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The central principle of superconductivity is that electrons form pairs. But can they also condense into foursomes? Recent findings have suggested they can, and a physicist at KTH Royal Institute of Technology today published the first experimental evidence of this quadrupling effect and the mechanism by which this state of matter occurs. Reporting in Nature Physics, Professor Egor Babaev and collaborators presented evidence of fermion quadrupling in a series of experimental measurements on the iron-based material, Ba1−xKxFe2As2....

It was discovered on March 17, 1781, by French astronomer Pierre Méchain. He reported it to fellow French astronomer Charles Messier, who included the object in the Messier Catalogue of comet-like objects. Modern technology has allowed us to observe galaxies like this in significantly greater detail compared to when it was first observed by Méchain and Messier in the 18th century. NGC 4254 is a grand design spiral galaxy in the northern constellation Coma Berenices approximately 49,000,000 light-years from the Milky Way....

The last three predicted impacts have all occurred in the last 12 months– an encouraging illustration of how asteroid detection capabilities are rapidly advancing. What happened? At 20:18:07 UTC on February 12, 2023, the new asteroid (now officially designated 2023 CX1 but initially designated Sar2667 by its discoverer) was imaged by the Piszkésteto Observatory. Once a second observation was taken, it was reported to the Minor Planet Center at 20:49 UTC....

“GLM detects these meteors when they become brighter than the full Moon,” says lead author and meteor astronomer Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute and NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “Meteors that bright are called ‘bolides’ and they are caused mainly by the impact of small asteroids.” Jenniskens’ work on meteors contributes to the NASA Ames Asteroid Threat Assessment Program, which helps improve the information for impact prediction warnings by studying how asteroids fragment as they travel through the atmosphere....

In recent decades, astronomers have made significant progress in mapping the Cosmic Web, which has opened up new avenues for answering some of the most significant questions in the field. One area of particular interest is the study of magnetic fields at a cosmic scale and their role in shaping both galactic and cosmic structures. New research published in Science Advances and led by the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in partnership with CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, is helping us to further understand these cosmic magnetic fields....

New research reveals possible applications of nickel, from data storage to biosensors. When scientists and engineers discover new ways to optimize existing materials, it paves the way for innovations that make everything from our phones and computers to our medical equipment smaller, faster, and more efficient. According to research published today (October 18, 2019) by Nature Journal NPG Asia Materials, a group of researchers — led by Edwin Fohtung, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute — have found a new way to optimize nickel by unlocking properties that could enable numerous applications, from biosensors to quantum computing....

In recent years it has been established that copper plays an essential role in the health of the human brain. Improper copper oxidation has been linked to several neurological disorders including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Menkes’ and Wilson’s. Copper has also been identified as a critical ingredient in the enzymes that activate the brain’s neurotransmitters in response to stimuli. Now a new study by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has shown that proper copper levels are also essential to the health of the brain at rest....

And while working long hours is a risk factor for dying from cardiovascular disease or having a stroke, poor management practices pose a greater risk for depression, the researchers found. The University of South Australia study, published in the British Medical Journal today (June 23), is led by UniSA’s Psychosocial Safety Climate Observatory, the world’s first research platform exploring workplace psychological health and safety. Psychosocial safety climate (PSC) is the term used to describe management practices and communication and participation systems that protect workers’ mental health and safety....

Stars, galaxies, and everything in the universe, including our own bodies, are comprised of so-called regular matter. Regular matter includes atoms and molecules, which are made up of tiny particles, such as electrons, protons, and neutrons. These particles dominate our universe, vastly outnumbering their lesser-known counterparts: antimatter particles. First experimentally discovered in 1932 by the late Nobel laureate and longtime Caltech professor Carl Anderson (BS ’27, PhD ’30), antimatter particles have the opposite charges to their matter counterparts....

The researchers report: 86 percent of all infections were undocumented prior to the January 23 Wuhan travel shutdownPer person, these undocumented infections were half (52 percent) as contagious as documented infections yet were the source of two-thirds of documented infectionsGovernment control efforts and population awareness have reduced the rate of spread of the virus in China; after travel restrictions and control measures were imposed, it spread less quickly “The explosion of COVID-19 cases in China was largely driven by individuals with mild, limited, or no symptoms who went undetected,” says co-author Jeffrey Shaman, Ph....

