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Quantum light breakthrough could transform technology

Scientists have achieved a breakthrough in light manipulation by using topological insulators to generate both even and odd terahertz frequencies through high-order harmonic generation (HHG). By embedding these exotic materials into nanostructured resonators, the team was able to amplify light in unprecedented ways, confirming long-theorized quantum effects. This discovery opens the door to new terahertz technologies with vast implications for ultrafast electronics, wireless communication, and quantum computing.

‘Young’ Immune Cells Partly Reverse Alzheimer’s Symptoms in Mice

Specially engineered ‘young’ immune cells could help to reverse the effects of aging and the damage to brain cells caused by diseases such as Alzheimer’s, according to a new study in mice.

In their natural state, these immune cells are known as mononuclear phagocytes, and they flow around the body, cleaning up waste.

As we get older, however, these immune-cell cleaners get a bit sloppy, clearing away less cellular debris and triggering more inflammation than before. Inflammation and protein aggregation are features of many age-related diseases, including Alzheimer’s.

Scientists Unlock Secrets of the Building Blocks of the Universe

Scientists at Indiana University have made a major advance in understanding how the universe came to exist. Their success comes from a collaboration between two large international research teams studying neutrinos, the nearly massless particles that stream endlessly through space and matter while rarely interacting with anything around them. The findings, published in Nature, bring researchers closer to solving one of science’s most profound mysteries: why the universe is filled with matter, stars, planets, and life, rather than nothing at all.

This breakthrough arose from an unprecedented partnership between two world-leading neutrino experiments: NOvA in the United States and T2K in Japan. By combining their data, scientists are gaining new insight into the hidden behavior of neutrinos and their antimatter counterparts, potentially revealing why the early universe avoided self-destruction immediately after the Big Bang.

In each experiment, beams of neutrinos are generated using powerful particle accelerators and then observed after traveling vast distances underground. Detecting them is an enormous challenge; out of countless particles, only a few interact in a way that leaves measurable traces. Using sophisticated detectors and advanced computing tools, researchers reconstruct these rare interactions to understand how neutrinos change as they move through space.

Climate intervention may not be enough to save coffee, chocolate and wine

A new study published in Environmental Research Letters reveals that even advanced climate intervention strategies may not be enough to secure the future of wine grapes, coffee and cacao.

These crops are vital to many economies and provide livelihoods for farmers worldwide. However, they are increasingly vulnerable to the effects of . Rising temperatures and changing cause big variations in from year to year, meaning that farmers cannot rely on the stability of their harvest, and their produce is at risk.

The researchers specifically investigated Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) as a way of mitigating climate change in the top grape, coffee and cacao growing regions of western Europe, South America and West Africa. SAI is a hypothetical solar geoengineering method that involves releasing reflective particles into the stratosphere to cool Earth’s surface, mimicking the natural cooling effects of volcanic eruptions.

AI-generated wildlife videos generate confusion and threaten conservation efforts

A video is circulating on social media in which a leopard enters the backyard of a house where a child is playing, and a cat confronts the leopard and scares it away, protecting the child. The video has garnered over a million “likes” and has been shared more than 15,000 times.

Another series of videos shows bears or deer jumping on a trampoline in a backyard. In another, three raccoons float down a river riding on three crocodiles. All of these videos are created by , and thanks to their high degree of realism, appear to be real.

Given the proliferation of these types of videos and the lack of research on this topic in , researchers from the GESBIO group at the University of Cordoba—José Guerrero, Francisco Sánchez, Antonio Carpio, Rocío Serrano, and Tamara Murillo—have spotlighted this issue, analyzing the different consequences that these AI-generated videos have on the knowledge and conservation of wild species.

Programmer Discovers His Smart Vacuum Was Spying on Him

Among other things, Harishankar discovered that the IRL weaponized roomba was sending logs, configuration files, and even unencrypted Wi-Fi credentials to the manufacturer’s servers. It was also running Google Cartographer, enabling the device to create a detailed 3D map of his home.

Most worryingly of all, the programmer found out that the command that shut down the vacuum was issued remotely – suggesting the manufacturer had root access via pre-installed rtty software, which allowed them to run any command or install any script on the device – meaning ILIFE/Zhiyi either manually bricked the vacuum in response to Harishankar blocking data transmission, or had automated scripts that did so.

XRISM catches a pulsar’s cosmic wind—and sees a surprising result

The universe is a strange place. The X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) orbiting observatory recently highlighted this fact, when it was turned on a pulsar to document its powerful cosmic winds.

The XRISM observatory is a joint mission for NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The mission was also a replacement for the ill-fated Hitomi X-ray observatory, which failed shortly after launch in 2016.

The discovery comes courtesy of ESA’s Resolve instrument, a soft X-ray spectrometer aboard XRISM. The study looked at neutron star GX 13+1. This is a strong X-ray source located in the constellation Sagittarius, very near the galactic plane towards the core of our galaxy. GX 13+1 is about 23,000 light-years distant. The system is a binary, consisting of a pulsar and a massive star in a 24.5-day orbit.

Women better protected against early neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease

A large international study involving nearly 700 participants reveals that women with a precursor condition to Parkinson’s disease show significantly less brain atrophy—decreased cortical thickness in the brain—than men, despite similar clinical severity. This discovery, published in the journal Nature Communications, could lead scientists to explore the role that hormones might play in treating the disease.

Isolated REM sleep behavior disorder is characterized by violent movements during sleep, where people literally “act out” their dreams. Far from being harmless, this disorder is the most reliable early warning sign of neurodegenerative diseases caused by the accumulation of a toxic protein in the brain: more than 70% of affected individuals will eventually develop Parkinson’s disease, Lewy body dementia, or, more rarely, multiple system atrophy (a disease affecting multiple body systems).

“This sleep disorder offers a unique window of opportunity to study the mechanisms of neurodegeneration before major motor or cognitive symptoms appear,” explains the leader of this study.

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