Feature Channels: Story Ideas: Science

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The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB, figures largely in the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee’s, or NSAC’s, newly released “A New Era of Discovery: The 2023 Long Range Plan for Nuclear Science.” The new plan, released on Oct. 4, provides a roadmap for advancing the nation’s nuclear science research programs over the next decade. It is the eighth long range plan published by NSAC since 1979.

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New analysis of the remains of victims of the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide, contradicts the widespread belief the flu disproportionately impacted healthy young adults.

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Research from Washington University in St. Louis and the Georgia Institute of Technology provides a more complete explanation of how evolution plays out among species that live side-by-side.

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Russian scientists have found out that a mixture of iodine-derived organic salts and silver reduce their total catalytic activity — that is the ability to speed up chemical reactions, — but such a hybrid catalyst turned out to be more stable than corresponding organic catalysts in the absence of the metal.

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Mercouri Kanatzidis, an Argonne and Northwestern University materials scientist, has studied sulfur-containing materials called chalcogenides for more than 30 years. A new chalcogenide mineral has just been named for him.

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Utilizando datos del telescopio Gemini Sur y de otros observatorios, los astrónomos encontraron un nuevo Evento Transitorio Óptico Azul Rápido (LFBOT por sus siglas en inglés), un tipo de poderosa explosión cósmica, de la cual no se sabe mucho. El estallido, al que se le apodó como “el Finch”, ocurrió en las afueras de una galaxia, a diferencia de otros LFBOT descubiertos hasta ahora que se hallaron anidando en galaxias de formación estelar. Esta observación pone en duda las teorías actuales sobre los orígenes de este tipo de eventos transitorios.

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Using data from Gemini South and other observatories, astronomers have found a new Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LFBOT), a powerful but poorly understood type of cosmic explosion. However, rather than being nestled in a star-forming galaxy like other LFBOTs discovered so far, the latest event, dubbed ‘the Finch’, occurred in the far outskirts of a galaxy. This observation calls into question leading ideas about the origins of these transient events.

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Record-breaking summer heat focused attention on climate change, but Cornell University experts say too little has been paid to its intersection with another critical trend: the world’s rapidly aging population.

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•New Michigan State University research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that plants such as oak and poplar trees will emit more of a compound called isoprene as global temperatures climb. •Isoprene from plants represents the highest flux of hydrocarbons to the atmosphere behind methane. •Although isoprene isn’t inherently bad — it actually helps plants better tolerate insect pests and high temperatures — it can worsen air pollution by reacting with nitrogen oxides from automobiles and coal-fired power plants. •The new publication can help us better understand, predict and potentially mitigate the effects of increased isoprene emission as the planet warms.

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A pair of theoretical physicists are reporting that the same observations inspiring the hunt for a ninth planet might instead be evidence within the solar system of a modified law of gravity originally developed to understand the rotation of galaxies.

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The funding will be used to advance a novel technology, which combines Raman spectroscopy and machine learning to identify body fluid traces at crime scenes.

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Cornell is spearheading the New York Consortium for Space Technology Innovation and Development, a new initiative aimed at bolstering U.S. space technology research and manufacturing capabilities by uniting industry, academic and government partners across New York.

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American University and Football for Peace Join Forces to Promote Sports Diplomacy, Launch Peace Center

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Argonne researchers have tapped into the power of AI to create a new form of autonomous microscopy.

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Traveling to faraway places is often accompanied by jet lag. Fatigue, difficulty sleeping, and a host of other problems can turn an otherwise exciting adventure into a miserable trip. In Chaos, from AIP Publishing, Huang et al. developed a theoretical model to study the interactions between multiple internal clocks under the effects of aging and disruptions like jet lag. Based on their results, they suggest techniques that could improve internal clock recovery.

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A team of researchers, including NOIRLab astronomer André-Nicolas Chené, has found a highly unusual star that has the most powerful magnetic field ever found in a massive star — and that may become one of the most magnetic objects in the Universe: a variant of a neutron star known as a magnetar. This finding marks the discovery of a new type of astronomical object — a massive magnetic helium star — and sheds light on the origin of magnetars.

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Un equipo de investigadores, que incluía al astrónomo de NOIRLab André-Nicolas Chené, descubrió una inusual estrella con el campo magnético más poderoso jamás encontrado en una estrella masiva, que podría convertirla en uno de los objetos más magnéticos de todo el Universo, es decir, una variante de una estrella de neutrones conocida como “magnétar”. El hallazgo marca el descubrimiento de un nuevo tipo de objeto astronómico, una estrella de helio magnética masiva, y provee información sobre el origen de los magnétares.

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A team of researchers have found a shared penchant for sewing reflective shell beds onto clothing and other items across three Indonesian islands that dates back to at least 12,000 years ago.

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Bats gather to feast as nocturnal insects fly through mountain passes in the Pyrenees each autumn, new research shows.

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In the waters off the Hawaiian Islands, rates of calcification were measured in the deepest coral colonies and reported recently in a study led by a University of Hawai‘i (UH) at Mānoa oceanographer.

