LIGO and Virgo detect rare mergers of black holes with neutron stars for the first time
In a 3Q, Salvatore Vitale describes how gravitational-wave signals suggest black holes completely devoured their companion neutron stars.
As novel sights become familiar, different brain rhythms and neurons take over
As “visual recognition memory” emerges in the visual cortex, one circuit of inhibitory neurons supplants another, and slower neural oscillations prevail.
Could all your digital photos be stored as DNA?
A technique for labeling and retrieving DNA data files from a large pool could help make DNA data storage feasible.
New drug-formulation method may lead to smaller pills
Chemical engineers have found a way to load more drug into a tablet, which could then be made smaller and easier to swallow.
Engineers create a programmable fiber
In a first, the digital fiber contains memory, temperature sensors, and a trained neural network program for inferring physical activity.
Study reveals a universal travel pattern across four continents
Globally, people follow a “visitation law” — an inverse relationship between distance and frequency of visits.
Advance may enable “2D” transistors for tinier microchip components
Atomically thin materials are a promising alternative to silicon-based transistors; now researchers can connect them more efficiently to other chip elements.
Cave deposits show surprising shift in permafrost over the last 400,000 years
Study finds Earth’s frozen surfaces became less susceptible to thawing, potentially locking in more carbon than expected.
How to get salt out of water: Make it self-eject
Crystallizing salts can grow “legs,” then tip over and fall away, potentially helping to prevent fouling of metal surfaces, researchers find.
Cancer cells soften as they metastasize, study suggests
Developing drugs that prevent this softening might impede tumors’ ability to spread.
Fast-spinning black holes narrow the search for dark matter particles
Certain ultralight bosons would be expected to put the brakes on black holes, but new results show no such slowdown.
A safer way to deploy bacteria as environmental sensors
Encapsulating modified bacteria in tough hydrogel spheres prevents them from spreading genes to other microbes.
Study reveals uncertainty in how much carbon the ocean absorbs over time
Climate projections could be off by five years, researchers find.
A streamlined approach to determining thermal properties of crystalline solids and alloys
MIT research team finds machine learning techniques offer big advantages over standard experimental and theoretical approaches.
A robot that senses hidden objects
System uses penetrative radio frequency to pinpoint items, even when they’re hidden from view.