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Atomic interactions in everyday solids and liquids are so complex that some of these materials’ properties continue to elude physicists’ understanding. Solving the problems mathematically is beyond the capabilities of modern computers, so scientists at Princeton University have turned to an unusual branch of geometry instead.

Researchers led by Andrew Houck, a professor of electrical engineering, have built an electronic array on a microchip that simulates in a hyperbolic plane, a geometric surface in which space curves away from itself at every point. A hyperbolic plane is difficult to envision—the artist M.C. Escher used in many of his mind-bending pieces—but is perfect for answering questions about particle interactions and other challenging mathematical questions.

The research team used superconducting circuits to create a lattice that functions as a hyperbolic space. When the researchers introduce photons into the lattice, they can answer a wide range of difficult questions by observing the photons’ interactions in simulated hyperbolic space.

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Those who had adhered to statin treatment vs those who had not were found to have 34% lower all-cause mortality rates. Fewer atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease events were reported in relation to adherence to statins. Irrespective of age and sex, reduced mortality and cardiovascular morbidity may be seen in older adults in relation to adherence to statins.

Internal Medicine Article: Statin use over 65 years of age and all-cause mortality: A 10-year follow-up of 19,518 people.

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YaleNew

In a stunning scientific breakthrough, Yale School of Medicine researchers restored brain activity in pigs that had died hours before. The finding could revolutionize the neuroscience field and how scientists conceive the boundaries between life and death.

By circulating a cocktail of cell-rejuvenating compounds throughout the pigs’ brains, the researchers prevented tissue decomposition and restored some cell function. If replicated, their technique could be used as a model for drug testing and has implications for how scientists understand brain plasticity after traumatic events such as strokes.

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The drugs we’ve developed to help us deal with chronic pain largely focus on suppressing its symptoms, rather than eliminating its underlying causes. By studying the way pain works in injured fruit flies, scientists have for the first time uncovered evidence that its effects can be long-lasting, something they say opens up new opportunities for more effective treatments in humans.

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Scientists seeking to bring to Earth the fusion that powers the sun and stars must control the hot, charged plasma—the state of matter composed of free-floating electrons and atomic nuclei, or ions—that fuels fusion reactions. For scientists who confine the plasma in magnetic fields, a key task calls for mapping the shape of the fields, a process known as measuring the equilibrium, or stability, of the plasma. At the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), researchers have proposed a new measurement technique to avoid problems expected when mapping the fields on large and powerful future tokamaks, or magnetic fusion devices, that house the reactions.

Neutron bombardments

Such tokamaks, including ITER, the large international experiment under construction in France, will produce neutron bombardments that could damage the interior diagnostics now used to map the fields in current facilities. PPPL is therefore proposing use of an alternative diagnostic system that could operate in high-neutron environments.

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There are two sound velocities in a Bose-Einstein condensate. In addition to the normal sound propagation there is second sound, which is a quantum phenomenon. Scientists in Ludwig Mathey’s group from the University of Hamburg have put forth a new theory for this phenomenon.

When you jump into a lake and hold your head under water, everything sounds different. Apart from the different physiological response of our ears in air and water, this derives from the different sound propagation in water compared to air. Sound travels faster in water, checking in at 1493 m/s, on a comfortable summer day of 25°C. Other liquids have their own sound velocity, like alcohol with 1144 m/s, and helium, if you go to a chilling −269°C for its liquefied state, with 180 m/s.

These liquids are referred to as classical liquids, examples for one of the primary states of matter. But if we cool down that helium a few degrees more, something dramatic happens, it turns into a quantum liquid. This macroscopic display of quantum mechanics is a , a liquid that flows without friction.

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