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Astronomers find vast spinning filament of galaxies 140 million light-years away

An international team led by the University of Oxford has identified one of the largest rotating structures ever reported: a “razor-thin” string of galaxies embedded in a giant spinning cosmic filament, 140 million light-years away.

The findings, published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, could offer valuable new insights into how galaxies formed in the early universe.

Cosmic filaments are the largest known structures in the universe: vast, thread-like formations of galaxies and dark matter that form a cosmic scaffolding. They also act as “highways” along which matter and momentum flow into galaxies.

X-ray imaging reveals how silicon anodes maintain contact in all-solid-state batteries

All-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) using silicon (Si) anodes are among the most promising candidates for high-energy and long-lasting power sources, particularly for electric vehicles. Si can store more lithium than conventional graphite, but its volume expands by roughly 410% during charging. This swelling generates mechanical stress that cracks particles and weakens their contact with the solid electrolyte, disrupting the flow of ions and reducing efficiency.

To address this, a research group led by Professor Yuki Orikasa from the College of Life Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, along with Ms. Mao Matsumoto, a graduate student at the Graduate School of Life Sciences, Ritsumeikan University (at the time), and Dr. Akihisa Takeuchi from the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute, used operando synchrotron X-ray tomography with nanometer resolution to observe what happens inside these batteries as they charge and discharge in real time.

Their paper is published in ACS Nano.

‘Brainquake’ phenomenon links psychotic states to chaotic information flow

Some psychiatric disorders, particularly schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (BP), can prompt the emergence of so-called psychotic states, mental states characterized by distorted thinking patterns, altered perceptions and unusual beliefs. Detecting and diagnosing these states is not always easy, as they often overlap with the symptoms of other mental health disorders, and reliable methods to identify psychosis are still lacking.

Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University recently carried out a study aimed at further exploring the neural signatures of psychotic states. Their findings, published in Molecular Psychiatry, suggest that the activity in the brains of individuals who are experiencing psychosis is significantly more random, following patterns that hint at an unstable flow of information.

“The measures of resting-state fMRI spatiotemporal complexity offer a powerful tool for identifying irregularities in brain activity,” Qiang Li, Jingyu Liu, and their colleagues wrote in their paper.

New bioadhesive strategy can prevent fibrous encapsulation around device implants on peripheral nerves

Peripheral nerves—the network connecting the brain, spinal cord, and central nervous system to the rest of the body—transmit sensory information, control muscle movements, and regulate automatic bodily functions. Bioelectronic devices implanted on these nerves offer remarkable potential for the treatment and rehabilitation of neurological and systemic diseases.

However, because the body perceives these implants as foreign objects, they often trigger the formation of dense fibrotic tissue at bioelectronic device–tissue interfaces, which can significantly compromise device performance and longevity.

Molecular switch links early-life stimulation to lasting memory changes

Researchers have identified a molecular mechanism that helps explain why growing up in a stimulating environment enhances memory. In contrast, a lack of stimulation can impair it. The team from the Institute for Neurosciences (IN), a joint research center of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH), was led by researcher Ángel Barco.

Their study, conducted in mice and published in Nature Communications, demonstrates that the environment during childhood and adolescence has a lasting impact on the brain by activating or repressing a single transcription factor, AP-1, which regulates the expression of genes involved in neuronal plasticity and learning. This finding identifies a molecular mediator that can translate life experiences into persistent changes in cognitive function.

Scientists rule out fourth neutrino in particle physics mystery

Scientists have taken a major step toward solving a long-standing mystery in particle physics, by finding no sign of the particle many hoped would explain it.

An international collaboration of scientists, including from The University of Manchester, working on the MicroBooNE experiment at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory announced that they have found no evidence for a fourth type of neutrino, known as a sterile neutrino.

For decades, physics experiments have observed neutrinos—sub-atomic particles that are all around us—behaving in a way that doesn’t fit the Standard Model of particle physics. One of the most promising explanations was the existence of a sterile neutrino, named because they are predicted not to interact with matter at all, whereas other neutrinos can. This means they could pass through the universe almost undetected.

Deciphering the heavyweights of the tetraquark world

The CMS collaboration reports the first measurement of the quantum properties of a family of tetraquarks that was recently discovered at the LHC.

To date, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN has discovered 80 particles. The most famous is the Higgs boson, a crucial ingredient in the fundamental laws of the universe. The rest are particles called hadrons made up of quarks, which allow physicists to investigate the intriguing properties of the strong nuclear force.

Of the hadrons discovered so far, most are familiar sets of two or three quarks (so-called mesons and baryons, respectively). But one of the LHC’s most striking discoveries is the confirmation of exotic hadrons composed of four or five quarks.

Smart material instantly changes colors on demand for use in textiles and consumer products

Scientists have developed a revolutionary technique for creating colors that can change on command. These are structural colors that don’t rely on dyes or pigments and can be used for display signage, adaptive camouflage and smart safety labels, among other applications.

Structural colors are not created by pigments or dyes but are colorless arrangements of physical nanostructures. When light waves hit these nanostructures, they interfere with one another. Some waves cancel each other out (they are absorbed) while the rest are reflected (or scattered) back to our eyes, giving us the color we see.

Structural color systems can be engineered to reflect multiple colors from the same colorless material. This is different from pigments, which absorb light and reflect only one color—red pigments reflect red, blue pigments reflect blue and so on.

Interstellar object covered in ‘icy volcanoes’ could rewrite our understanding of how comets formed

Analysis of the second confirmed interstellar comet to visit our solar system suggests that the alien body could be covered in erupting icy, volcano-like structures called cryovolcanoes. Researchers also discovered that the comet has a metal-rich interior, which could challenge our understanding of how comets formed in our own planetary system.

The scientists tracked Comet 3I/ATLAS from July to November 2025 as it hurtled toward our sun. It presented a rare opportunity to study an object formed around another star in interstellar space. What makes it so valuable is that it is pristine, having never passed close enough to a star to be heated, melted, or otherwise altered by radiation. That means it is almost the same as it was when it formed billions of years ago in its home system.

Self-adapting fiber component tackles heat challenges in high-power fiber lasers

Thulium fiber lasers, operating at a wavelength of 2 micrometers, are valued for applications in medicine, materials processing, and defense. Their longer wavelength makes stray light less damaging compared to the more common ytterbium lasers at 1 micrometer.

Yet, despite this advantage, thulium lasers have been stuck at around 1 kilowatt of output power for more than a decade, limited by nonlinear effects and heat buildup. One promising route to break this barrier is inband pumping—switching from diode pumping at 793 nm to laser pumping at 1.9 µm. This approach improves efficiency and reduces heat, but it introduces new challenges for fiber components, especially the cladding light stripper (CLS).

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