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Mathematicians reveal factors driving gun sales in America

As gun sales in the United States continue to soar, researchers at Georgia State University have uncovered insights into what drives Americans to buy firearms. A new study published in PNAS Nexus journal reveals the complex interaction among media coverage, social media activity and firearm purchases.

Led by Igor Belykh, a Distinguished University Professor of Applied Mathematics at Georgia State, the research team—including Kevin Slote, a Ph.D. student in Georgia State’s mathematics and statistics ; Kevin Daley, a recent graduate; and co-authors from New York University (NYU) and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)—analyzed daily data from 2012 to 2020. Their study explores how gun-rights organizations and regulation advocates influence short-term firearm purchases through social media activity and .

The study found that social media activity by both sides directly affects gun buying behavior, often triggering purchases within days of posts. Media coverage of violent crime also plays a role, as it spurs discussions among these organizations, further influencing toward gun ownership.

Carefully tuned laser beam protects quantum spins from noise

Researchers have discovered a simple yet powerful way to protect atoms from losing information—a key challenge in developing reliable quantum technologies.

By shining a single, carefully tuned on a gas of atoms, they managed to keep the atoms’ internal spins synchronized, dramatically reducing the rate at which information is lost. In quantum sensors and , atoms often lose their —or “spin”—when they collide with each other or the walls of their container.

This phenomenon, known as spin relaxation, severely limits the performance and stability of such devices. Traditional methods to counteract it have required operating in extremely low magnetic fields and using bulky magnetic shielding.

Extracting Nonlinear Dynamical Response Functions from Time Evolution

We develop a general framework based on the functional derivative to extract nonlinear dynamical response functions from the temporal evolution of physical quantities, without explicitly computing multipoint correlation functions. We validate our approach by calculating the second-and third-order optical responses in the Rice—Mele model and further apply it to a many-body interacting system using a tensor network method. This framework is broadly applicable to any method that can compute real-time dynamics, offering a powerful and versatile tool for investigating nonlinear responses in dynamical systems.

Brain Cells Keep Growing Even in Old Age, Study Finds

A new study reveals that neurons in the brain’s memory center, the hippocampus, continue to form well into late adulthood. A recent study published in Science offers strong new evidence that the human brain continues to generate neurons in the hippocampus, its key memory region, well into later s

This Mineral Could Hold the Key to Earth’s Hidden Ocean

New research reveals that only the oldest and fastest-sinking oceanic plates can transport water deep into Earth’s mantle, due to the unique heat-transferring properties of the mineral olivine.

Because of the way the mineral olivine conducts heat through radiation, only oceanic tectonic plates that are more than 60 million years old and moving downward at speeds greater than 10 centimeters per year are able to stay cool enough to carry water deep into the Earth’s mantle.

This conclusion comes from a team of researchers at the University of Potsdam and the Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) Potsdam, along with international partners. They reached this finding after measuring how transparent olivine is to infrared light under the extreme pressure and temperature conditions found within the Earth’s mantle. Their study was published in Nature Communications.

Quantum Breakthrough Could Make Your Devices 1,000 Times Faster

Your days of being frustrated by a sluggish smartphone or laptop could be coming to an end: scientists have discovered a new technique for controlling electronic states in quantum materials that could eventually make our gadgets up to 1,000 times faster.

Quantum materials are those that display strange behaviors and properties governed by quantum mechanics. They provide a glimpse into a separate realm of physics, where the standard laws don’t apply.

Here, researchers from institutions across the US manipulated the temperature of a layered quantum material called 1T-TaS₂, enabling it to instantly shift between two opposite electronic phases: insulation and conduction. That ability to block or allow the flow of electricity is key to how transistors in computer chips work.

Fake Gaming and AI Firms Push Malware on Cryptocurrency Users via Telegram and Discord

The attack chains begin when one of these adversary-controlled accounts messages a victim through X, Telegram, or Discord, urging them to test out their software in exchange for a cryptocurrency payment.

Should the target agree to the test, they are redirected to a fictitious website from where they are promoted to enter a registration code provided by the employee to download either a Windows Electron application or an Apple disk image (DMG) file, depending on the operating system used.

On Windows systems, opening the malicious application displays a Cloudflare verification screen to the victim while it covertly profiles the machine and proceeds to download and execute an MSI installer. Although the exact nature of the payload is unclear, it’s believed that an information stealer is run at this stage.