Bringing space inside the lab: Researchers replicate the climates of exoplanets to help find extraterrestrial life

Scientists do not need to travel light-years away to chart the atmospheres of exoplanets, thanks to research happening in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering with scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

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Using game theory to thwart multistage privacy intrusions when sharing data

Biomedical data is widely collected in the field of medicine, although sharing such data can raise privacy concerns about the re-identification of seemingly anonymous records. Risk assessment frameworks for formal re-identification can inform decisions on the process of sharing data, and current methods focus on scenarios where data recipients use only one resource to identify purposes. However, this can affect privacy where adversaries can access multiple resources to enhance the chance of their success. In a new report now in Science Advances, Zhiyu Wan and a team of scientists in electrical engineering and computer engineering and biomedical informatics in the U.S. represented a re-identification game using a two-player Stackelberg game of perfect information to assess risk. They suggest an optimal data-sharing strategy based on a privacy-utility trade-off. The team used experiments with large-scale genomic datasets and game theoretic models to induce adversarial capabilities to effectively share data with low re-identification risk.

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2021: A year physicists asked, 'What lies beyond the Standard Model?'

If you ask a physicist like me to explain how the world works, my lazy answer might be: "It follows the Standard Model."

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Novel semiconductor gives new perspective on anomalous Hall effect

A large, unconventional anomalous Hall resistance in a new magnetic semiconductor in the absence of large-scale magnetic ordering has been demonstrated by Tokyo Tech materials scientists, validating a recent theoretical prediction. Their findings provide new insights into the anomalous Hall effect, a quantum phenomenon that has previously been associated with long-range magnetic order.

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Trapping vortices in thin superfluid films

Physicists at the University of Queensland have shed light upon how tiny whirlpools (vortices) get stuck to obstacles in superfluids.

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Turbocharged data analysis could prevent gravitational wave computing crunch

A new method of analyzing the complex data from massive astronomical events could help gravitational wave astronomers avoid a looming computational crunch.

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Computer simulation models potential asteroid collisions

An asteroid impact can be enough to ruin anyone's day, but several small factors can make the difference between an out-of-this-world story and total annihilation. In AIP Advances, a researcher from the National Institute of Natural Hazards in China developed a computer simulation of asteroid collisions to better understand these factors.

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Researchers develop new measurements for designing cooler electronics

When cell phones, electric vehicle chargers, or other electronic devices get too hot, performance degrades, and eventually overheating can cause them to shut down or fail. In order to prevent that from happening researchers are working to solve the problem of dissipating heat produced during performance. Heat that is generated in the device during operation has to flow out, ideally with little hinderance to reduce the temperature rise. Often this thermal energy must cross several dissimilar materials during the process and the interface between these materials can cause challenges by impeding heat flow.

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Nuclear 'shadow corrosion' reproduced in the lab, paving way to longer fuel life

Solutions to a 55-year-old problem in boiling water reactors—which represent a third of nuclear power reactors in the United States—are on the way now that the problem has been emulated with ion beams.

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Reentrant tensegrity: An auxetic, three-periodic, chiral tensegrity structure

In a new report now published in Science Advances, Mathias Oster, and a team of scientists at the Institute for Mathematics at the Berlin Institute of Technology and the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburg in the U.K., presented a three-periodic, chiral tensegrity structure and demonstrated that it is auxetic, i.e., such materials become thicker perpendicular to the applied force when stretched. An auxetic structure has a negative Poisson's ratio and can form materials with unexpected behavior. The tensegrity structure is a form of tensile architecture held together by the balance of tensile and compression forces acting on them. The scientists constructed the tensegrity structure using chiral symmetry cylinder packing to transform cylinders to elastic elements and cylinder contacts to incompressible rods. The outcome showed local re-entrant geometry at its vertices, which they confirmed using finite element modeling. The architecture represented a simple three-dimensional (3D) analog to the two-dimensional (2D) re-entrant honeycomb model to form an interesting design target for multifunctional materials.

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Measuring a quantum computer's power just got faster and more accurate

What does a quantum computer have in common with a top draft pick in sports? Both have attracted lots of attention from talent scouts. Quantum computers, experimental machines that can perform some tasks faster than supercomputers, are constantly evaluated, much like young athletes, for their potential to someday become game-changing technology.

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Exploring factors impacting the sensitivity of amorphous oxide semiconductors to externally induced impurities

In recent years, electronics engineers have been trying to broaden the pool of available semiconducting materials, to enable the development of a wider range of devices. One emerging class of semiconductors are amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs), which are semiconductors based on oxides of post-transition metals.

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Light-scattering dynamics could inform interpretation of Big Bang remnants

By confirming certain light-scattering dynamics first proposed a half-century ago, University of Nebraska–Lincoln physicists are casting fresh eyes on the universe-birthing fireworks ignited by the Big Bang nearly 14 billion years ago.

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Maybe 'boson clouds' could explain dark matter

The nature of dark matter continues to perplex astronomers. As the search for dark matter particles continues to turn up nothing, it's tempting to throw out the dark matter model altogether, but indirect evidence for the stuff continues to be strong. So what is it? One team has an idea, and they've published the results of their first search.

