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New software simulates complex wave scattering for metamaterial design. Could invisibility cloaks become a reality? New research brings this science fiction concept a step closer, with a breakthrough software package that simulates how waves interact with complex materials.

A new software package developed by researchers at Macquarie University can accurately model the way waves — sound, water or light — are scattered when they meet complex configurations of particles.

This will vastly improve the ability to rapidly design metamaterials — exciting artificial materials used to amplify, block or deflect waves.

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For decades, researchers have noticed that the pace of evolution tends to speed up over shorter time frames, such as five million years compared to fifty million years. This general trend indicates that “younger” groups of organisms, in evolutionary terms, tend to exhibit higher rates of speciation, extinction, and body size evolution, among other differences from older groups.

Evolutionary processes appear to operate at different time scales, perhaps necessitating the need for a new theory linking microevolution and macroevolution. The larger question has tantalized scientists: why?

There are plausible explanations. A new species may inhabit a new island chain, allowing for more variation as it spreads into new niches. An asteroid may hit the earth, increasing extinction rates. Perhaps species evolve to an “optimal” trait value and then plateau.

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The recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in physics will be announced Tuesday, Oct. 8.

The winner will be announced no earlier than 5:30 a.m. EDT. Watch the event live in the player above.

Three researchers won the honor last year for making advances in the field of studying electrons. The prize went to French-Swedish physicist Anne L’Huillier, French scientist Pierre Agostini and Hungarian-born Ferenc Krausz, who used attosecond-long flashes of light to illuminate molecules and provide brief glimpses of how fast-moving electrons travel.

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Researchers have invented a technique that enables low Earth orbit satellite antennas to manage signals for multiple users at once, slashing costs and simplifying designs for communication satellites.

Low-orbit satellites could soon offer millions of people worldwide access to high-speed communications, but the satellites’ potential has been stymied by a technological limitation – their antenna arrays can only manage one user at a time.

The one-to-one ratio means that companies must launch either constellations of many satellites, or large individual satellites with many arrays, to provide wide coverage. Both options are expensive, technically complex, and could lead to overcrowded orbits.

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https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/153422/sprites-camera-action.

An astronaut on the International Space Station captured a red sprite over North America, a rare atmospheric phenomenon associated with powerful lightning.

This event, visible from space, was recorded through a timelapse video that spans over several U.S. states. The sequence also highlights other weather phenomena and contributes to NASAs Spritacular project, which aims to better understand these elusive events.

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A new technology has been developed to convert common seaweeds such as Kkosiraegi, which are often used in cooking, into high-quality sources for both bio-aviation fuels and energy storage devices. The results were published in the Chemical Engineering Journal.

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