Photons traveling through a cloud of atoms can emerge so early that they appear to have spent a negative amount of time inside。 Researchers tested whether this was merely a misleading feature of the light pulse by making extremely weak measurements of the atoms。 Surprisingly, the atoms confirmed the same negative dwell time
A new hollow nanoreactor mimics living cells to make hydrogen peroxide more efficiently using visible light。 Its light-trapping cavity and proton-shuttling shell could open new possibilities for cleaner chemical manufacturing and artificial photosynthesis
A person’s sleeping brain may reveal warning signs of dementia long before memory problems begin。 Researchers used machine learning to analyze EEG recordings from about 7,000 adults and found that an older-than-expected “brain age” was tied to a sharply higher dementia risk。 Every additional 10 years of brain aging raised that risk by nearly 40%
Ultrafast X-rays revealed how a molecule converts absorbed light into motion in just trillionths of a second。 Individual atoms recorded different stages of the process, opening a powerful new window into light-driven chemistry
August brings four major celestial events, including a solar eclipse and the peak of the Perseid meteor shower。 Dark New Moon skies could make the Perseids especially impressive, while Venus will blaze in the west after sunset。 A deep partial lunar eclipse closes the month, darkening most of the Moon
Scientists traced a mysterious surge of low-energy gamma rays from zinc-70 to magnetic changes occurring inside its nucleus。 The breakthrough could improve models of how stars, supernovae, and neutron star mergers create heavy elements
Scientists have generated quantum entanglement directly from sunlight, potentially offering a lower-energy alternative to the lasers normally used in quantum technology。 Their outdoor experiment produced entangled photons with about 94% similarity to an ideal state。 The result could pave the way for simpler quantum satellites, secure communications
A massive magma reservoir has been detected deep beneath Tuscany, despite showing no obvious signs at the surface。 Scientists mapped the roughly 6,000-cubic-kilometer body using natural ground vibrations recorded by dozens of seismic sensors。 It poses no immediate danger, but the discovery reveals how enormous volcanic systems can remain hidden and
NASA’s Curiosity rover has entered a Martian valley covered by an astonishing “sea” of tiny polygon-shaped fractures。 The honeycomb patterns, each only a few inches wide, stretch across the landscape and even wrap around a nearby 20-foot-tall butte
Scientists have built the first all-optical photonic time crystal, allowing them to reshape the behavior of terahertz light at extraordinary speeds。 The breakthrough could open the door to ultrafast computing, smarter communication systems, advanced imaging, and a new generation of highly tunable lasers
Scientists have demonstrated that heat can move through a crystal in focused, wave-like rays at room temperature instead of spreading randomly。 The breakthrough could make it possible to route heat around sensitive parts of next-generation chips and quantum devices
Dark matter particles may exert a hidden force on one another, but its effects are stranger than expected。 An extra attraction helps the particles cluster, yet it also makes dark matter effectively lighter as the Universe expands。 That weakens its gravitational impact and usually slows the growth of cosmic structure rather than accelerating it
Open source WeatherNext model can make accurate predictions with lower-resolution weather data
Six deaths reported among screwworm cases, one directly attributed to the flies