Imagine a future where your phone, computer or even a tiny wearable device can think and learn like the human brain—processing information faster, smarter and using less energy.
A new approach developed at Flinders University and UNSW Sydney brings this vision closer to reality by electrically “twisting” a single nanoscale ferroelectric domain wall.
The domain walls are almost invisible, extremely tiny (1–10 nm) boundaries that naturally arise or can even be injected or erased inside special insulating crystals called ferroelectrics. The domain walls inside these crystals separate regions with different bound charge orientations.
Stress disrupts memory precision, causing generalized fear responses by enlarging memory-encoding neuron networks. This effect, mediated by the brain’s endocannabinoid system, suggests potential therapeutic targets for conditions like PTSD and anxiety disorders.
Quantum computers may soon dramatically enhance our ability to solve problems modeled by nonreversible Markov chains, according to a study published on the pre-print server arXiv.
The researchers from Qubit Pharmaceuticals and Sorbonne University, demonstrated that quantum algorithms could achieve exponential speedups in sampling from such chains, with the potential to surpass the capabilities of classical methods. These advances — if fully realized — have a range of implications for fields like drug discovery, machine learning and financial modeling.
Markov chains are mathematical frameworks used to model systems that transition between various states, such as stock prices or molecules in motion. Each transition is governed by a set of probabilities, which defines how likely the system is to move from one state to another. Reversible Markov chains — where the probability of moving from, let’s call them, state A to state B equals the probability of moving from B to A — have traditionally been the focus of computational techniques. However, many real-world systems are nonreversible, meaning their transitions are biased in one direction, as seen in certain biological and chemical processes.
Some 275 million light-years from the Milky Way lies a true cosmic mystery.
There, in the heart of a galaxy named 1ES 1927+654, squats a supermassive black hole whose monkeyshines and hijinks have baffled astronomers for years.
Now, we might finally have an explanation for at least some of its wild misbehavior: an orbiting white dwarf star veering precariously close to the brink of the black hole’s event horizon, the point beyond which no matter can ever return.
What lies beyond the beginning of time? Physicists are exploring groundbreaking ideas that could reveal a hidden universe behind the Big Bang.
This mind-bending theory challenges everything we know about existence and the mysteries of our cosmic origins.
Imagine rewinding the story of our universe —back through billions of years of expansion, past the formation of galaxies, stars, and planets, to the very beginning. What if, instead of a single moment of creation, there was a cosmic reflection—a mirror image of everything we know, moving backward in time?
Astronomers have unveiled the extraordinary details of a nearly perfect spherical explosion—a kilonova—caused by the collision of two neutron stars. This dramatic event unfolded in 2017 in the galaxy NGC 4,993, located 140–150 million light years from Earth in the Hydra constellation. With a combined mass of 2.7 times that of the sun, the neutron stars had orbited each other for billions of years before their explosive merger.
Lead researcher Albert Sneppen of the Cosmic Dawn Center described the event as “a perfect explosion” due to its symmetry and scientific implications. The kilonova’s luminous fireball emitted a light equivalent to a billion suns for several days, dwarfing any earthly nuclear explosion in intensity.
For more than 5,000 years, humans have adorned themselves with tattoos.
In a new study, researchers used lasers to uncover highly intricate designs of ancient tattoos on mummies from Peru.
The preserved skin of the mummies and the black tattoo ink used show a stark contrast—revealing fine details in tattoos dating to around 1,250 A.D. that aren’t visible to the naked eye, said study co-author Michael Pittman, an archaeologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
In a significant step toward creating a sustainable and circular economy, Rice University researchers have published a study in the journal Carbon demonstrating that carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers can be fully recycled without any loss in their structure or properties. This discovery positions CNT fibers as a sustainable alternative to traditional materials like metals, polymers and the much larger carbon fibers, which are notoriously difficult to recycle.
“Recycling has long been a challenge in the materials industry—metals recycling is often inefficient and energy-intensive, polymers tend to lose their properties after reprocessing and carbon fibers cannot be recycled at all, only downcycled by chopping them up into short pieces,” said corresponding author Matteo Pasquali, director of Rice’s Carbon Hub and the A.J. Hartsook Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Materials Science and NanoEngineering and Chemistry.
“As CNT fibers are being scaled up, we asked whether and how these new materials could be recycled in the future so as to proactively avoid waste management problems that emerged as other engineered materials reached large-scale use. We expected that recycling would be difficult and would lead to significant loss of properties. Surprisingly, we found that carbon nanotube fibers far exceed the recyclability potential of existing engineered materials, offering a solution to a major environmental issue.”
A study by Michael Gerlich at SBS Swiss Business School has found that increased reliance on artificial intelligence (AI) tools is linked to diminished critical thinking abilities. It points to cognitive offloading as a primary driver of the decline.
AI’s influence is growing fast. A quick search of AI-related science stories reveals how fundamental a tool it has become. Thousands of AI-assisted, AI-supported and AI-driven analyses and decision-making tools help scientists improve their research.
AI has also become more integrated into daily activities, from virtual assistants to complex information and decision support. Increased usage is beginning to influence how people think, especially impactful among younger people, who are avid users of the technology in their personal lives.