“Jehol Biota provides the most informative source for understanding Mesozoic ecology,” said corresponding author Dr. Yan Zhao, based at the Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Linyi University. “Better understanding of the diverse taphonomy of Jehol terrestrial vertebrates can help us finally understand more about the past and future of biological evolution.” Why does deposition matter? Even at Jehol Biota, not all fossils are equally well preserved — and understanding the paleoenvironment is crucial to understanding the differences....

Since early in the pandemic, COVID-19 has been associated with heart problems, including reduced ability to pump blood and abnormal heart rhythms. But it’s been an open question whether these problems are caused by the virus infecting the heart, or an inflammatory response to viral infection elsewhere in the body. Such details have implications for understanding how best to treat coronavirus infections that affect the heart. A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St....

Intermittent fasting can produce clinically significant weight loss as well as improve metabolic health in individuals with obesity, according to a new study review led by University of Illinois Chicago researchers. “We noted that intermittent fasting is not better than regular dieting; both produce the same amount of weight loss and similar changes in blood pressure, cholesterol, and inflammation,” said Krista Varady, professor of nutrition at the UIC College of Applied Health Sciences and author of “Cardiometabolic Benefits of Intermittent Fasting....

Kaiser Permanente study shows 3 doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine highly effective against hospitalization from omicron or delta. New Kaiser Permanente research published on February 21, 2022, in Nature Medicine shows that while Moderna COVID-19 vaccine protection is strong against coronavirus infection by the delta variant, it is not as strong against infection from the omicron variant. Three doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine were highly effective against hospitalization caused by infection from either the omicron or delta variant....

Scientists had already theoretically predicted that specifically structured surfaces can turn the wavefronts of light upside down when it propagates along them. “On such surfaces, called hyperbolic metasurfaces, the waves emitted from a point source propagate only in certain directions and with open (concave) wavefronts,” explains Javier Alfaro, Ph.D. student at nanoGUNE and co-author of the paper. These unusual waves are called hyperbolic surface polaritons. Because they propagate only in certain directions, and with wavelengths that are much smaller than that of light in free space or standard waveguides, they could help to miniaturize optical devices for sensing and signal processing....

“A prerequisite for finding a treatment for an impaired sense of smell is to first understand how the sense of smell works,” says Staffan Bohm, Professor at the Department of Molecular Biology at Umeå University. What the researchers have discovered is a so-called organelle inside nerve cells, that has not previously been observed. The newly discovered organelle has been given the name multivesicular transducosome by the researchers. The discovery was made possible thanks to Umeå University’s unique microscopy infrastructure....

Exercise has been shown to reduce anxiety and stress, but it may not be enough for the levels caused by COVID-19. In a study of twins led by Washington State University researchers, people who reported increasing their physical activity after the start of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders reported higher levels of stress and anxiety than those whose activity levels stayed the same. In the study, published recently in the journal PLoS One, researchers analyzed data from over 900 pairs of identical and same-sex fraternal twins from the Washington State Twin Registry....

The colony began moving to a new patch of forest approximately seven kilometers away ( four miles) when the cumulative loss of trees, over three years, in the old patch reached 18%. Most bats roosted in the new patch by year four, when the cumulative loss of roost trees reached 46%. The authors noted that to maintain high densities of suitable roost trees for bats, management plans must retain live and dead trees in multiple stages of growth and decay....

The sounds are thought to be oscillations in the magnetic field around the comet. They were picked up by the Rosetta Plasma Consortium – a suite of five instruments on the spacecraft that is orbiting the comet. The comet’s song would not be audible to the human ear because it is being emitted at 40 to 50 millihertz, far below the range of human hearing, which typically picks up sound between 20 hertz and 20 kilohertz....

NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, along with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, returned to Earth in a parachute-assisted splashdown at 9:02 p.m. EST. Teams aboard SpaceX recovery vessels retrieved the spacecraft and spacefarers. After returning to shore, the crew will fly to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “Welcome home, Crew-5! This international crew has been conducting critical science experiments and technology demonstrations on the International Space Station that will help prepare us for future deep space missions and pave the way for our return to the Moon,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson....