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At hypersonic speeds, complexities occur when the gases interact with the surface of the vehicle, such as boundary layers and shock waves. Researchers in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, were able to observe new disturbances in simulations conducted for the first time in 3D.

The study, “Loss of axial symmetry in hypersonic flows over conical shapes,” is published in Physical Review Fluids.

Fully 3D simulations require a great deal of processing power, making the work expensive to compute. Two things made it possible for Deborah Levin and her Ph.D. student Irmak Taylan Karpuzcu to conduct the research: Time on Frontera, the leadership-class computer system at the Texas Advanced Computing Center and software developed in previous years by several of Levin’s former graduate students.

A new solid-state laser produces 193-nm light for precision chipmaking and even creates vortex beams with orbital angular momentum – a first that could transform quantum tech and manufacturing.

Deep ultraviolet (DUV) lasers, which emit high-energy light at very short wavelengths, play a vital role in areas like semiconductor manufacturing, high-resolution spectroscopy, precision material processing, and quantum technology. Compared to traditional excimer or gas discharge lasers, DUV lasers offer better coherence and lower power consumption, making it possible to build smaller, more efficient systems.

Breakthrough in Solid-State Laser Development.

Changes in the heart might mean more than just cardiovascular risk – they could also signal early shifts in brain health.

A large meta-analysis found that even subtle heart problems, like issues with how the heart pumps or relaxes, are linked to smaller brain volumes, particularly in areas related to memory.

Heart Issues May Signal Early Dementia Risk.

Additionally, the quantum computing cloud service offered by the University of Osaka has begun integrating OQTOPUS into its operations and Fujitsu Limited will make it available for research partners using its quantum computers in the second half of 2025.

Moving forward, the research team will drive the advancement of quantum computing through the continuous expansion of OQTOPUS’s capabilities and the development of a thriving global community. Dr. Keisuke Fujii at the Center for Quantum Information and Quantum Biology (QIQB) of The University of Osaka mentions, “this will facilitate the standardization of various quantum software and systems while driving the creation of innovative quantum applications.”

The research was funded by the Japan Science and Technology Agency and the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology.

The Mpemba effect, whereby hotter systems can cool faster than cooler ones under identical conditions, was first noted by Aristotle over 2,000 years ago. It was rediscovered in 1963 by Tanzanian student Erasto Mpemba, who observed the phenomenon while making ice cream during a school cooking class. Mpemba later co-authored a scientific paper with British physicist Denis Osborne, documenting the effect in water.

Following their work, researchers have found that the Mpemba effect is not limited to water or simple liquids. It has been observed in a wide range of physical systems, including microscopic ones. However, a major challenge remains: detecting the Mpemba effect depends critically on the choice of a distance measure used to track how far a system is from equilibrium.

Because there are infinitely many possible distance measures, an effect seen using one measure may not appear within any finite time using another. Traditional approaches often evaluate relaxation speed, the rate at which a system returns to equilibrium after a temperature change, using a single, monotonic measure. But this can yield inconsistent or misleading results.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has unearthed the largest organic molecules ever detected on Mars—possible fragments of fatty acids—hinting at the tantalizing possibility that prebiotic chemistry on the Red Planet may have been more advanced than previously thought. Found in a sample from Gale Crater’s Ye

The threat actor known as EncryptHub exploited a recently-patched security vulnerability in Microsoft Windows as a zero-day to deliver a wide range of malware families, including backdoors and information stealers such as Rhadamanthys and StealC.

“In this attack, the threat actor manipulates.msc files and the Multilingual User Interface Path (MUIPath) to download and execute malicious payload, maintain persistence and steal sensitive data from infected systems,” Trend Micro researcher Aliakbar Zahravi said in an analysis.

The vulnerability in question is CVE-2025–26633 (CVSS score: 7.0), described by Microsoft as an improper neutralization vulnerability in Microsoft Management Console (MMC) that could allow an attacker to bypass a security feature locally. It was fixed by the company earlier this month as part of its Patch Tuesday update.