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Blog – Page 25

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory, astronomers have observed a massive and hot galaxy cluster known as PLCKG287.0+32.9 (or PLCKG287 for short). Results of the observational campaign, presented March 17 on the arXiv pre-print server, deliver important insights into the morphological and thermodynamical properties of this cluster.

Galaxy clusters contain up to thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity. They generally form as a result of mergers and grow by accreting sub-clusters. These processes provide an excellent opportunity to study matter in conditions that cannot be explored in laboratories on Earth. In particular, merging could help us better understand the physics of shock and cold fronts seen in the diffuse intra-cluster medium, the cosmic ray acceleration in clusters, and the self-interaction properties of dark matter.

PLCKG287, also known as PSZ2 G286.98+32.90, is a galaxy cluster at a redshift of 0.38, with a mass of about 1.37 quadrillion solar masses and a temperature of 13 keV. The cluster has an X-ray luminosity in the 2–10 keV band at a level of 1.7 quattuordecillion erg/s.

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Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences revealed that not all forms of quantum nonlocality guarantee intrinsic randomness. They demonstrated that violating two-input Bell inequalities is both necessary and sufficient for certifying randomness, but this equivalence breaks down in scenarios involving multiple inputs. The study is published in Physical Review Letters.

Quantum mechanics is inherently probabilistic, and this intrinsic has been leveraged for applications like random number generation. However, ensuring the security of these random numbers in real-world scenarios is challenging due to potential vulnerabilities in the devices used.

Bell nonlocality, where particles exhibit correlations that cannot be explained by classical physics, offers a way to certify randomness without trusting the devices. Previous studies have shown that violating Bell inequalities can certify randomness in simple two-input, two-output systems. However, the applicability of this principle to more complex, multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) systems has been unclear.

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New research led by a York University professor sheds light on the earliest days of Earth’s formation and potentially calls into question some earlier assumptions in planetary science about the early years of rocky planets. Establishing a direct link between Earth’s interior dynamics occurring within the first 100 million years of its history and its present-day structure, the work is one of the first in the field to combine fluid mechanics with chemistry to better understand Earth’s early evolution.

The study is published in the journal Nature.

“This study is the first to demonstrate, using a , that the first-order features of Earth’s lower mantle structure were established four billion years ago, very soon after the planet came into existence,” says lead author Faculty of Science Assistant Professor Charles-Édouard Boukaré in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at York.

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In a new paper in Nature, a team of researchers from JPMorganChase, Quantinuum, Argonne National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and The University of Texas at Austin describe a milestone in the field of quantum computing, with potential applications in cryptography, fairness and privacy.

Using a 56-qubit quantum computer, they have for the first time experimentally demonstrated certified randomness, a way of generating random numbers from a quantum computer and then using a classical supercomputer to prove they are truly random and freshly generated. This could pave the way toward the use of quantum computers for a practical task unattainable through classical methods.

Scott Aaronson, Schlumberger Centennial Chair of Computer Science and director of the Quantum Information Center at UT Austin, invented the certified randomness protocol that was demonstrated. He and his former postdoctoral researcher, Shih-Han Hung, provided theoretical and analytical support to the experimentalists on this latest project.

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In a new paper, researchers at North Carolina State University show proof of concept for a system that—in a single cycle—actively removes microplastics from water.

The findings, described in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, hold the potential for advances in cleansing oceans and other bodies of water of tiny plastics that may harm human health and the environment.

“The idea behind this work is: Can we make the cleaning materials in the form of soft particles that self-disperse in water, capture microplastics as they sink, and then return to the surface with the captured microplastic contaminants?” said Orlin Velev, the S. Frank and Doris Culberson Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NC State and corresponding author of the paper.

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In an era where data privacy concerns loom large, a new approach in artificial intelligence (AI) could reshape how sensitive information is processed.

Researchers Austin Ebel and Karthik Garimella, Ph.D. students, and Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Brandon Reagen have introduced Orion, a novel framework that brings fully (FHE) to deep learning—allowing AI models to practically and efficiently operate directly on encrypted data without needing to decrypt it first.

The implications of this advancement, published on the arXiv preprint server and scheduled to be presented at the 2025 ACM International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems, are profound.

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Researchers at the UAB have developed a new chemical reaction to form solid polymeric networks using light (photocuring) which will allow the preparation of solid materials with controlled shapes measuring under a thousandth of a millimeter. The research is key for the development of new, performance-enhanced lithographic and 3D printing techniques.

At present, 3D printing is an increasingly widespread and accessible technology, typically involving the formation of solid polymeric materials in a specific region, either by extruding pre-formed polymers or by generating them in situ from their corresponding monomers, the molecules that make up polymers.

However, these techniques often suffer from several drawbacks, such as long printing times or low resolution, preventing the production of printed materials with micrometric dimensions.

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For decades, researchers have explored how electrons behave in quantum materials. Under certain conditions, electrons interact strongly with each other instead of moving independently, leading to exotic quantum states. One such state, first proposed by Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner, is the Wigner crystal—a structured electron arrangement caused by their mutual repulsion. Although widely theorized, experimental proof has been rare.

Researchers at Yonsei University have now provided evidence of Wigner crystallization and the associated electronic rotons. In a study published in the journal Nature, Prof. Keun Su Kim and his team used (ARPES) to analyze black phosphorus doped with alkali metals. Their data revealed aperiodic energy variations, a hallmark of electronic rotons.

Crucially, as they decreased the dopant density within the material, the roton energy gap shrank to zero. This observation confirmed a transition from a fluid-like quantum state to a structured electron lattice, characteristic of Wigner crystallization.

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Researchers from the German Primate Center—Leibniz Institute for Primate Research and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics have discovered two specific genes that evolve exclusively in humans jointly influence the development of the cerebrum. They have thus provided evidence that these genes contribute together to the evolutionary enlargement of the brain.

The work has been published in Science Advances.

The results show that the two genes act in a finely tuned interplay: one ensures that the progenitor cells of the brain multiply more, while the other causes these cells to transform into a different type of progenitor cell—the cells that later form the nerve cells of the brain. In the course of evolution, this interplay has led to the being unique in its size and complexity.

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Everything the brain does—from storing memories to interpreting sights to regulating emotions—requires energy, all produced by cellular organelles called mitochondria.

However, surprisingly little is known about the distribution and diversity of the brain’s tiny energy processors and how they influence brain health. For instance, how many mitochondria does the brain have? Are they uniformly distributed across the whole brain? Are all brain mitochondria the same? Do changes in the brain’s mitochondria affect mood, cognition, and the development of neurological and psychiatric conditions?

To begin answering these and other questions, Columbia University researchers have created MitoBrainMap, the first-ever atlas of the brain’s mitochondria.

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