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Among the many hazards encountered by space probes, exposure to radiation and huge temperature swings pose particular challenges for their electronic circuits. Now KAUST researchers have invented the first ever flash memory device made from gallium oxide, a material that can withstand these harsh conditions far better than conventional electronics.

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The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention.

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Argonne National Laboratory is reimagining the lab spaces and scientific careers of the future by harnessing the power of robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning in the quest for new knowledge.

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Timothy Gray led a study that may have revealed an unexpected change in the shape of an atomic nucleus. The finding could affect our understanding of what holds nuclei together, how protons and neutrons interact and how elements form.

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A Cornell research team has developed a new way to design complex microscale machines, one that draws inspiration from the operation of proteins and hummingbird beaks.

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Ever since gene editing became feasible, researchers and health officials have sought tools that can quickly and reliably distinguish genetically modified organisms from those that are naturally occurring. Now, such tools exist.

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Scientists recently discovered that neutrinos have mass, counter to long-held understanding. This means that neutrinos can change flavor. Now, advances in theory and experiment are helping scientists to determine whether the neutrinos’ charged counterparts—electrons, muons, and tauons—can also change flavor and how future experiments can look for those changes.

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Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign demonstrated a way to use electricity to recycle polyoxymethylene (POM), a form of plastic that’s growing in use but more challenging to recycle.

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A first-of-its-kind analysis of historical DNA ties tens of thousands of living people to enslaved and free African Americans who labored at an iron forge in Maryland known as Catoctin Furnace soon after the founding of the United States. The study, spurred by groups seeking to restore ancestry knowledge to African American communities, provides a new way to complement genealogical, historical, bioarchaeological, and biochemical efforts to reconstruct the life histories of people omitted from written records and identify their present-day relatives.

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The availability, speed and effectiveness of genomic sequencing increased dramatically during the pandemic, as scientists worldwide rushed to find ways to track and predict the virus’s movement and evolution. It also was critical in the development of effective vaccines. In an essay published today, two NAU biologists argue that building on this momentum is critical in society’s response to future pandemics, but it requires significant collaboration and investment now, before the next pathogen is threatening society.

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University of Oregon researchers have developed a system to get that protein to the site of injury and release it gradually over time.

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Researchers have developed an innovative learning method that can enhance the efficiency of training quadruped robots to perform bounding gaits, contributing to more agile and effective locomotion across varying terrains. This study underscores the importance of bounding as an essential gait in quadrupedal locomotion, especially in negotiating obstacles.

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Roughly 30,000 data centers dot the landscape in the United States and Europe.

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University of Illinois scientists have identified a protein that plays a critical role in the action of several emerging cancer therapies. The discovery will likely aid efforts to fine-tune the use of immunotherapies against several challenging cancers.

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Photonic crystal structures have excellent light control properties and are hot topics in the field of photonics. For the preparation of photonic crystal structures with nanoscale three-dimensional spatial resolution inside the crystal, new femtosecond laser processing technologies are urgently needed. Scientists in China proposed a photonic crystal structure fabrication method based on nanoscale femtosecond laser multi-beam lithography. The technique will open possible ways to fabricate nanostructures for applications in optical communication and light manipulation.

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Using hundreds of entries from the New Yorker magazine’s Cartoon Caption Contest as a testbed, researchers challenged AI models and humans with three tasks: matching a joke to a cartoon; identifying a winning caption; and explaining why a winning caption is funny.

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A mammalian protein previously shown by UT Southwestern microbiologists to inhibit the virus that causes COVID-19 in cell culture also protected live mouse models, significantly limiting infection in the lung cells and diminishing the symptoms. The findings, published in Nature Microbiology, could lead to new strategies to treat COVID-19, which still infects thousands and kills hundreds in the U.S. every week.

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Fully synchronizing school meals with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 could positively impact hundreds of thousands of children into their adulthood, with the added benefit of saving billions in lifetime medical costs, Tufts University researchers report in a new modeling study.

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Researchers at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering are improving the safety and performance of electric vehicles through a new design that protects their batteries.

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Summertime is synonymous with fresh berries, and there may be no better place to be on a sunny day – besides the beach – than a berry-picking patch. Berry production is a $6 billion industry in the United States, and Virginia has been become a key contributor with a suitable climate and soil types for growing blueberries and blackberries, in particular.

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Michael DePhillips joined Brookhaven over 30 years ago to study ecological systems. After years seven at RHIC, he now manages intelligence work at the Lab. While they may seem different, there is a common thread connecting his many roles—computer code.

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Neurons become active when mice exploring a maze correct after making a wrong turn.

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Halide perovskites have applications in solar energy, radiation detection, and potentially in thermal harvesting. Cesium lead bromide is among the simplest of lead halide perovskite materials (LHPs). New research examined structural instabilities and large atomic fluctuations that may affect LHPs’ optical and thermal properties. It found that the atomic vibrations (phonons) of bromine octahedrons have large amplitudes but cannot oscillate for long amounts of time. Instead, the vibrations are strongly damped.

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Astronomers have found evidence that some stars boast unexpectedly strong surface magnetic fields, a discovery that challenges current models of how they evolve.