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A shadowy form of light within a universe of hypothetical particles is getting some serious consideration as a means of discovering the identity of dark matter.

According to a comprehensive new analysis under quantum chromodynamics, the dark photon is a much better fit for the observed results of particle collider experiments than the standard model of particle physics, by quite a wide margin.

In fact, a team of researchers led by physicist Nicholas Hunt-Smith of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics and the University of Adelaide in Australia calculated a confidence level of 6.5 sigma, suggesting the odds that dark photons don’t explain the observations are in the ballpark of one in a billion.

Human writing and drawing dates back at least 30,000 years and incorporates traditional techniques such as carving, engraving, and printing/writing with ink, as well as more novel methods such as electron lithography. Now a team of German physicists has figured out a unique method for writing in water and other fluid substrates, according to a recent paper published in the journal Small.

According to the authors, most classical writing methods involve the same basic approach, in which a line is carved out or ink deposited. On a solid substrate, strong intermolecular forces help the written figures hold their shape, but that’s not the case for surfaces submerged in fluids. Prior research has used scanning probe lithography to “write’ on self-assembled monolayers submerged in fluids, or to bring structures at the micron scale using two-photon polymerization. ” There are now even commercial scuba diver slates available for underwater writing on a substrate,” they wrote.

All of these methods still rely on a substrate, however. The German team wanted to devise a means of literally writing into a fluid. Such a method would need to be robust enough to counter the rapid dispersion of drawn lines, and they would need a very tiny pen that didn’t stir up lots of turbulence as it moved through the fluid medium. (The smaller the object moving through a fluid, the fewer vortices, or eddies, it will create.)

The Department of Defense has teamed up with Google to build an AI-powered microscope that can help doctors identify cancer.

The tool is called an Augmented Reality Microscope, and it will usually cost health systems between $90,000 to $100,000.

Experts believe the ARM will help support doctors in smaller labs as they battle with workforce shortages and mounting caseloads.


The pair ran the case through the special microscope, and Zafar was right. In seconds, the AI flagged the exact part of the tumor that Zafar believed was more aggressive. After the machine backed him up, Zafar said his colleague was convinced.

Dr. James Tabor is a retired Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte where he taught Christian origins and ancient Judaism for thirty-three years, serving as Chair of the Department for a decade. His Ph.D. is from the University of Chicago (1981). He previously taught at the University of Notre Dame and at the College of William and Mary.

Dr. Tabor now devotes himself full-time to research, archaeological field work, and publishing. Over the past three decades he has combined his work on ancient texts with extensive field work in archaeology in Israel and Jordan. Since 2008 he has been co-director, along with Shimon Gibson, of the acclaimed Mt. Zion excavation in Jerusalem and been involved in a half dozen other archaeological projects in the Holy Land over the past thirty years.

Dr. Tabor has worked at several sites in Israel and Jordan including Qumran, site of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1991, 1996), Wadi el-Yabis in Jordan (1992, 1996), Masada (1994), and Sepphoris (1996, 1999, 2000). In 2000 he teamed up with Dr. Shimon Gibson to excavate a newly discovered cave at Suba, west of Jerusalem that dates back to the Iron Age but was used for ritual rites in the early Roman period (2000−2006). Tabor and Gibson were also the principals involved in the discovery a 1st century Jewish burial shroud in a looted tomb at Akeldama. Their latest project is an ongoing excavation in Jerusalem on Mt Zion (Southwestern Hill) just outside Mt Zion Gate along the Turkish city wall (2006−2022).

New research provides insight about the bedrock scientific principle that mitochondrial DNA -; the distinct genetic code embedded in the organelle that serves as the powerplant of every cell in the body -; is exclusively passed down by the mother.

The study, a collaboration among Oregon Health & Science University and other institutions, published today in the journal Nature Genetics.

Scientists have long recognized the fact that mitochondrial DNA, or mtDNA, comes exclusively from egg cells in humans, meaning only the mother contributes the genetic code carried by thousands of mitochondria necessary for energy production in every cell in the body.