Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 9

Get the latest international news and world events from around the world.

Log in for authorized contributors

Robotic bird helps uncover the mysteries of flight turbulence

A bio-inspired robotic bird capable of mimicking the key movements of kestrels is helping researchers unravel the mysteries behind the species’ exceptional hovering capabilities.

With atmospheric turbulence expected to worsen due to climate change, understanding how birds naturally cope with rough air could help engineers design small unmanned aerial vehicles that are safer, more efficient and fly more smoothly.

Small unmanned aerial vehicles (sUAVs) are commonly used for applications including aerial photography, search and rescue, agricultural monitoring and package delivery, but are often grounded in turbulent conditions.

Microstructure-based model predicts sheet metal behavior in seconds for car and battery design

A research team led by Kyung Mun Min and Seonghwan Choi of Materials Processing Research Division (Korea Institute of Materials Science) has developed a new analysis model capable of predicting the anisotropic mechanical behavior of sheet metals within seconds using only microstructural information of metallic materials.

The technology is expected to reduce the time and cost required to design forming processes for metallic materials used in automobiles and batteries by enabling fast, accurate prediction of how sheet metals stretch and deform without complex, repetitive experiments.

The study is published in the International Journal of Plasticity.

Haptoglobin phenotypes and structural variants associate with post-exertional malaise and cognitive dysfunction in myalgic encephalomyelitis

Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) is a chronic, multisystem illness characterized by post-exertional malaise (PEM) and cognitive dysfunction, yet the molecular mechanisms driving these hallmark symptoms remain unclear. This study investigated haptoglobin (Hp) as a potential biomarker of PEM severity and cognitive impairment in ME, with a focus on Hp phenotypes and structural proteoforms.

A longitudinal case–control study was conducted in 140 ME patients and 44 matched sedentary healthy controls. In the discovery phase, global plasma proteomic profiling was performed in 61 ME patients and 20 controls before and after a standardized, non-invasive stress protocol in order to induce PEM. Associations between Hp levels, phenotype, and cognitive performance were assessed. In the validation phase, plasma Hp concentrations and proteoform composition were analyzed in an independent cohort of 89 ME patients and 24 controls using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

ME patients demonstrated a significant reduction in Hp levels following post-exertional stress. Lower baseline Hp concentrations were associated with impaired cognitive performance. Hp phenotypes were differentially associated with symptom burden, with the Hp2-1 phenotype enriched in ME and linked to greater PEM severity and cognitive deficits compared to Hp1-1 and Hp2-2. HPLC analysis revealed altered Hp proteoform profiles in the Hp2-1 subgroup, including increased high-mass tetrameric and pentameric forms and shorter retention times indicative of structural changes. In contrast, the Hp1-1 phenotype was associated with milder symptoms and greater cognitive resilience.

Nearby super-Earth emerges as a top target in the search for life

Researchers have pinpointed a super-Earth in the habitable zone of a nearby M-dwarf star only 18 light-years away. Sophisticated instruments detected the planet’s gentle tug on its star, hinting at a rocky world that could hold liquid water. Future mega-telescopes may be able to directly image it—something impossible today.

This microbe turns into a cannibalistic ‘Hulk’

A newly discovered microbe is like a mini version of the Hulk.

Euplotes gigatrox is a single-celled protist that resembles an insect. It grazes on bacteria and other tiny microbes. Sometimes a small number of the protists balloon into “supergiants” more than twice their regular size. The huge cells cannibalize their smaller, genetically identical brethren. The triggers for the change aren’t entirely clear, but it tends to happen when there is plenty of food, researchers reported May 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Quantum computer simulates hadronization, reproducing string breaking with 104 qubits

By remotely accessing an IBM quantum computer, a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has successfully simulated a key process in particle physics: hadronization. Although based on a simplified model of quantum mechanics, the project lays the groundwork for how physicists can leverage the power of quantum computers to make large scientific calculations beyond the capabilities of classical supercomputers. The research is published in the journal Physical Review D.

Hadronization occurs when two or more quarks—the subatomic building blocks of matter—bind together through the strong nuclear force to form composite particles called hadrons. The most familiar examples of hadrons are protons and neutrons, which form the nuclei of atoms. So, having a better understanding of the hadronization process means having a better understanding of the structure of matter, and—in turn—the universe.

Physical experiments have not been able to reveal every step of the process, however. Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN accelerate protons to near light speeds, guide them into collisions and study the resulting debris of quarks and antiquarks. But these particles can only be indirectly measured before they immediately undergo hadronization—hence the need for computer simulations to fill in the gaps of these scientific observations.

Physicists demonstrate Hong–Ou–Mandel interference with more than 10 atoms

In a new study published in Nature Physics, researchers have demonstrated the Hong–Ou–Mandel (HOM) effect with up to 12 indistinguishable neutral atoms—an effect that has been predominantly observed in photonic systems.

The Hong–Ou–Mandel effect is a quantum phenomenon rooted in particle indistinguishability. When two identical bosons meet at a 50:50 beam splitter, they always exit together through the same output port. In other words, they “bunch up.” A single particle at each output is never found, even though that is the statistically expected outcome if the beam splitter were simply distributing particles at random.

First observed with pairs of photons in 1987, the HOM effect has since become central to quantum information and quantum metrology. For two particles, the physics is well established. However, extending it to many particles is a different challenge.

/* */