each other to form a double helix. It is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms that carries genetic instructions for development, functioning, growth, and reproduction. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).
Scientists have identified a key nucleolar complex that could be instrumental in combating neurodegenerative diseases. This complex plays a critical role in maintaining cellular health by regulating protein homeostasis (proteostasis)—the process by which cells ensure proper protein balance and function.
Research reveals that suppressing this nucleolar complex significantly reduces the toxic effects of proteins associated with Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurological disorder that primarily affects older adults, leading to memory loss, cognitive decline, and behavioral changes. It is the most common cause of dementia. The disease is characterized by the buildup of amyloid plaques and tau tangles in the brain, which disrupt cell function and communication. There is currently no cure, and treatments focus on managing symptoms and improving quality of life.
Focused on the Antlia Cluster — a dense assembly of galaxies within the Hydra–Centaurus Supercluster located around 130 million light-years from Earth — the image captures only a small portion of the 230 galaxies that make up the cluster, revealing a diverse array of galaxy types within as well as thousands of background galaxies beyond.
The Dark Energy Camera (DECam) was originally built for the Dark Energy Survey (DES), an international collaboration that began in 2013 and concluded its observations in 2019. Over the course of the survey, scientists mapped hundreds of millions of galaxies in an effort to understand the nature of dark energy — a mysterious force thought to drive the accelerated expansion of our universe. The universe’s acceleration challenges predictions made by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, making dark energy one of the most perplexing mysteries in modern cosmology. Dark matter, meanwhile, refers to the mysterious and invisible substance that seems to hold galaxies together. This is another major conundrum scientists are still trying to fully penetrate.
Observations made of galaxy clusters have already helped scientists unravel some of the processes driving galaxy evolution as they search for clues about the history of our universe. In this sense, galaxy clusters act as “cosmic laboratories” where gravitational influence driven by dark matter and cosmic expansion driven by dark energy can be studied on incredibly large scales.
