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How bromoform wrecks ozone: Ultrafast ‘roaming’ step captured in 150 femtoseconds

The halomethane compound bromoform (CHBr3) has devastating effects on the ozone layer. In the upper layers of the atmosphere, bromoform reacts with UV radiation, releasing bromine molecules which destroy ozone molecules. This reaction, however, has long puzzled scientists; the molecules involved seem to wander relative to each other in a way that energetically does not make sense. Scientists at European XFEL have now revealed structural evidence for this roaming mechanism for the first time, establishing it as a universal characteristic of photochemical reactions.

The study, published in Nature Communications, provides key insights into the field of atmospheric photochemistry and how halomethane compounds such as bromoform impact the ozone layer.

The ozone layer envelops Earth some 15–30 km above the planet’s surface. Ozone gas absorbs ultraviolet light as it enters the atmosphere, thereby protecting life on Earth from the effects of the harmful radiation. Ozone, however, reacts readily with other compounds also found in the stratosphere, leading to ozone depletion, and ultimately the creation of the ozone hole.

Search for dark matter intensifies as leading detector reaches milestone

Deep underground in a Canadian mine, a refrigerator nearly 1,000 times colder than outer space has just reached its target temperature—a milestone that brings scientists one step closer to potentially detecting dark matter, the invisible material thought to make up most of the mass in the universe.

For researchers at Texas A&M University, the moment is especially meaningful. Their custom-designed detectors sit at the heart of the Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (SuperCDMS), and they only become sensitive enough to detect possible dark-matter interactions at these extreme temperatures. SuperCDMS is in SNOLAB, an underground research facility in a nickel mine near Sudbury, Ontario.

Scientists there are targeting “light dark matter,” a much lower-mass form of dark matter that’s even harder to detect.

Scientists turn ‘mess’ into breakthrough: Chaotic design unlocks next-generation optical devices

Researchers from the Monash University School of Physics and Astronomy have flipped a long-held assumption in optics, showing that deliberately introducing controlled disorder into ultra-thin optical devices can dramatically increase their power and versatility, without making them bigger or more complex.

Published in Nature Communications, the study reveals a new class of “disordered mosaic metasurfaces” nanostructured materials that manipulate light, capable of performing multiple optical functions simultaneously within a single device.

At the center of the breakthrough is a counterintuitive idea: instead of carefully arranging structures in perfect order, the team scattered them in a controlled, mosaic-like pattern, and found that performance didn’t degrade. In fact, it improved.

When AI meets muscle: Context-aware electrical stimulation guides humans through new movements

Imagine traveling in a foreign country, reaching for a window you’ve never seen before, and instead of struggling to open it, you feel your own muscles gently guide you through the motion, as if an invisible teacher was there, lending their know-how. Now picture that same sensation helping you twist open a child-proof pill bottle, operate a camera, or perform tasks you’ve never practiced before.

This is not science fiction. It’s the vision realized by Ph.D. students Yun Ho and Romain Nith, under the supervision of associate professor Pedro Lopes in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Chicago. Their work, recently honored with the Best Paper Award at the ACM CHI 2026 conference, is turning heads across the human-computer interaction community.

The study is also published on the arXiv preprint server.

After Anthropic’s Mythos AI uncovers thousands of zero-day bugs, top US officials huddle with bank CEOs

The heads of America’s biggest banks met this week with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to weigh the security implications of a new artificial intelligence system developed by Anthropic, according to reports Friday.

The gathering was convened on the sidelines of an event in Washington, with officials calling the extra session to address Anthropic’s newly unveiled Claude Mythos model, Bloomberg and the Financial Times reported.

The US Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Federal Reserve had no comment.

How a key memory center in the brain responds to the unexpected

The hippocampus is a crucial part of the brain that plays a role in memory and learning, especially in remembering directions and locations. New research from the University of Chicago shows how this small, curved structure reorganizes its activity depending on whether a situation matches people’s memories and expectations.

AI chips could get faster with 30-nanometer embedded memory that cuts data shuttling

When we watch videos or ask AI questions, enormous amounts of data are constantly moving inside computers. In particular, data centers that support AI must process and transfer vast amounts of data at very high speeds. However, current computers have a fundamental limitation: the place where calculations are performed and the place where data is stored are physically separated.

Because of this, data has to travel back and forth many times within a chip. This repeated movement takes time and consumes energy, creating a bottleneck that limits both speed and efficiency.

Archaeological survey at Gnith reveals new details about pearl millet’s westward expansion

A study published in Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa sheds new light on the westward spread of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) agriculture in prehistoric West Africa. A recent survey documented its earliest known occurrence in the Lac de Guiers basin of Northern Senegal, around AD 200, coinciding with increasing aridification, which may have driven the expansion of dryland farming communities westward.

The findings are significant as they help illuminate the westward spread of domesticated crops and mark the first time pearl millet spread beyond the Middle Senegal valley.

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