Dr. Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH ( https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/michael-t-osterholm-phd-mph ) is Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Publi…
Recent findings from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument suggest the possibility of new physics that extends beyond the current standard model of cosmology. Using the lab’s new Aurora exascale computing system, the research team conducted high-resolution simulations of the universe’s evoluti
MIT scientists have snapped the first-ever images of individual atoms interacting freely in space, making visible the elusive quantum effects that govern their behavior. Using a unique technique that briefly traps atoms in place with a lattice of light, the researchers captured never-before-seen
A Princeton team uncovered a surprising chiral quantum state in a supposedly non-chiral material, shedding light on elusive symmetry-breaking effects and opening doors to new quantum technologies. Chirality, the property of being different from one’s mirror image, has fascinated scientists in fie
Arianna Gleason is an award-winning scientist at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory who studies matter in its most extreme forms—from roiling magma in the center of our planet to the conditions inside the heart of distant stars. During Fusion Energy Week, Gleason discussed the current state of fusion energy research and how SLAC is helping push the field forward.
Fusion is at the heart of every star. The tremendous pressure and temperature at the center of a star fuses atoms together, creating many of the elements you see on the periodic table and generating an immense amount of energy.
Fusion is exciting, because it could provide unlimited energy to our power grid. We’re trying to replicate fusion energy here on Earth, though it’s a tremendous challenge for science and engineering.
In a paper published in Physical Review C, the ALICE collaboration reports measurements that quantify the transmutation of lead into gold in CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Transforming the base metal lead into the precious metal gold was a dream of medieval alchemists. This long-standing quest, known as chrysopoeia, may have been motivated by the observation that dull gray, relatively abundant lead is of a similar density to gold, which has long been coveted for its beautiful color and rarity. It was only much later that it became clear that lead and gold are distinct chemical elements and that chemical methods are powerless to transmute one into the other.
With the dawn of nuclear physics in the 20th century, it was discovered that heavy elements could transform into others—either naturally, by radioactive decay—or in the laboratory, under a bombardment of neutrons or protons. Though gold has been artificially produced in this way before, the ALICE collaboration has now measured the transmutation of lead into gold by a new mechanism involving near-miss collisions between lead nuclei at the LHC.
In collisions of argon and scandium atomic nuclei, scientists from the international NA61/SHINE experiment have observed a clear anomaly indicative of a violation of one of the most important symmetries of the quark world: the approximate flavor symmetry between up and down quarks.
The existence of the anomaly may be due to hitherto unknown inadequacies in current nuclear collision models, but the potential connection to the long-sought-after “new physics” cannot be ruled out.
If we were to assemble a structure using the same number of wooden and plastic blocks, we would expect the proportions between the blocks of the two types not to alter after it has been dismantled. Physicists have so far lived in the belief that a similar symmetry of the initial and final states, called flavor symmetry, occurs in collisions between particles containing up and down quarks.
Eyes may be the window to the soul, but a person’s biological age could be reflected in their facial characteristics. Investigators from Mass General Brigham developed a deep learning algorithm called “FaceAge” that uses a photo of a person’s face to predict biological age and survival outcomes for patients with cancer.
They found that patients with cancer, on average, had a higher FaceAge than those without and appeared about five years older than their chronological age.
Older FaceAge predictions were associated with worse overall survival outcomes across multiple cancer types. They also found that FaceAge outperformed clinicians in predicting short-term life expectancies of patients receiving palliative radiotherapy.
Microplastic pollution is a severe ecological and environmental issue and is also one of the important risk factors affecting human health. Polylactic acid (PLA), a medical biodegradable material approved by the FDA, is an important material to replace petroleum-based plastics.
Although PLA has achieved large-scale application in food packaging, its brittle characteristics make it more likely to generate microplastic particles. These particles can efficiently invade the gut through the food chain and trigger unknown biotransformation processes at the microbiota–host interface. Therefore, elucidating precisely the transformation map of PLA microplastics within the living body is crucial for assessing their safety.
In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a research team led by Prof. Chen Chunying from the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has revealed the complete biological fate of PLA microplastics (PLA-MPs) in the gut of mice, particularly focusing on their microbial fermentation into endogenous metabolites and their involvement in the carbon cycle.
Punishing conditions in the clouds of Venus could be home to a DNA-like molecule capable of forming genes in life very different to that on Earth, according to a new study.
Long thought to be hostile to complex organic chemistry because of the absence of water, the clouds of Earth’s sister planet are made of droplets of sulfuric acid, chlorine, iron, and other substances.
But research led by Wrocław University of Science and Technology shows how peptide nucleic acid (PNA)—a structural cousin of DNA—can survive under lab conditions made to mimic conditions that can occur in Venus’ perpetual clouds.