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Study re-examines the decay of 185Bi using state-of-the-art technologies

Researchers at University of Surrey, University of York, University of Edinburgh, and Argonne National Laboratory have recently revisited and solved some of the long-standing puzzles associated with the decay of 185Bi, the heaviest known proton-emitting nucleus. Their paper, published in Physical Review Letters, outlines crucial new results obtained using two advanced setups at Argonne National Laboratory's ATLAS facility, namely the Fragment Mass Analyzer (FMA) and the Argonne Gas-Filled Analyzer (AGFA).

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Gravitational wave scientists set their sights on dark matter

The technologies behind one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs of the century—the detection of gravitational waves—are now being used in the long-standing search for dark matter.

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Exotic quantum particles—less magnetic field required

Exotic quantum particles and phenomena are like the world's most daring elite athletes. Like the free solo climbers who scale impossibly steep cliff faces without a rope or harness, only the most extreme conditions will entice them to show up. For exotic phenomena like superconductivity or particles that carry a fraction of the charge of an electron, that means extremely low temperatures or extremely high magnetic fields.

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Understanding phase change materials for thermal energy storage

As the world searches for practical ways to decarbonize our activities and mitigate associated climate change, approaches to alternative energy are hampered by the intermittent nature of energy sources, such as solar and wind. One possible solution to help boost reliability and adoption of such renewable energy sources is improved energy storage capabilities.

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Generating topology from loss in hybrid light-matter particles

Losing particles can lead to positive, robust effects.

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Surfing the spin wave: New method to measure spin waves brings us one step closer to spin superfluidity

Spin waves, a change in electron spin that propagates through a material, could fundamentally change how devices store and carry information. These waves, also known as magnons, don't scatter or couple with other particles. Under the right conditions, they can even act like a superfluid, moving through a material with zero energy loss.

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Einstein's theory passes rigorous 16-year tests

An international team has used telescopes around the world, including CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope—Murriyang, to complete the most challenging tests yet of Einstein's general theory of relativity.

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Air flow key to ensuring black soldier fly larvae thrive as a sustainable food source

Black soldier fly larvae devour food waste and other organic matter and are made of 60% protein, making them an attractive sustainable food source in agriculture. But increasingly, black soldier larvae are dying before they reach livestock facilities as animal feed.

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New spin amplifier accelerates search for dark matter

Despite astrophysical evidence for the existence of dark matter, direct detection of its interaction with particles and fields of the standard model has not been achieved. Illuminating dark matter is the best hope of making progress in understanding the universe and would provide insights into astrophysics, cosmology and physics beyond the standard model.

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Challenging Einstein's greatest theory with extreme stars

Researchers at the University of East Anglia and the University of Manchester have helped conduct a 16-year long experiment to challenge Einstein's theory of general relativity.

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New version of organic electronics for rational management of energy

Due to the current energy problems, which encompass high electricity bills, regional tensions among oil and gas producers or the impact of climate change, among others, a rational management of energy consumption is becoming increasingly necessary.

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Throwing down the scientific gauntlet to assess methods for anomalous diffusion

Almost 80 years after Scottish botanist Robert Brown described the continuous random motion of microscopic particles in a fluid, Albert Einstein provided a theoretical foundation for this observation. Since then, scientists have discovered systems that deviate substantially from the laws of Brownian motion. Such deviations are referred to as anomalous diffusion and occur in a wide range of systems, ranging from the transport of molecules in the nucleus to animal foraging strategies and stock market fluctuations.

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Uncertainty is inescapable, even in a science as precise as nuclear physics

Uncertainty is part of life. There's just no escaping it, even in a science as precise as nuclear physics.

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Simulating matter on the nanoscale with AI

In a paper published today in the scientific journal Science, DeepMind demonstrates how neural networks can be used to describe electron interactions in chemical systems more accurately than existing methods.

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DNA transcription speeds, a function of collective modes driven by DNA supercoiling

A team of physicists working at the intersection of theory and experiment are shedding new light on the "teamwork" of molecular motors—called RNA polymerases (RNAPs)—that mediate DNA transcription. During transcription, the first step in gene expression, RNAPs "read" DNA sequences and assemble messenger RNA (mRNA), which in turn serves as the template for the proteins necessary for life.

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New state of matter: Crystalline and flowing at the same time

Through their research efforts, the team was able to finally disprove an intuitive assumption that in order for two particles of matter to merge and form larger units (i.e. aggregates or clusters), they must be attracted to each other. As early as the turn of the century, a team of soft matter physicists headed by Christos Likos of the University of Vienna predicted on the basis of theoretical considerations that this does not necessarily have to be the case. They suggested that purely repulsive particles could also form clusters, provided they are fully overlapping and that their repulsion fulfills certain mathematical criteria. 

