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Blog – Page 283

Time is vital to the functioning of our everyday lives: from the watches on our wrists to the GPS systems in our phones. Communication systems, power grids, and financial transactions all rely on precision timing. Seconds are the vital units of measurement in timekeeping.

Surprisingly, there is still debate over the definition of the second. But recent advances in the world’s most accurate forms of timekeeping may have just changed the game.

Accurate timekeeping has always been part of humankind’s social evolution. At the Neolithic monument of Newgrange in Ireland, a special opening above an entrance allows sunlight to illuminate the passage and chamber on the shortest days of the year, around December 21st, the winter solstice.

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Researchers have discovered magnetic fields deep within the merging galaxy Arp 220, suggesting these fields might be crucial for efficient star formation, acting like a cosmic lid that prevents the “boiling over” of star-forming materials.

This breakthrough, observed using the Submillimeter Array in Hawaii, could explain why some galaxies produce stars more effectively than others.

Star Formation Secrets Unveiled

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Scientists have found a way to directly convert sunlight into laser beams in space.

In the future, spacecraft could get rid of the limited fuel problem by tapping into the limitless energy of the sun.

Scientists have identified a way to directly convert sunlight into laser beams in space. This approach would make it possible to transmit power over huge distances, from satellites to lunar bases and even to Earth.

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The research team, led by physics professor Nuh Gedik, concentrated on a material called FePS₃, a type of antiferromagnet that transitions to a non-magnetic state at around −247°F. They hypothesized that precisely exciting the vibrations of FePS₃’s atoms with lasers could disrupt its typical antiferromagnetic alignment and induce a new magnetic state.

In conventional magnets (ferromagnets), all atomic spins align in the same direction, making their magnetic field easy to control. In contrast, antiferromagnets have a more complex up-down-up-down spin pattern that cancels out, resulting in zero net magnetization. While this property makes antiferromagnets highly resistant to stray magnetic influences – an advantage for secure data storage – it also creates challenges in intentionally switching them between “0” and “1” states for computing.

Gedik’s innovative laser-driven approach seeks to overcome this obstacle, potentially unlocking antiferromagnets for future high-performance memory and computational technologies.

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Discovery draws surprising parallels between low-level organisms and sophisticated neurons; lays the groundwork for memory-capable biological systems.

Biologists studying collectives of bacteria, or “biofilms,” have discovered that these so-called simple organisms feature a robust capacity for memory.

Working in the laboratory of University of California San Diego Professor Gürol Süel, Chih-Yu Yang, Maja Bialecka-Fornal and their colleagues found that bacterial cells stimulated with light remembered the exposure hours after the initial stimulus. The researchers were able to manipulate the process so that memory patterns emerged.

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