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NASA astronauts Mike Barratt, Matt Dominick, Tracy C. Dyson, Jeanette Epps, Butch Wilmore, and Suni Williams share a Fourth of July message and extend their best wishes to those back on Earth in a video recorded on June 28, 2024.
The crew members are currently living and working aboard the International Space Station. Their missions aim to advance scientific knowledge and test new technologies for future human and robotic missions to the Moon and Mars, including NASA’s Artemis lunar missions.
Continue reading “NASA Astronauts Send Fourth of July Wishes From the International Space Station” »
Meta, which owns Facebook and WhatsApp, announced plans for a sprawling $800 million data center in the rural US county.
Researchers have made the most precise measurement to date of the excited nuclear state of thorium-229, a candidate isotope for an ultraprecise nuclear clock.
A study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour challenges the belief that identical physical actions are governed by the same motor memory, regardless of the decision-making process involved. Researchers from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and HONDA R&D Co., Ltd. have discovered that the brain differentiates and stores motor memories based on the level of uncertainty experienced during decision-making.
In a football (soccer) penalty shootout, a player may decide to confidently kick the ball to the right corner upon observing the goalkeeper moving in the opposite direction. Alternatively, the player might make the same kick while being unsure about the goalkeeper’s movement.
Although the physical action—kicking the ball to the right—is identical in both scenarios, this new study reveals that the brain tags these actions differently based on the decision uncertainty involved. This discovery suggests that motor memories are not simply repetitions of the same action but are influenced by the cognitive processes leading up to them.
A new theory has finally deciphered the physical mechanisms of fracture in soft materials. This discovery could soon lead to new, defect-free materials that are more resistant and durable as well as environmentally friendly. The article “Elastic instability behind brittle fracture” was recently published by Physical Review Letters.
“We have revealed that fracture propagates from the free surface of the material, starting from an elastic instability that breaks the symmetry of the object. Then, the rupture drastically extends with an intricate network of cracks spreading like a turbulence phenomenon similar to what we observe in fluids, like during vortex formation,” explains Pasquale Ciarletta from the MOX Laboratory, Department of Mathematics at Politecnico di Milano.
This discovery stimulates significant applications in various technological sectors. For instance, in the production of micro and nano devices, where materials need to be extremely resistant and defect-free.
Researchers at Rice University are making strides in understanding how chromosome structures change throughout the cell’s life cycle. Their study on motorized processes that actively influence the organization of chromosomes appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
“This research provides a deeper understanding of how motorized processes shape chromosome structures and influence cellular functions,” said Peter Wolynes, study co-author and the D.R. Bullard-Welch Foundation Professor of Science. Wolynes is also a professor of chemistry, biosciences, physics and astronomy and the co-director of the Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP).
The research introduces two types of motorized chain models: swimming motors and grappling motors. These motors play distinct roles in manipulating chromosome structure.
A research team led by Prof. Zhang Guoqing from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has discovered a highly reactive photo-induced charge-transfer complex (PCTC) between amine and imide. Their findings are published in the journal Chem.
Charge transfer between molecules, a critical process in both natural and synthetic systems, plays a fundamental role in photosynthesis, respiration, and various organic synthesis and energy conversion applications.
Despite extensive research, creating stable, light-responsive charge-transfer complexes in artificial systems remains challenging. The discovery of PCTCs addresses this challenge, offering new insights into complex photochemical processes.
Understanding how transport networks, such as river systems, form and evolve is crucial to optimizing their stability and resilience. It turns out that networks are not all alike. Tree-like structures are adequate for transport, while networks containing loops are more damage-resistant. What conditions favor the formation of loops?
Researchers from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw and the University of Arkansas sought to answer this question. The findings, published in Physical Review Letters, show that networks tend to form stable loop structures when flow fluctuations are appropriately tuned. This finding will allow us to understand the structure of dynamic transport networks better.
Transport networks, like blood vessels or river systems, are essential for many natural and human-made systems. Understanding how these networks form and grow is crucial for optimizing their stability and resilience.
Researchers at the Paul-Drude-Institute for Solid State Electronics (PDI) have observed a novel modulation regime characterized by the emergence of previously unseen “acceleration beats” in a modulated semiconductor-based laser.
As they detail in a paper published today in Nature Communications, the key—and somewhat counterintuitive—feature of this novel regime is the ability to coherently manipulate quantum systems using modulation periods longer than the coherence time, provided that the modulation amplitude is large enough.
Harmonic modulation of light sources, such as lasers, is the cornerstone of many modern and emergent telecommunications technologies. In this regard, two regimes of modulation are well-known: the adiabatic regime and the non-adiabatic regime.