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Physicists discover special transverse sound wave

Can you imagine sound traveling in the same way as light does? A research team at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has discovered a new type of sound wave: The airborne sound wave vibrates transversely and carries both spin and orbital angular momentum like light does. The findings shattered scientists' previous beliefs about the sound wave, opening an avenue to the development of novel applications in acoustic communications, acoustic sensing and imaging.

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Microfountain pen draws minute patterns for live cells, circuits

Advances in intuitive microwriting devices that can print microstructures could pattern electric circuits and more. The setup, featuring a robot arm to hold the micropen, deposits ink onto the surface, much like writing by hand with a fountain pen.

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Study explores phase transitions in a confining dark sector using QCD simulations

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Ohio state University recently carried out a study examining the possible effects of a first-order phase transition in a confining dark sector with heavy dark quarks. Using computer simulations, they showed that in several scenarios, such a transition could lead to a sizable reduction in the abundance of dark matter. The results of their analyses were published in Physical Review Letters.

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Studying cosmic expansion using methods from many-body physics

It is almost always assumed in cosmological calculations that there is a even distribution of matter in the universe. This is because the calculations would be much too complicated if the position of every single star were to be included. In reality, the universe is not uniform: in some places there are stars and planets, in others there is just a void. Physicists Michael te Vrugt and Prof. Raphael Wittkowski from the Institute of Theoretical Physics and the Center for Soft Nanoscience (SoN) at the University of Münster have, together with physicist Dr. Sabine Hossenfelder from the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS), developed a new model for this problem. Their starting point was the Mori-Zwanzig formalism, a method for describing systems consisting of a large number of particles with a small number of measurands. The results of the study have now been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

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Ultra-high precision search for exotic interactions

The standard model is currently recognized as the most successful theory for studying particles and their interactions. However, it still fails to account for some important astronomy observations, such as the existence of dark matter and dark energy. Physicists generally believe that there are new particles beyond the standard model, which transmit new interactions between standard model particles. Due to the weak effect of exotic interaction, searching for exotic interactions is extremely challenging, and it is urgent to explore new methods to improve experimental sensitivity.

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Understanding mouthfeel of food using physics

Food texture can make the difference between passing on a plate and love at first bite. To date, most studies on food texture center on relating a food's overall composition to its mechanical properties. Our understanding of how microscopic structure and changes in the shape of food affect food texture, however, remains underdeveloped.

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BESIII experiment: Search for new physics in charm energy region, progress and prospect

In a recent review article published online in National Science Review, Prof. Shenjian Chen (Nanjing University) and Prof. Stephen Olsen (University of Chinese Academy of Sciences) review the major progress of the BESIII experiment in searching for new physics in Charm physics energy region, and prospect the potential of new physics search in the future.

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Lego down! Focused vibrations knock over minifigures

A tabletop covered in miniature Lego minifigures. There is a whooshing sound, a pause, and then a single minifigure in the center of the table topples over, leaving the remaining minifigures standing.

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Color-changing magnifying glass gives clear view of infrared light

Detecting light beyond the visible red range of our eyes is hard to do, because infrared light carries so little energy compared to ambient heat at room temperature. This obscures infrared light unless specialized detectors are chilled to very low temperatures, which is both expensive and energy-intensive.

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Filtering unwanted sounds from baby monitors

New parents often keep a constant ear on their children, listening for any signs of distress as their baby sleeps. Baby monitors make that possible, but they can also inundate parents with annoying background audio.

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Sounding off on Seattle Space Needle renovation

The Seattle Space Needle, a city landmark for nearly 60 years, recently underwent a renovation to enhance the visitor experience. Acoustic designers were tasked with ensuring that the new design is a quiet one.

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Novel quantum device design promises a regular flow of entangled electrons on demand

Quantum computer and many other quantum technologies rely on the generation of quantum-entangled pairs of electrons. However, the systems developed so far typically produce a noisy and random flow of entangled electrons, which hinders synchronized operations on the entangled particles. Now, researchers from Aalto University in Finland propose a way to produce a regular flow of spin-entangled electrons.

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Tracing European conflicts using lead isotopes in paints used by Dutch masters

A team of researchers from Vrije University, Conservation & Science, Rijksmuseum and the University of Amsterdam has found that it is possible to trace conflicts in Europe by analyzing lead isotopes in paint used by Dutch master painters. They have published their results in the journal Science Advances.

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Safely delivering radiation to cancer patients in a 'FLASH'

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have shown for the first time the potential for linear induction accelerators (LIAs) to deliver effective, targeted doses of "FLASH" radiation to cancer patients. The new technique selectively kills cancer cells with minimal damage to healthy cells. The approach is outlined in a Scientific Reports paper.

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Magnons vs electrons: A new spin on computer processing

In 1965, Gordon Moore of Intel predicted that microprocessors would double in speed and capacity every couple of years. This prediction, now known as "Moore's Law," has with some modification in 1975 been reliably prophetic until now. We're fast approaching the limits of Moore's Law at the same time as demands on microprocessor performances are continuing to grow at an ever more rapid pace. The solution may be in a burgeoning technology whose name reads like a character in the Marvel Universe —magnonics.

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