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X-ray light is like guitar music, with frequencies sliding continuously between harmonics

Ultrashort laser pulses can be used to generate X-rays. Normally, however, only certain specific frequencies are produced. A team from TU Wien and the University of California San Diego has developed a method that makes it possible to tune the frequency continuously.

Using a six-meter-long gas-filled waveguide (20 feet long) containing the appropriate gas, the researchers can “detune” the light frequencies so that, in the end, exactly the required X-ray frequency is produced. The results have been published in the journal Communications Physics.

Photonic Legos of functional 3D thin-films unlock high-performance heterogeneous photonic integration

Photonic integrated circuits route information with optical signals instead of relying only on electrical currents. Silicon (Si) and silicon nitride (SiNx) are excellent photonic platforms for waveguides, but they cannot efficiently perform the ever-increasing tasks required for fully integrated optical systems. A heterogeneous photonic integration platform capable of interfacing different optical materials with high performance is thus an ongoing challenge for both academia and industry.

Conventional approaches use heteroepitaxy to realize thin-film functional materials on target optical substrates. However, this method confronts fundamental challenges in lattice matching and process compatibility, and substantially deteriorated epilayer material quality is often observed in mismatched photonic chips.

In our recent work published in Nature, a group of researchers from Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) demonstrated a different strategy: preparing desired thin-film materials on their most suitable parent substrates, then delaminating them into freestanding single-crystalline nanomembranes for unbridled heterogeneous photonic integration on arbitrary photonic templates.

Cooling liquids reveal self-limiting particle clusters behind glass transition

Before diving into the mystery of glass, theoretical physicist Corentin Laudicina takes us back to high school physics for a moment. Although he has spent years studying exactly what happens in a material during the glass transition, he also understands that his research is not the easiest thing to explain off the cuff at the cafeteria table.

According to school textbooks, matter can exist in three different states: gas, liquid and solid. Think of water vapor, liquid water and ice. The molecules that make up the material are the same, but the way they can move differs greatly, Laudicina explains.

He pulls out his dissertation and shows a figure from the introductory chapter. “The higher the temperature, the more freely the molecules can move. In a solid, they are arranged in a crystal lattice—in a fixed position, at a fixed distance from one another—but in a liquid, they can move without having a fixed position relative to each other. In the gas phase, those movements are even freer.”

Circular mRNA helps cell factories make up to six times as much protein

A synthetic biology technology has been developed that converts easily degraded messenger RNA (mRNA) into a ring-shaped form inside microbial cells, increasing protein production.

A research team led by Professor Sang Woo Seo of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Seoul National University College of Engineering has developed a synthetic biology technology that converts linear mRNA into a circular form inside microbial cells, simultaneously increasing mRNA stability and protein production efficiency. The team named the technology CRESEnT (Circular RNA Expression for Stable and Enhanced Translation).

Compared with a control in which circularization did not occur, CRESEnT increased fluorescent protein production by up to 5.95-fold and intracellular mRNA levels by 3.95-fold. The amount of protein produced per mRNA molecule also increased by 1.51-fold. The researchers confirmed the technology’s effectiveness not only in Escherichia coli but also in Bacillus subtilis and Corynebacterium glutamicum, and applied it to the production of valuable compounds including flaviolin, itaconic acid, lycopene and violacein.

Scientists teleport quantum states across 100 parallel optical channels

Quantum communication networks consist of several connected nodes that exchange information encoded in quantum states. These networks could potentially enable more secure communications between quantum devices in different locations.

One proposed approach for enabling quantum communication is known as quantum teleportation. This is a technique for transferring a quantum state carrying information between two systems by leveraging quantum entanglement, a phenomenon that links two or more quantum systems so that their properties remain correlated even when they are separated.

Researchers at East China Normal University recently demonstrated the teleportation of quantum information across 100 spatially distinct optical channels simultaneously in an experimental setting. Their paper, published in Physical Review Letters, introduces a new architecture for realizing quantum teleportation that could potentially be scaled up to larger networks.

Plasma technology could help plant-based packaging replace plastic

A new study has found a sustainable and scalable way to improve the durability of plant-based packaging; it’s a discovery that researchers say could help curb the environmental footprint of plastic. Researchers used advanced plasma technology to apply layered, protective coatings to the surface of cellulosic nanofibril (CNF) films, with the goal of reducing water absorption and improving moisture resistance.

They found that one of the plasma-treated coatings reduced liquid water absorption in CNF films to less than 1%, while another weakened the film’s moisture barrier and allowed more water vapor to pass through.

According to the researchers, the results show that the plasma technology—dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma—can be used to precisely control how CNF films interact with moisture, opening new possibilities for plant-based packaging. The work is published in the journal Applied Surface Science.

Scientists reveal how our cells conduct emergency repairs for DNA

Two new studies from Johns Hopkins University are providing scientists with an unprecedented view of how human cells repair one of the most dangerous forms of genetic damage: a break that severs both strands of the DNA double helix.

Published back-to-back in Nature Communications, the studies examine different stages of a repair process called “non-homologous end joining,” or NHEJ. Together, the findings show how cells gain access to damaged DNA packaged inside chromatin and assemble a versatile collection of molecular tools to prepare and reconnect its broken ends.

The research could ultimately contribute to better cancer treatments and more predictable gene-editing techniques. Its immediate importance, however, lies in improving scientists’ fundamental understanding of a repair system that protects the human genome every day.

Jupiter uses a surprisingly complex system to fend off particles from the sun

A University of Iowa-led research team has reported in a new study the most detailed observations to date of the bow shock at Jupiter, our solar system’s gas giant. The findings from NASA’s Juno mission reveal key differences between Jupiter’s bow shock and Earth’s. They also may lead to a better understanding of the physics of how shocks function in even more powerful energy releases, such as those from dying stars. The research is published in Nature Communications.

The bow shock is an invisible boundary between the sun and a planet’s magnetic field. It is the first line of defense against the supersonic burst of energetic particles from the sun known as the solar wind.

On Earth, the bow shock is important because it marks the point where the solar wind is slowed, heated and then deflected around Earth. If that didn’t happen, our planet would be bombarded by the solar wind, and those harmful particles could reach our atmosphere and make Earth less safe for life.

New nanoparticle drug-delivery method may improve treatment for endometriosis

Researchers have engineered a drug treatment that shows rapid effectiveness against endometriosis in early testing, laying the foundation for a potential therapy for an incurable, chronic disease that affects 1 in 10 women. The targeted nanotherapy, developed by a team of scientists at Washington State University, reduced endometriosis symptoms and disease progression after a single dose in a mouse model.

The treatment targets a cell associated with endometriosis with a commonly available drug delivered by a tiny nanoparticle. The results were published in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials, and the researchers hope to eventually test the drug for human use.

“We found the disease-specific immune cell, and then we had a drug, but we couldn’t target the cell with the drug alone,” said Kanako Hayashi, a professor in WSU’s School of Molecular Biosciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine and a corresponding author of the new publication. “So we used this nanocarrier that delivers the drug specifically to the disease site.”

Low-cost sensor tracks soil pH continuously for months across varied soils

At first glance, a farm field doesn’t seem all that complicated. It’s just dirt and crops.

But among the landscape lies one of Earth’s most complex ecosystems—a bustling network of microbes, nutrients, roots and chemical reactions that quietly govern the health of every harvest.

For years, understanding what’s happening beneath that surface has been one of agriculture’s biggest challenges. Important soil and plant indicators, like pH, microbial activity and plant physiology, are always changing yet notoriously difficult to track in real time.

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