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What’s powering these mysterious, bright blue cosmic flashes? Astronomers find a clue

Among the more puzzling cosmic phenomena discovered over the past few decades are brief and very bright flashes of blue and ultraviolet light that gradually fade away, leaving behind faint X-ray and radio emissions. With slightly more than a dozen discovered so far, astronomers have debated whether they are produced by an unusual type of supernova or by interstellar gas falling into a black hole.

Analysis of the brightest such burst to date, discovered last year, shows that they’re neither.

Instead, a team of astronomers led by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, concluded that these so-called luminous fast blue optical transients (LFBOTs) are caused by an extreme tidal disruption, where a black hole of up to 100 times the mass of our sun completely shreds its massive star companion within days.

Possible ‘superkilonova’ exploded not once but twice

When the most massive stars reach the ends of their lives, they blow up in spectacular supernova explosions, which seed the universe with heavy elements such as carbon and iron. Another type of explosion—the kilonova—occurs when a pair of dense dead stars, called neutron stars, smash together, forging even heavier elements such as gold and uranium. Such heavy elements are among the basic building blocks of stars and planets.

So far, only one kilonova has been unambiguously confirmed to date, a historic event known as GW170817, which took place in 2017. In that case, two neutron stars smashed together, sending ripples in space-time, known as gravitational waves, as well as light waves across the cosmos.

The cosmic blast was detected in gravitational waves by the National Science Foundation’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and its European partner, the Virgo gravitational-wave detector, and in light waves by dozens of ground-based and space telescopes around the world.

Rare brown dwarf discovered orbiting ancient star

Astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and elsewhere report the discovery of a new brown dwarf about 60 times more massive than Jupiter. The newfound substellar object, designated TOI-7019 b, is a brown dwarf known to orbit a star that is part of the Milky Way’s ancient thick disk. The finding is detailed in a paper published December 5 on the arXiv preprint server.

Brown dwarfs (BDs) are intermediate objects between planets and stars, occupying the mass range between 13 and 80 Jupiter masses (0.012 and 0.076 solar masses). However, although many brown dwarfs have been detected to date, these objects orbiting other stars are a rare find.

Recently, a team of astronomers led by CfA’s Jea Adams Redai found another rare brown dwarf, which is a companion to the star TOI-7019. This star was initially observed with NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which detected a transit signal in its light curve. Now, follow-up observations of this star confirmed that the transit signal is produced by a substellar object.

Psilocybin shows greater potential than cannabinoids for obsessive-compulsive disorder treatment

In a review of previous studies, McMaster University researchers observe a stronger signal for psilocybin as a treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder than cannabinoids.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder involves persistent, intrusive thoughts and repetitive mental or physical behaviors, and requires long-term treatment to alleviate symptoms. The ethology of the disorder appears complex, involving multiple biological pathways. Imbalances in central serotonin, dopamine, and glutamate activities are widely thought to play a causative role, placing neurochemistry at the center of many treatment strategies.

First-line treatment includes selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and cognitive behavioral therapy using exposure and response prevention. Roughly 40–60% of patients remain unresponsive to psychotherapy or pharmacotherapy, alone or combined, placing many people in the category of treatment-resistant OCD.

Engineers develop real-time membrane imaging for sustainable water filtration

CU Boulder researchers have introduced a solution to improving the performance of large-scale desalination plants: stimulated Raman scattering (SRS).

Published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, the laser-based imaging method allows researchers to observe in real-time membrane fouling, a process where unwanted materials such as salts, minerals and microorganisms accumulate on filtration membranes.

Worldwide, 55% of people experience water scarcity at least one month a year, and that number is expected to climb to 66% by the end of the century.

Electrochemical tuning of Ni-rich cathodes curbs c-collapse, enhancing lithium-ion battery durability

Lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) remain the most widely used rechargeable batteries worldwide, due to their light weight, high energy densities and their short charging times. Energy engineers have been trying to identify new materials and strategies that could help to further boost the energy stored by LiBs, while also extending their lifespan (i.e., the period for which they can be used reliably).

LiBs work by moving charged lithium atoms (i.e., ions) between a positive electrode (i.e., cathode) and a negative electrode (i.e., anode). When lithium ions enter and leave these materials, they can experience significant structural changes.

These changes include the sudden shrinkage of the spacing between the materials’ horizontal layers, which can be experimentally monitored through the crystal’s c-lattice parameter. This phenomenon, referred to as c-collapse, can deform the material, crack the particles and in turn shorten the life of batteries.

MXene-based e-tattoos harvest energy and monitor health in real time

Researchers at Boise State University have developed a breakthrough in wearable electronics: a multifunctional electronic tattoo (e‑tattoo) that integrates energy harvesting, energy storage, and real‑time biometric sensing into a single, skin‑conformal platform.

The innovation leverages electrospun poly(vinyl butyral‑co‑vinyl alcohol‑co‑vinyl acetate) (PVBVA) fibers coated with titanium carbide (Ti₃C₂Tₓ) MXenes, offering a scalable, biocompatible, and durable alternative to conventional wearable devices that often rely on rigid substrates or external gels.

The work is published in the journal Advanced Science.

Vital intertwining: Blood parasite’s chainmail-like DNA structure could inspire next-generation materials

As tough as medieval chainmail armor and as soft as a contact lens. This material is not taken from science fiction, it is a natural structure made of thousands of DNA circles interlinked with each other. Studying it can help us advance our knowledge in many fields, from biophysics and infectious diseases to materials science and biomedical engineering.

This topic is the subject of “Organisation and dynamics of individual DNA segments in topologically complex genomes,” an article that has been published in Nucleic Acid Research.

The study, which also appeared on the front cover of the journal, is the result of a collaboration between the Department of Physics of the University of Trento, with Guglielmo Grillo under the supervision of Luca Tubiana, and the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Edinburgh, with Saminathan Ramakrishnan and Auro Varat Patnaik, supervised by Davide Michieletto.

Not everyone reads the room the same: Some brains perform a complicated assessment—while others take a shortcut

Are you a social savant who easily reads people’s emotions? Or are you someone who leaves an interaction with an unclear understanding of another person’s emotional state?

New UC Berkeley research suggests that those differences stem from a fundamental way our brains compute facial and contextual details, potentially explaining why some people are better at reading the room than others—sometimes, much better.

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