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Bacterial invasion proteins could improve detection of live crop pathogens

Scientists, clinicians, seed companies and others may soon have a new tool in their toolkit for detecting bacterial pathogens, thanks to a new study by researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. The research—published in Journal of Microbiological Methods—details a new method for detecting Pseudomonas syringae, a common bacterium that infects a wide variety of crops, vegetables and woody ornamentals.

The cost is similar to that of the traditional method, called enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, or ELISA. However, the researchers’ new method—called enzyme-linked chaperone assay, or ELCA—has the potential to detect only living bacteria, making it more sensitive and accurate.

Rachel Herschlag, lead author on the paper who earned her doctorate in plant pathology at Penn State, said the study is a proof of concept, with an opportunity in the future to adapt the method for detecting other pathogens.

Snow, monsoons and oceans shift Earth’s center of mass each year, satellite tracking shows

Seasonal changes redistribute enough water around Earth to shift the planet’s center of mass back and forth by fractions of an inch relative to its geometric center. NASA scientists are on the case, tracking the oscillations because Earth’s center of mass is a crucial reference point for satellite navigation and elevation measurements.

A team led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California has proposed a way to calculate the seasonal swings with extreme precision. The technique and findings are detailed in a new study published in Geophysical Journal International. The authors paint a vivid picture of springtime thaws, churning oceans and dense winter air shifting massive surface loads from season to season.

The study isn’t the first attempt to pin down Earth’s center of mass. Scientists over the decades have pioneered several space-based techniques to define and locate it. But it’s a moving goalpost. If Earth were a hard blue marble, its center of mass would simply overlap its geometric center. In reality, the planet is sloshing and sagging under the weight of water, ice and air. Because of this, Earth’s center of mass continually swivels around its geometric center by as much as several millimeters.

Two DNA Molecules Should Repel. Instead, They “Zip” Together

Scientists have revealed how tiny metal ions help DNA molecules overcome electrical repulsion and “zip” together with striking precision.

DNA molecules carry the same negative charge, so they would normally be expected to push apart. Inside living cells, however, DNA must sometimes come together for processes such as genetic recombination, gene silencing and cancer development.

Researchers have now observed how that pairing can happen with striking precision. Using high-powered atomic force microscopy, the team watched short DNA fragments align groove for groove. Computer simulations then showed that positively charged metal ions can settle into those grooves and act as tiny molecular bridges that help hold the two DNA molecules together.

Harvard Scientists Use Tiny Sound Waves To Protect Quantum Information

The same tiny vibrations that carry quantum information across a chip could also keep that information from fading away.

Quantum technologies face a persistent problem: qubits are extraordinarily sensitive to disturbances from their surroundings. Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have now protected a qubit using mechanical vibrations, essentially sound waves at the quantum scale.

The advance came from the laboratory of Marko Lončar, Tiantsai Lin Professor of Electrical Engineering. It could help make quantum networks smaller, reduce interference between components, and connect different kinds of qubits within a single hybrid system.

Silver Nanocatalysts Have a Surprising Double Life

Tiny silver catalysts work differently when solid oxide cells generate electricity and when they produce hydrogen, revealing a potential route to more efficient clean energy systems.

Solid oxide cells can generate electricity or use electricity to split water and produce hydrogen. Silver nanocatalysts, tiny silver particles that speed up chemical reactions, can improve their performance in both modes. Researchers have now discovered for the first time that the particles’ main reaction site changes depending on which task the cell is performing.

The distinction lies at the air electrode, where the cells exchange oxygen with their surroundings. During electricity generation, silver primarily promotes oxygen reactions along the boundary where each particle meets the electrode. During hydrogen production, the silver particle’s own surface becomes the main reaction site.

Researchers Turned “Empty Space” Into a Tool for Superconductivity

Researchers used a specially designed cavity to strengthen quantum vacuum fluctuations and enhance superconductivity in a thin material.

Empty space is not truly empty. Even a vacuum contains restless quantum fluctuations, and researchers have now shown for the first time that these normally subtle effects can be engineered to strengthen superconductivity.

The work, led by Changgan Zeng and Guanghui Cheng of the University of Science and Technology of China of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with Qingdong Jiang of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Frank Wilczek of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and other collaborators, was published in Nature.

Mysterious Gamma Rays Reveal Hidden Magnetism Inside Atomic Nuclei

Scientists have traced a decades-old gamma-ray mystery to hidden magnetic transitions inside atomic nuclei.

For decades, nuclear physicists have faced a puzzling question: why do some atomic nuclei release far more low-energy gamma rays than expected?

A new study led by the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), with contributions from scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), may finally provide the answer. Published in Nature, the research offers new insight into the inner workings of atomic nuclei and could have important implications for astrophysics, nuclear energy, national security, and nuclear forensics.

Attackers Exploit Issabel Framework Flaw Enabling Unauthenticated OS Command Execution

A critical security flaw in Issabel Framework, a web-based framework for the open-source unified communications PBX software, has come under active exploitation.

The vulnerability in question is CVE-2026–89026 (CVSS v3.1 score: 9.8/CVSS v4.0 score: 9.3), which can allow an unauthenticated remote attacker to execute arbitrary operating system (OS) commands by taking advantage of a hard-coded JSON Web Token (JWT) signing key.

The Issabel Framework “contains a hard-coded HS256 JWT signing key in the pbxapi index.php file that is identical across every installation, allowing unauthenticated remote attackers to forge valid bearer tokens,” VulnCheck said in an alert.

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