Mitosis is no longer just what you learned in high school.
Researchers at the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology recently connected their campuses with an experimental quantum communications network using two optical fibers. In a new paper published in Optica Quantum, scientists describe the Rochester Quantum Network (RoQNET), which uses single photons to transmit information about 11 miles along fiber-optic lines at room temperature using optical wavelengths.
Quantum communications networks have the potential to massively improve the security with which information is transmitted, making messages impossible to clone or intercept without detection. Quantum communication works with quantum bits, or qubits, that can be physically created using atoms, superconductors, and even in defects in materials like diamond. However, photons—individual particles of light—are the best type of qubit for long distance quantum communications.
Photons are appealing for quantum communication in part because they could theoretically be transmitted over existing fiber-optic telecommunications lines that already crisscross the globe. In the future, many types of qubits will likely be utilized because qubit sources, like quantum dots or trapped ions, each have their own advantages for specific applications in quantum computing or different types of quantum sensing.
A harpy eagle, South America’s largest bird of prey, has been sighted in a rainforest in southern Mexico, where it was believed to be locally extinct.
Named for the crone-bird hybrid of Greek mythology, the appearance of this large and majestic raptor is worthy of the association. Adult females are much larger than their male counterparts, weighing in at close to 40 pounds, and measuring more than 6 feet from wing tip to wing tip.
Despite a significantly slower and lower birthrate than other eagle species, the harpy eagle numbers in the tens of thousands across South America. In Central America however, they’re virtually extinct.
In what’s being called “an unprecedented scientific and human adventure at the North Pole,” the $23 million Tara Polar Station will be the home of a team of 18 people made up of scientists, artists, physicians, journalists, and sailors.
The mission of this drifting science station is to gather data and perform research during the period from November to February, a part of the year that lacks observations because of the dangers inherent in a region of the world that is warming faster than anywhere else.
“We have basically no information,” Tara Ocean Foundation’s Chris Bowler told New Scientist. “Which is alarming, considering it is such a fragile place and it is changing so rapidly.”
Eco-driving involves making small adjustments to minimize unnecessary fuel consumption. For example, as cars approach a traffic light that has turned red, “there’s no point in me driving as fast as possible to the red light,” she says. By just coasting, “I am not burning gas or electricity in the meantime.” If one car, such as an automated vehicle, slows down at the approach to an intersection, then the conventional, non-automated cars behind it will also be forced to slow down, so the impact of such efficient driving can extend far beyond just the car that is doing it.
That’s the basic idea behind eco-driving, Wu says. But to figure out the impact of such measures, “these are challenging optimization problems” involving many different factors and parameters, “so there is a wave of interest right now in how to solve hard control problems using AI.”
The new benchmark system that Wu and her collaborators developed based on urban eco-driving, which they call “IntersectionZoo,” is intended to help address part of that need. The benchmark was described in detail in a paper presented at the 2025 International Conference on Learning Representation in Singapore.
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Since the dawn of philosophy, thinkers from Plato to Kant have considered how beauty affects human experience, and whether it has the power to transform our state of mind.
Now, a new study from the University of Cambridge suggests that stopping to contemplate the beauty of artistic objects in a gallery or museum boosts our ability to think in abstract ways and consider the “bigger picture” when it comes to our lives.
Researchers say the findings offer empirical evidence that engaging with artistic beauty helps us escape the “mental trappings of daily life,” such as current anxieties and to-do lists, and induce “psychological distancing”: the process of zooming out on your thoughts to gain clarity.
Scientists from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and Harvard University have experimentally demonstrated that it is possible to reprogram the mechanical and structural behavior of innovative artificial materials with magnetic properties, known as metamaterials, without the need to modify their composition. This technology opens the door to innovations in fields such as biomedicine and soft robotics, among others.
The study, recently published in the journal Advanced Materials, details how to reprogram these mechanical metamaterials by using flexible magnets distributed throughout their structure.
What is innovative about our proposal is the incorporation of small flexible magnets integrated into a rotating rhomboid matrix that allows the stiffness and energy absorption capacity of the structure to be modified by simply changing the distribution of these magnets or applying an external magnetic field. This confers unique properties that are not present in conventional materials or in nature.
The combination of flexible matrices with embedded hard-magnetic nodes enables metastructures with reprogrammable mechanical properties, even in the absence of external magnetic fields. The evolving…
Research council launches 100m kroner fund as Norwegian government calls for the protection of academic freedom