Lifeboat Foundation

A massive collision of galaxies sparked by one traveling at a scarcely-believable 2 million mph (3.2 million km/h) has been seen in unprecedented detail by one of Earth’s most powerful telescopes.

The dramatic impact was observed in Stephan’s Quintet, a nearby galaxy group made up of five galaxies first sighted almost 150 years ago.

It sparked an immensely powerful shock akin to a “sonic boom from a jet fighter”—the likes of which are among the most striking phenomena in the universe.

Strong interactions between subatomic particles like electrons occur when they are at a specific energy level known as the van Hove singularity. These interactions give rise to unusual properties in quantum materials, such as superconductivity at high temperatures, potentially ushering in exciting technologies of tomorrow.

Research suggests topological materials that allow electrons to flow only on their surface to be promising quantum materials. However, the quantum properties of these materials remain relatively unexplored.

A study co-led by Nanyang Asst Prof Chang Guoqing of NTU’s School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences identified two types of van Hove singularities in the topological materials rhodium monosilicide (RhSi) and cobalt monosilicide (CoSi).

Protons and neutrons–known collectively as nucleons–are both the building blocks of matter, but one of these particles has received a bit more attention in certain types of nuclear physics experiments.

Until now. New results published in Physical Review Letters describe a first-time glimpse of the internal structure of the neutron thanks to the development of a special, 10-years-in-the-making detector installed in Experimental Hall B at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.

“We detected the neutron for the first time in this type of reaction, and it’s quite an important result for the study of nucleons,” said Silvia Niccolai, a research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).

People with photosensitive epilepsy could benefit from a prototype pair of glasses with lenses that block out wavelengths that are known to cause seizures in some people.

In a study published in Cell Reports Physical Science, researchers from the University of Glasgow and University of Birmingham have developed a prototype of a liquid crystal lens that they believe could help photosensitive epilepsy sufferers.

The lenses are controlled by very small changes in temperature that can be built into the lens, and when activated can block more than 98% of light in the 660–720nm wavelength range, known to affect the greatest number of people suffering from photosensitive epilepsy.

A ultrasound technique from the University of Nottingham will allow the production of sharper images inside live cells without causing damage at resolutions that were previously unattainable.

The project, from the Faculty of Engineering’s Optics and Photonics research group, explores a way to look deep inside tiny structures, such as single cells, that regular light-based microscopes cannot, and without harming them. The work is published in the journal Photoacoustics.

This technique has been used to measure the stiffness of cancer cells at a single-cell level, which could allow for new methods of early cancer diagnosis to be developed.

Achieving the full potential of quantum computing will require the development of quantum gates—circuits that carry out fundamental operations—with much higher fidelity than is currently available. An average gate fidelity surpassing 99.9%, for example, would enable not only efficient fault-tolerant quantum computing with error correction but also effective mitigation of errors in current noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices. In this work, we report on a two-qubit gate that achieves that milestone and sustains it for 12 h.

Superconducting qubits, with their ease of scalability and controllability, are prime candidates for building quantum processors. One type known as a transmon is renowned for its high coherence and ease of manufacturing and is thus already widely embraced in academia and industry. In general, single-qubit gates need negligible coupling between two transmon qubits, whereas two-qubit gates require a large coupling. This necessitates a coupling mechanism that can be tuned to both nearly zero and a very large value.

Various coupling schemes based on transmons have been shown to address this issue. Our work focuses on an innovative coupler known as the double-transmon coupler (DTC), which has been only theoretically proposed. We report the first experimental realization of the DTC, achieving gate fidelities of 99.9% for two-qubit gates and 99.98% for single-qubit gates, demonstrated by using two transmons coupled by the DTC.

The Human Cell Atlas aims to map the location, identity, and function of every cell in the human body by 2026.

Scientists with the Human Cell Atlas have profiled 100 million cells from over 10,000 people worldwide, aiming to map the human body down to the cellular level.

DNA can be damaged by normal cellular processes as well as external factors such as UV radiation and chemicals. Such damage can lead to breaks in the DNA strand. If DNA damage is not properly repaired, mutations can occur, which may result in diseases like cancer. Cells use repair systems to fix this damage, with specialized proteins locating and binding to the damaged regions. Now, researchers from the Kind Group at the Hubrecht Institute have mapped the activity of repair proteins in individual human cells. The study demonstrates how these proteins collaborate in so-called “hubs” to repair DNA damage. These findings may lead to new cancer therapies and other treatments where DNA repair is essential.

The researchers published their findings in Nature Communications in an article titled, “Genome-wide profiling of DNA repair proteins in single cells.”

“Accurate repair of DNA damage is critical for maintenance of genomic integrity and cellular viability,” the researchers wrote. “Because damage occurs non-uniformly across the genome, single-cell resolution is required for proper interrogation, but sensitive detection has remained challenging. Here, we present a comprehensive analysis of repair protein localization in single human cells using DamID and ChIC sequencing techniques.”

This age-related deterioration affects both innate and adaptive immunity, compromising immune function and leading to chronic inflammation that accelerates aging. Immunosenescence is characterized by alterations in immune cell populations and impaired functionality, resulting in increased susceptibility to infections, diminished vaccine efficacy, and higher prevalence of age-related diseases. Chronic low-grade inflammation further exacerbates these issues, contributing to a decline in overall health and resilience. This review delves into the characteristics of immunosenescence and examines the various intrinsic and extrinsic factors contributing to immune aging and how the hallmarks of aging and cell fates can play a crucial role in this process. Additionally, it discusses the impact of sex, age, social determinants, and gut microbiota health on immune aging, illustrating the complex interplay of these factors in altering immune function. Furthermore, the concept of immune resilience is explored, focusing on the metrics for assessing immune health and identifying strategies to enhance immune function. These strategies include lifestyle interventions such as diet, regular physical activity, stress management, and the use of gerotherapeutics and other approaches. Understanding and mitigating the effects of immunosenescence are crucial for developing interventions that support robust immune responses in aged individuals.

The immune system plays a crucial role in protecting our bodies from harmful pathogens. It is divided into two segments: innate immunity and adaptive immunity. The innate immune system acts as an immediate but non-specific first responder to defend against pathogens, composed of phagocytic and natural killer cells. Besides innate immune cells, another important component of the innate system includes physical barriers like skin and mucous membranes. Meanwhile, adaptive immunity is more specialized and requires time to mount a high-affinity and specific response, relying on anticipatory receptors that recognize pathogen-specific antigens. The adaptive immune response is centered around B and T lymphocytes, which are produced in the bone marrow and thymus, respectively (Farber, 2020; Lam et al., 2024). With age, the ability of our immune system to mount productive and timely responses to pathogens diminishes.