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
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
This may help fungi survive host scarcity and explains why infected hosts prefer the mosses as death sites
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
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%
Mathematicians have shown that no electoral system can perfectly balance local representation, proportional national results, and a fixed-size parliament once enough parties compete。 A newly proposed voting method could soften these unavoidable trade-offs and produce outcomes that are much closer to fair
Rice University chemists have found a new way to make neodymium, a rare-earth metal, interact with oxygen。 Using a specially designed molecular structure described as a “basket,” the team positioned the atoms so they could form a bond once thought unlikely。 The breakthrough produced highly reactive compounds that could eventually give chemists alte
NASA’s Psyche spacecraft aced its Mars flyby, using the planet’s gravity to speed toward its 2029 encounter with a metal-rich asteroid。 The spacecraft tested its cameras, magnetometer, and particle-detecting instruments, capturing unusual views of Mars and measuring its magnetic environment。 It also detected neutrons from the planet and spotted the
NASA’s Swift Observatory observed a supermassive black hole ripping apart a star more than 30,000 light-years from the center of a distant galaxy。 The extraordinary flare briefly outshone its entire host galaxy in ultraviolet light and revealed a black hole about a million times the Sun’s mass
The Backrooms began as a single eerie image of empty yellow rooms, but internet users transformed it into a vast fictional world that feels disturbingly real。 Through videos, games, maps, survival guides and social media stories, audiences do more than watch the horror unfold。 They help build and explore it
Cloudflare built an AI agent workspace for its employees。 Now it’s open source
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
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
When atomic nuclei smash together at nearly the speed of light, they create the hottest fluid in the universe, but scientists may have overlooked one of its most important forces。 New simulations reveal that extreme acceleration builds up along the edges of quark-gluon plasma, helping drive its explosive expansion。 This acceleration may do far more
"Most people have completely forgotten how chaotic it really was