Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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For decades, astronomers have discovered hundreds of protoplanetary disks—structures believed to represent the early stages of our own solar system. However, most of these discoveries lie within our neighborhood, which may not reflect the extreme conditions found in other parts of the Milky Way.

Among the most dynamic and turbulent regions is the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) near the Milky Way galactic center, where and density may shape star and planet formation in fundamentally different ways. Studying protoplanetary systems in the CMZ provides a rare opportunity to test and refine our theories of solar system formation.

An international team of researchers have conducted the most sensitive, highest-resolution, and most complete survey to date of three representative molecular clouds in the Milky Way’s CMZ. Their observations revealed over five hundred dense cores—the sites where stars are being born.

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“The backing of these global financial institutions is a testament to the strength of our business and the resonance of our mission,” Krishna Rao, Anthropic’s finance chief, said in a statement.

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University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, San Diego researchers developed an injectable sealant for rapid hemostasis and tissue adhesion in soft, elastic organs.

Formulated with methacryloyl-modified human recombinant tropoelastin (MeTro) and Laponite silicate nanoplatelets (SNs), the engineered hydrogel demonstrated substantial improvements in tissue adhesion strength and hemostatic efficacy in preclinical models involving lung and arterial injuries.

Injuries to such as lungs, heart, and complicate surgical closure due to their constant motion and elasticity. Sutures, wires, and staples are mechanically fixed, risking when applied to tissues that expand and contract with each breath or heartbeat. Existing hemostatic agents, including fibrin-based sealants, aim to stem blood flow but may trigger intense coagulation responses in patients with clotting disorders.

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Although glasses exhibit disordered atomic structures, X-ray and neutron scattering reveal a subtle periodicity. Researchers at the University of Tsukuba have demonstrated that this hidden periodicity—referred to as “invisible order”—plays a critical role in determining vibrational fluctuations in the terahertz (THz) frequency range, which significantly influence the physical properties of glass.

The research is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

At first glance, glass appears to be a random network of atoms. However, X-ray and neutron beam analysis reveals a faint but consistent periodic feature known as the first sharp diffraction peak (FSDP).

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Two-dimensional (2D) materials have proved to be a promising platform for studying exotic quasiparticles, such as excitons. Excitons are bound states that emerge when an electron in a material absorbs energy and rises to a higher energy level, leaving a hole (i.e., the absence of an electron) at the site that it used to occupy.

Researchers at Heriot-Watt University and other institutes recently observed two distinct exciton states in bilayer molybdenum diselenide (MoSe₂) with a 2H-stacked configuration, which involves the alignment of two monolayers with a characteristic rotational symmetry. Their paper, published in Physical Review Letters, reports the observation of one of these states known as quadrupolar excitons in 2H-MoSe₂

“Our work was inspired by the ongoing effort to explore and control excitonic phenomena in atomically thin semiconductor materials, which are rich platforms for studying ,” Mauro Brotons-Gisbert, senior author of the paper, told Phys.org. “In particular, bilayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) like MoSe₂ naturally host interlayer excitons with a dipolar character— of electrons and holes residing in adjacent layers.”

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Millions of years of evolution have enabled some marine animals to grow complex protective shells composed of multiple layers that work together to dissipate physical stress. In a new study, engineers have found a way to mimic the behavior of this type of layered material, such as seashell nacre, by programming individual layers of synthetic material to work collaboratively under stress. The new material design is poised to enhance energy-absorbing systems such as wearable bandages and car bumpers with multistage responses that adapt to collision severity.

Many past studies have focused on reverse engineering to replicate the behavior of natural materials like bone, feathers and wood to reproduce their nonlinear responses to mechanical stress. A new study, led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign civil and environmental engineering professor Shelly Zhang and professor Ole Sigmund of the Technical University of Denmark, looked beyond reverse engineering to develop a framework for programmable multilayered materials capable of responding to local disturbances through microscale interconnections.

The study findings are published in the journal Science Advances.

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