Menlo Park CA (SPX) Jan 08, 2026
Researchers hoped to clarify the boundaries between different types of superionic water - the hot, black ice believed to exist at the core of giant ice planets. Instead, they found multiple atomic stacking patterns coexisting in overlapping configurations never seen before in this phase of water. Superionic water - the hot, black and strangely conductive form of ice that exists in the cent

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jan 09, 2026
Neutrinos, often called ghost particles, are elementary particles that are electrically neutral, extremely light, and interact only rarely with other matter. Trillions pass through Earth and the human body every second without leaving a trace, which makes them difficult to detect but valuable as probes of regions of the universe that are otherwise hidden. Researchers at the University of C

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 09, 2026
Astronomers at the University of California, Irvine have identified the largest-known stream of super-heated gas in the universe flowing out of a nearby disk galaxy called VV 340a, with their findings reported in Science. The gas, traced using data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, emerges from both sides of the galaxy as two elongated nebulae powered by an active supermassive black hole a

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jan 09, 2026
Plans to obtain the first precision measurements of some of the rarest and most unstable atomic nuclei are set to advance understanding of nuclear structure and the way chemical elements form during extreme cosmic events such as supernovae, neutron star mergers and X-ray bursts. The University of Surrey is partnering with researchers in Japan to develop instruments that can measure previou

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jan 09, 2026
Researchers at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen have demonstrated a quantum interferometric method that can register extremely small tilts and displacements of a laser beam. The approach is based on weak value amplification, a concept from quantum mechanics that enhances the response of an interferometer when internal beam parameters change only slightly. In many experiments and tech

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 08, 2026
Giant DNA viruses that infect amoebae are providing new evidence that viruses may have helped drive the evolution of complex life, according to researchers at Tokyo University of Science and the National Institute of Natural Sciences in Japan. In work published online on November 24, 2025, in the Journal of Virology, the team reports the discovery of ushikuvirus, a newly isolated giant vir

Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Jan 07, 2026
One of the great successes of 20th-century physics was the quantum mechanical description of solids. This allowed scientists to understand for the first time how and why certain materials conduct electric current and how these properties could be purposefully modified. For instance, semiconductors such as silicon could be used to produce transistors, which revolutionized electronics and made mod

Davis CA (SPX) Jan 08, 2026
UC Davis researchers have developed a new method that uses light to transform amino acids - the building blocks of proteins - into molecules that are similar in structure to psychedelics and mimic their interaction with the brain. Like psychedelics, these molecules activate the brain's serotonin 5-HT2A receptors, which promote cortical neuron growth, and could be candidates to treat a host of br

London, UK (SPX) Jan 09, 2026
Physicists at the University of Oxford have contributed to a study showing that iron-rich asteroids can withstand much higher energy inputs than expected without breaking apart, a result that affects assessments of planetary defence strategies against hazardous objects. The work, published in Nature Communications, indicates that under rapid, intense heating these bodies can even become tougher

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jan 09, 2026
MDA Space Ltd. (TSX: MDA) reports it has received an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract from the Missile Defense Agency for the Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) program. The IDIQ award makes MDA Space eligible to bid on future tasks and service orders under SHIELD, a US defense effort aimed at strengthening protection against threats acr