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A new thermometer allows thermal mapping of surfaces with microscale resolution and enables studies of heat flow through materials at cryogenic temperatures.

To study tiny systems such as microelectronic components, researchers would like to map cryogenic temperatures of structures at the nanoscale. But current techniques involve some heating that can spoil the measurements. Now a research team has demonstrated a cryogenic thermometer that provides microscale resolution and that has little effect on the temperature of the system being measured [1]. Single molecules embedded in tiny crystals are the sensors, and they have millikelvin sensitivity. The team says that the technique could be useful for a wide range of cryogenic studies of the thermal properties of surfaces having nanoscale structures.

Understanding and controlling heat flow through materials is essential for developing a wide range of technologies. For example, researchers have begun to use two-dimensional materials, such as graphene, cooled to cryogenic temperatures, to conduct heat away from hot spots in microelectronic devices. In these materials and at these low temperatures, heat can travel long distances without dissipation, which makes these materials extremely effective heat conductors. However, the precise mechanisms for this heat transport are still poorly understood. More generally, researchers would also like to better understand other anomalous thermal properties of materials that apply at these temperatures, such as a regime where heat flows as waves.

Researchers have predicted—and confirmed—a secondary pattern on the ocellated lizard’s scales that is too subtle for our eyes to see.

The more diverse species in your gut, the better it is for your health. Now an international team led by the Hudson Institute of Medical Research has found a way to determine which species are important and how they interact to create a healthy microbiome.

Understanding these relationships opens the door to a new world of medical opportunities for conditions from inflammatory bowel disease to infections, autoimmune diseases and cancers.

Associate Professor Samuel Forster and his team at Hudson Institute of Medical Research, working with collaborators from the Institute for Systems Biology in the U.S. and local collaborators at Monash University and Monash Health, have spent years studying the gut microbiome and working out which species perform which functions.

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The dig has also shed new light on the reign of the ancient queen.

Adam Schrader, October 18, 2023.

NK cells are a type of white blood cell and a component of the immune system. They recognise certain proteins, or antigens, on virus-infected or tumour cells and destroy them.

Credit: juan gaertner / science photo library.

CIPhotos/iStock.

According to main study author Lauren Janczewski, MD, a clinical scholar with ACS Cancer Programs and a general surgery resident at Northwestern University McGaw Medical Center, Chicago, estimated survival rates for cancer patients currently primarily depend on disease stage and do not offer enough details to estimate an accurate survival time.

Researchers have revealed a radical new use of AI — to predict earthquakes.

A team from Tokyo Metropolitan University have used machine-learning techniques to analyze tiny changes in geomagnetic fields.

These allow the system, to predict natural disaster far earlier than current methods.

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People stricken by grief after losing a loved one are looking to scientific advances in hopes of bringing them back — even if only in a digital form.