Technology

It's 7 billion years ago, and the universe's heyday of star formation is beginning to slow. What might our Milky Way galaxy have looked like at that time? Astronomers have found clues in the form of a cosmic question mark, the result of a rare alignment across light-years of space. It's 7 billion years ago

Nuclear clocks would measure time based on changes inside an atom's nucleus, which would make them less sensitive to external disturbances and potentially more accurate than atomic clocks. These clocks could lead to improved timekeeping and navigation, faster internet speeds, and advances in fundamental physics research. Scientists have demonstrated key components of a nuclear clock

Rain and water in ponds and lakes slowly seeps into the soil, moving through minute cracks to refill underground aquifers. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), often described as forever chemicals, can tag along into groundwater that's later removed for drinking. Researchers analyzed water from over 100 wells in Denmark for one particularly persistent PFAS: trifluoroacetate.

A new study shines a light on the enormous scale of uncollected rubbish and open burning of plastic waste in the first ever global plastics pollution inventory. Researchers used A.I. to model waste management in more than 50,000 municipalities around the world. This model allowed the team to predict how much waste was generated globally

Additive manufacturing, precision robotics and architected design markedly increase crack resistance in concrete. Taking inspiration from nature, researchers from Princeton Engineering have improved crack resistance in concrete components by coupling architected designs with additive manufacturing processes and industrial robots that can precisely control materials deposition. In an article published Aug. 29 in the journal Nature

New research addresses the fundamental science necessary to increase the efficiency of nuclear energy. Researchers have now documented the unique chemistry dynamics and structure of high-temperature liquid uranium trichloride salt, a potential nuclear fuel source for next-generation reactors. The Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a world leader in molten salt reactor technology

Around 4 billion years ago, an asteroid hit the Jupiter moon Ganymede. Now, a researcher realized that the Solar System's biggest moon's axis has shifted as a result of the impact, which confirmed that the asteroid was around 20 times larger than the one that ended the age of the dinosaurs on Earth, and caused

Over billions of years, the universe's stars and galaxies shined their light into space, leaving behind an imperceptibly faint night light known as the cosmic optical background. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has traveled to the edge of Earth's solar system and captured the most accurate measurement of this glow to date. Scientists have traveled to

A recently developed block copolymer could help push the limits of integration and miniaturization in semiconductor manufacturing, report scientists. Chemically tailored for reliable directed self-assembly, the proposed compound can arrange itself into perpendicular lamellar structures whose half-pitch width is less than 10 nanometers, outperforming conventional and widely used block copolymers. A recently developed block copolymer

Scientists have developed an AI tool that creates detailed models of cellular metabolism, making it easier to understand how cells function. Understanding how cells process nutrients and produce energy -- collectively known as metabolism -- is essential in biology. However, analyzing the vast amounts of data on cellular processes to determine metabolic states is a

Researchers created a new quantum state of matter, dubbed a higher-order topological magnet, that may address key issues in quantum technology. When different quantum states combine, new collective states of matter can emerge. In the quantum realm, combining components such as atoms that possess quantum effects can give rise to macroscopic quantum states of matter

A collaborative research team has identified the world's first multiple Majorana zero modes (MZMs) in a single vortex of the superconducting topological crystalline insulator SnTe and exploited crystal symmetry to control the coupling between the MZMs. This discovery offers a new pathway to realizing fault-tolerant quantum computers. A collaborative research team led by Prof. Junwei