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Turning Non-Magnetic Materials Magnetic with Atomically Thin Films

The rules about magnetic order may need to be rewritten. Researchers have discovered that chromium selenide (Cr₂Se₃) — traditionally non-magnetic in bulk form — transforms into a magnetic material when reduced to atomically thin layers. This finding contradicts previous theoretical predictions, and opens new possibilities for spintronics applications. This could lead to faster, smaller, and more efficient electronic components for smartphones, data storage, and other essential technologies.

An international research team from Tohoku University, Université de Lorraine (Synchrotron SOLEIL), the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, and National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology successfully grew two-dimensional Cr₂Se₃ thin films on graphene using molecular beam epitaxy. By systematically reducing the thickness from three layers to one layer and analyzing them with high-brightness synchrotron X-rays, the team made a surprising discovery. This finding challenges conventional theoretical predictions that two-dimensional materials cannot maintain magnetic order.

“When we first observed the ferromagnetic behavior in these ultra-thin films, we were genuinely shocked,” explains Professor Takafumi Sato (WPI-AIMR, Tohoku University), the lead researcher. “Conventional theory told us this shouldn’t happen. What’s even more fascinating is that the thinner we made the films, the stronger the magnetic properties became—completely contrary to what we expected.”

Shape-shifting joints could transform wearable devices and robotic movement

It’s easy to take joint mobility for granted. Without thinking, it’s simple enough to turn the pages of a book or bend to stretch out a sore muscle. Designers don’t have the same luxury. When building a joint, be it for a robot or wrist brace, designers seek customizability across all degrees of freedom but are often restricted by their versatility to adapt to different use contexts.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering have developed an algorithm to design metastructures that are reconfigurable across six degrees of freedom and allow for stiffness tunability. The algorithm can interpret the kinematic motions that are needed for multiple configurations of a device and assist designers in creating such reconfigurability. This advancement gives designers more over the functionality of joints for various applications.

The team demonstrated the structure’s versatile capabilities via multiple wearable devices tailored for unique movement functions, body areas, and uses.

AI model translates text commands into motion for diverse robots and avatars

Brown University researchers have developed an artificial intelligence model that can generate movement in robots and animated figures in much the same way that AI models like ChatGPT generate text.

A paper describing this work is published on the arXiv preprint server.

The model, called MotionGlot, enables users to simply type an action— walk forward a few steps and take a right— and the model can generate accurate representations of that motion to command a or animated avatar.

These 5 Hidden Health Risks Are Aging Your Brain Faster

Hypertension and other health risks accelerate brain aging, as shown in a 16-year study using MRI data and predictive modeling.

Chinese scientists have conducted a population-based cohort study to examine the long-term impact of unhealthy lifestyles, metabolic abnormalities, and other risk factors on brain aging. The findings showed that these factors significantly accelerate brain aging, and the researchers proposed strategies to support brain health. Their study was published in Research.

Background.

Nothing is as we thought — Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysics Center reveals that super-Earths are more common and diverse in the Milky Way than previously thought, according to study OGLE-2016-BLG-0007

Do we know everything about the Milky Way? A team of astronomers has arrived to change everything we know about our universe, and they have found strong evidence that super-Earths (planets larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune) could be much more common than previously thought! They discovered it thanks to a technique called gravitational microlensing. Don’t worry if you don’t understand it, keep reading and we’ll explain everything.

The study was led by scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and it reveals that one in three stars in the Milky Way could have a super-Earth. Isn’t that exciting?

Supercomputer Names Exact Year Life on Earth Will End

It might sound like something out of an apocalyptic movie, but a supercomputer has predicted the end of the world.

But don’t worry too much because it’s not supposed to happen soon.

According to an April 2025 article in LaGrada, a group of scientists used a supercomputer to “determine that survival on planet Earth will be impossible in about 1 billion years, when conditions become too extreme for life as we know it.”

Long-Distance Gene Control Appeared Over 650 Million Years Ago, Study Suggests

Distal regulation — the ability to control genes from far away, over many tens of thousands of DNA letters — appeared at the very dawn of animal evolution, between 650 and 700 million years ago — around 150 million years earlier than previously thought.