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Astronomers discover the lowest-mass double neutron star system to date

Neutron stars, the extremely dense remains of massive stars that exploded at the end of their lives, are widely studied astrophysical objects. Some of these stars, known as pulsars, spin and send out beams of radio waves, making them appear to pulse as the beams sweep past Earth.

According to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, orbiting neutron stars should emit ripples in spacetime known as gravitational waves. The resulting loss of energy should gradually draw pairs of neutron stars closer together, shortening the time they take to complete each orbit.

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the State Key Laboratory of Radio Astronomy and Technology in Beijing and other academic institutions in China set out to test this prediction by studying PSR J1856–0039, a double neutron star (DNS) system discovered using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) in China.

Black holes may grow quietly alongside galaxies even without violent mergers

Astronomers analyzed 2,435 galaxies hosting actively feeding black holes using data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). Among them, they identified 546 “bulgeless” galaxies—systems with little or no central stellar bulge. Their paper, published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, suggests that galaxies without a central bulge grow black holes just as effectively as galaxies that have one—a surprising sign that black holes don’t need galaxy mergers to grow normally.

There is a well-established relationship between a galaxy’s central black hole mass and properties of its host galaxy, such as the bulge mass, total mass in stars and the spread of different velocities within the galaxy. These relationships suggest that the galaxy’s black hole and the galaxy evolve together.

Two things have recently complicated the picture of this coevolution and what drives it. First, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) found black holes at high redshift that appear “too big” for their host galaxies compared to what relationships in the local universe predict. Second, JWST also found far more disk galaxies at high redshift than expected.

Computer-designed protein targets immune receptor linked to inflammation at new ‘undruggable’ site

To sense their environment and respond accordingly, cells enlist membrane proteins as communication hubs, receiving molecular messages from outside and triggering responses inside. One of these proteins is Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), an immune receptor that plays an essential role in protecting against infections. But overactivity of TLR4 has been linked to inflammatory disorders like sepsis, arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, making it an attractive target for therapies. Despite its appeal, TLR4 is difficult to manipulate precisely, and no FDA-approved drugs specifically block it.

Now, in a new PNAS study, scientists at Scripps Research engineered a small synthetic protein that can bind to TLR4 within cell membranes and block subsequent inflammatory responses.

The findings advance understanding of what TLR4’s membrane-embedded region does. Rather than a passive anchor, it’s an active determinant of cross-membrane signaling—mechanistic insight that could guide the design of a new class of anti-inflammatory treatments. More broadly, the study outlines new computational tools that other researchers can use to target proteins within membranes.

Ultrafast X-rays reveal how the light-responsive molecular switch azobenzene changes shape

Azobenzene is one of the best-known molecules that can be switched between two forms by light. However, the question of how the molecule moves in the first few picoseconds (trillionths of a second) after it absorbs light has remained unresolved for nearly 50 years.

A research team led by Hyotcherl Ihee, professor in the Department of Chemistry at KAIST and director of the Center for Advanced Reaction Dynamics (CARD) at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), has identified the process by which the light-responsive molecule azobenzene changes its structure.

The team has shown that, during the initial stage of the reaction, the molecule changes shape through a coordinated motion of the two nitrogen atoms at its center, while its two benzene rings stay nearly in place. The finding is expected to provide useful information for designing materials and molecular-scale machines that operate with light.

New algorithm makes maps of gene activity easier to compare while preserving cell-level detail

Spatial transcriptomics can reveal where thousands of genes are active across a tissue, creating molecular maps at single-cell resolution. But comparing two such maps is difficult: thin slices of tissue may be rotated, stretched or otherwise distorted, so equivalent regions do not automatically line up.

Researchers at Kanazawa University and Sapienza University of Rome have developed a computational method that aligns these maps directly from the individual measurement locations and their gene-activity values. Called Domain Elastic Transform (DET), it smoothly reshapes one digital map to match another without first converting the measurements into a regular grid of pixels.

The research, led by Osamu Hirose of Kanazawa University in collaboration with Emanuele Rodolà of Sapienza University of Rome, was published in IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence.

Mirror-image crystals reverse the direction of light-driven currents

The circular photogalvanic effect (CPGE), a phenomenon that generates helicity-dependent photocurrents in noncentrosymmetric materials, can originate purely from a crystal’s internal structure without a contribution from the surface, a study from Science Tokyo reveals.

Researchers demonstrated this effect in 2D organic–inorganic hybrid perovskites using circularly polarized light at normal incidence, which helped distinguish the bulk response from surface contributions. The finding establishes a strategy for regulating spin-polarized photocurrents and advancing opto-spintronic technologies.

The findings are published in Nano Letters.

Smart silicone coatings can change their friction and stickiness as surroundings reshape nanoscale layers

Research led by a group from the University of Newcastle has found a new way to make silicone surfaces—and control how slippery they are. The work was published in the journal Chemistry of Materials.

Most of us have silicone in our homes, especially in the kitchen, where it is often found as a rubbery coating that is long-lasting, water-repellent and, crucially, slippery. Scientists have also wanted to make use of it at the nanoscale, where silicone has significant potential to reduce surface friction for use in medical devices and beyond.

Visual illusion reveals what today’s AI vision is missing

Our eyes do not always tell us exactly where things are—and that may be a feature of how biological vision works, rather than simply a flaw. A new study by York University researchers uses a common illusion to ask: If artificial intelligence is meant to see more like us, should it make some of the same systematic perceptual “mistakes”?

For example, after staring at something moving steadily in one direction, a stationary object viewed immediately afterward can appear slightly displaced in the opposite direction. This well-known visual illusion, called a motion aftereffect, gives scientists an unusual window into the computations underlying perception: The image itself has not moved, but our experience of where it is has changed.

The study, titled “The macaque IT cortex but not current artificial vision networks encode object position in perceptually aligned coordinates,” is published today in Current Biology.

Even when AI behaves just like us, people still rate it as less conscious than humans

Stories about AI systems deceiving users, cooperating with one another or pursuing their own goals increasingly invite us to talk about them as if they had minds of their own. But do people really believe that AI is conscious? A new LMU study suggests that they draw a surprisingly sharp line between intelligent behavior and consciousness.

The study, recently published in the journal Cognition, was led by Dr. Louis Longin from LMU’s Chair of Philosophy of Mind together with his colleagues Dr. Bahador Bahrami, professor Ophelia Deroy and other collaborators.

“Whereas previous studies have typically asked general questions about whether AI actually has mental states, our study is the first to directly compare how people attribute the same mental states to AI and humans behaving in exactly the same way, under identical circumstances,” says Longin.

A laser that stays locked without active control

EPFL researchers have developed a chip-based laser that keeps a very stable frequency across its tested operating range, without needing active electronic control. Their research is published in the journal Nature Photonics.

Lasers provide the precise light needed for atomic clocks, quantum sensors, fiber-optic monitoring, coherent communications and distance measurements. These applications depend on lasers whose optical frequency remains exceptionally stable. The most precise systems often rely on bulky laboratory lasers, which limits their use in compact and portable technologies.

Semiconductor lasers offer a practical alternative. They are small, electrically powered and suitable for large-scale manufacturing. Their frequency, though, tends to fluctuate much more than that of the fiber lasers used in precision systems.

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