Sleep supports memory consolidation, but can it also facilitate memory reorganization? This study reveals that N2 sleep, but not N1 sleep during a nap, increases the likelihood of having an ‘aha’ moment about a previous decision-making task, and that spectral slopes of EEG power spectra predict future insights.
Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) continues to devastate the global swine industry, yet the structural basis of how small molecules block its entry into host cells remains unclear. Researchers at the University of Tsukuba and Mahidol University developed a refined model of the PRRSV receptor domain CD163-SRCR5 using state-of-the-art computational approaches, offering new avenues for rational drug design.
While traditional drug discovery often relies on static crystal structures, many biologically important proteins, including the scavenger receptor CD163-SRCR5, contain flexible loop regions poorly captured by crystallography. These loops are critical for recognizing ligands and viral proteins, making them challenging yet attractive drug targets.
In their new study published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, the researchers used molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, ensemble docking, and fragment molecular orbital calculations to generate a dynamic, physiologically relevant structural model of the CD163-SRCR5 domain.
Superconductivity is an advantageous physical phenomenon observed in some materials, which entails an electrical resistance of zero below specific critical temperatures. This phenomenon is known to arise following the formation of so-called Cooper pairs (i.e., pairs of electrons).
There are two known types of superconductivity, known as conventional and unconventional superconductivity. In conventional superconductors, the formation of Cooper pairs is mediated by the interaction between electrons and phonons (i.e., vibrations in a crystal’s lattice), as explained by Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory.
Unconventional superconductors, on the other hand, are materials that exhibit a superconductivity that is not prompted by electron–phonon interactions. While many past studies have tried to shed light on the mechanisms underpinning unconventional superconductivity, its underlying physics remains poorly understood.
According to the latest studies led by Heidelberg University astronomers, low-mass stars quite often host Earth-like planets. Data collected as part of the CARMENES project were the basis of this finding. By analyzing the data, an international research team succeeded in identifying four new exoplanets and determining their properties.
At the same time, the researchers were able to show that Earth-like planets are found quite frequently in the orbit of stars with less than a sixth of the mass of our sun. These findings could support the search for potentially life-sustaining worlds in our cosmic neighborhood. The work is published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
The CARMENES spectrograph system at the Calar Alto Observatory near Almería (Spain) was developed and built at the Königstuhl Observatory of Heidelberg University. It aids astronomers in the search for exoplanets that orbit so-called M-dwarfs. These stars have a mass of less than one-tenth to half the mass of our sun. M-dwarfs are the most abundant stars in our galaxy. They exhibit tiny periodic movements caused by the gravitational pull of orbiting planets, from which researchers can infer the existence of previously undiscovered worlds.
Methane (CH4), one of the most abundant natural gases on Earth, is still widely used to power several buildings and to fuel some types of vehicles. Despite its widespread use, storing and transporting this gas safely remains challenging, as it is highly flammable and requires compression at high pressures of around 25 megapascals (MPa).
Most existing solutions to store CH4 at high pressures rely on expensive equipment and infrastructure, such as reinforced tanks, specialized valves and advanced safety systems. In addition, damage to this equipment or its malfunction that prompts leakage of gas can lead to explosions, fires and other serious accidents.
Some researchers have thus been trying to devise alternative strategies to store and transport CH4 that are both safer and more cost-effective. One of these recently proposed methods, known as absorbed natural gas (ANG), entails the use of nanoporous materials, solid materials containing tiny pores in which gas molecules could be trapped at moderate pressures.
Natural crystals fascinate with their vibrant colors, their nearly flawless appearance and their manifold symmetrical forms. But researchers are interested in them for quite different reasons: Among the countless minerals already known, they always discover some materials with unusual magnetic properties.
One of these is atacamite, which exhibits magnetocaloric behavior at low temperatures—that is, the material’s temperature changes significantly when it is subjected to a magnetic field. A team headed by TU Braunschweig and the HZDR has now investigated this rare property. In the long term, the results, now published in Physical Review Letters, could help to develop new materials for energy-efficient magnetic cooling.
The emerald-green mineral atacamite, named for the place it was first found, the Atacama Desert in Chile, gets its characteristic coloring from the copper ions it contains. These ions also determine the material’s magnetic properties: they each have an unpaired electron whose spin gives the ion a magnetic moment —comparable to a tiny needle on a compass.
Using only a single-crystal piezoelectric thin wafer of lithium niobate (LN) instead of the usual two-part structure, a group from Nagoya University in Japan has created a deformable mirror that changes X-ray beam size by more than 3,400 times. This improved tuning range enhances both imaging and analysis, especially for the X-rays used in industry.
Their technique is based on LN, a material that has piezoelectricity, meaning that it changes its surface shape in response to voltage. Traditional X-ray mirrors are rigid and resistant to being deformed, making it difficult to adapt them to changing experimental conditions in real time, but the new technique can significantly change beam size, making it useful for a range of situations encountered in industry.
The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports.
The original goal of the study was to get this asymmetry to a point of perfect isolation—that is, where there is zero interaction in one direction. They successfully achieved this goal by demonstrating a giant optical isolation effect, where the propagation of light in one direction was a million times easier than in the opposite direction.
But while exploring their test devices, the engineers encountered a surprise. Their approach was so efficient that they could even get past the isolation point to where the sign of the coupling simply flipped and the phase became direction dependent. This was something that had not been seen before in time modulated coupling and is an easy path to photonic gyration.
Going forward, the Illinois researchers will work to expand their findings. They are working with their partners specializing in condensed matter to explore how longer and more elaborate chains of resonators with this kind of tunable couplings could answer fundamental questions on topological physics. Simultaneously, from an engineering standpoint, they aim to create a pure gyrator which is a universal building block of many nonreciprocal devices.
