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Cheese and milk in Italy show alarming levels of microplastic contamination

Researchers found microplastics in nearly all Italian supermarket milk, fresh cheese, and ripened cheese samples, with ripened cheese containing the highest levels. The study highlights how dairy processing and packaging steps increase microplastic contamination in common foods.

LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA detect most massive black hole merger to date

The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration has detected the merger of the most massive black holes ever observed with gravitational waves using the LIGO observatories. The powerful merger produced a final black hole approximately 225 times the mass of our sun. The signal, designated GW231123, was detected during the fourth observing run of the LVK network on November 23, 2023.

LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, made history in 2015 when it made the first-ever direct detection of , ripples in space-time. In that case, the waves emanated from a black hole merger that resulted in a final black hole 62 times the mass of our sun. The signal was detected jointly by the twin detectors of LIGO, one located in Livingston, Louisiana, and the other in Hanford, Washington.

Since then, the LIGO team has teamed up with partners at the Virgo detector in Italy and KAGRA (Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector) in Japan to form the LVK Collaboration. These detectors have collectively observed more than 200 in their fourth run, and about 300 in total since the start of the first run in 2015.

Low-power, nonvolatile RF switch promises energy-efficient 6G and autonomous vehicle communications

A research team affiliated with UNIST has unveiled a new semiconductor device optimized for the next-generation 6G era and autonomous driving, offering low power consumption and nonvolatile operation. This innovative device can also be integrated into variable filter circuits capable of tuning the central frequency band, paving the way for more compact and energy-efficient communication equipment.

Jointly led by Professor Myungsoo Kim of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Professor Tae-Sik Yoon of the Graduate School of Semiconductor Materials and Devices Engineering at UNIST, the team announced the development of nonvolatile radio-frequency (RF) based on vanadium oxide (VOx) for next-generation wireless communication systems. The paper is published in Advanced Science.

RF switches are essential semiconductor components in modern wireless communication systems, such as autonomous systems, smartphones, VR, and AR. They control the flow of high-frequency signals within circuits by connecting or disconnecting specific pathways, enabling reliable signal routing.

Magnets Could Become the Next Generation of Gravitational Wave Detectors

When Einstein’s predicted ripples in spacetime pass through magnetic fields, they cause the current carrying wires to dance at the gravitational wave frequency, creating potentially detectable electrical signals. Researchers have discovered that the same powerful magnets used to hunt for dark matter could double as gravitational wave detectors. This means experiments already searching for the universe’s most elusive particles could simultaneously capture collisions between black holes and neutron stars, getting two of physics’ most ambitious experiments for the price of one, while potentially opening entirely new windows into the universe’s most violent events.