Article archives

STRAWBERRY fields, where dark matter haloes truly end

STRAWBERRY fields, where dark matter haloes truly end

AstrophysicsCosmologyDIPC Computational Cosmology

By DIPC

Dark matter is a mysterious, invisible substance that makes up about 27% of the Universe’s total energy content. We cannot see it directly, only infer its presence through the gravity it exerts. For decades, cosmologists have described dark matter haloes as the invisible scaffolding within which galaxies form and live. Every galaxy, including our own […]

Why do men sexually harass women at work?

Why do men sexually harass women at work?

Philosophy of scienceSociology

By Invited Researcher

Authors: Cordelia Fine, Professor, History & Philosophy of Science program, School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne; Kate Lynch, Lecturer in Philosophy of Science, University of Sydney, and Morgan Anna Weaving, Research Affiliate, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University What causes workplace sexual harassment? How can we continue to better understand […]

Planetary atmosphere in a tank

Planetary atmosphere in a tank

Chemical engineeringGeosciencesPhysics

By César Tomé

Earth’s atmosphere is a vast, swirling engine of weather and climate. Jet streams race across continents, storms spin into hurricanes, and invisible eddies churn the air at every scale. For decades, scientists have struggled to understand exactly how energy and swirling motion flow through these turbulent systems, especially in the layered zones where the air […]

How a shifting photonic crystal creates a robust laser

How a shifting photonic crystal creates a robust laser

Condensed matterDIPC Advanced materialsMaterials

By DIPC

New research numerically demonstrates how carefully structured materials can control light in ways that are both precise and robust. It brings together ideas from photonics and topology to show how a laser can emerge from the boundary between two distinct optical regimes. The physical system considered in the study is a bilayer photonic crystal. A […]

What we actually see – and don’t see – tells us a lot about consciousness

What we actually see – and don’t see – tells us a lot about consciousness

NeurosciencePhilosophy of science

By Invited Researcher

Author: Henry Taylor, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Birmingham What can you see right now? This might seem like a silly question, but what enters your consciousness is not the whole story when it comes to vision. A great deal of visual processing in the brain goes on well below our conscious awareness […]

100-meter underground wireless communication

100-meter underground wireless communication

Technology

By Mapping Ignorance

Korean researchers have confirmed that underground wireless communication is possible, moving beyond the terrestrial wireless communication they have primarily focused on until now. This opened up a new wireless channel for confirming the survival of buried people in the event of a collapse of an underground facility such as a mine, conducting underground rescue operations […]

Chiral altermagnets and the unexpected origins of spin currents

Chiral altermagnets and the unexpected origins of spin currents

Condensed matterDIPC Advanced materialsMaterialsQuantum physics

By DIPC

Every time a computer processes information, electrons shuttle through circuits carrying electric charge, and much of the energy they carry is wasted as heat. Spintronics proposes a different approach: instead of relying solely on the charge of electrons, exploit another of their properties called spin, a quantum-mechanical quantity that can be thought of as a […]

Microbes in Antarctica survive the freezing and dark winter by living on air

Microbes in Antarctica survive the freezing and dark winter by living on air

Microbiology

By Invited Researcher

Author: Ry Holland, Research Fellow in Microbial Ecology, Monash University Winter in Antarctica is long and dark. Temperatures remain well below freezing. In many places, the Sun sets in April and does not rise above the horizon again until August. Without sunlight, photosynthetic life such as plants, mosses and algae cannot make energy. But that’s […]