Sandy clouds swirl around brown dwarfs According to new modeling based on telescope data collected nearly 20 years ago, silicate-rich clouds swirling around brown dwarfs likely form when the chemistry and temperature –1,000 to 1,700 degrees Celsius — of the atmospheres of the substellar objects align. Full Story: Space Plant cycles affected by urban lighting […]
Twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) has taken the spotlight in the condensed matter community since the discovery of correlated phases. Now, a team of researchers studies heterostructures of TBG and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) using an atomistic tight-binding model together with semi-classical molecular dynamics to consider relaxation effects. Isolated atomic planes, two-dimensional (2D) materials, like graphene […]
We can model the motions of planets in the Solar System quite accurately using Newton’s laws of physics. But in the early 1970s, scientists noticed that this didn’t work for disc galaxies – stars at their outer edges, far from the gravitational force of all the matter at their centre – were moving much faster […]
Antidepressants are the mainstay for treating depression, but their use is clouded by doubts about their short-, medium- and long-term efficacy. This is not to say that we should not use them, as these drugs save lives in many cases, but a recent review reinforces these questions as it sees little difference in the quality […]
Robots recreate evolutionary journey of ancient ammonites By studying the dynamic interaction between maneuverability and stability in robotic ammonites, a team of researchers has traced the evolution of shell variations of live ammonite shells in response to different needs and advantages. “Throughout their evolution, externally shelled cephalopods navigated their physical limitations by endlessly experimenting with […]
The so-called van der Waals materials consist of two-dimensional layers bound by weak van der Waals forces. After the isolation of graphene, the field of two-dimensional van der Waals materials has experienced an explosive growth and new families of two-dimensional systems and block-layered bulk materials, such as tetradymite-like topological insulators – electronic materials that have […]
Most internet users are by now aware of the vulnerability of their personal data. When the news broke that tech companies misuse and manipulate our personal data, there was a widespread “techlash” against the corporate giants Facebook, Amazon and Google. The explicit motive for data harvesting is the prediction of consumer wants and needs. And […]
In the last years, CRISPR-Cas9 technology has revolutionized gene editing, having enormous research and clinical potential. However, gene editing can be tricky and have unexpected effects, like recently reported in the journal PNAS , where tweaking a gene produced aggressive hamsters instead of the calm, Zen animals the researchers were aiming for. Arginine-vasopressin (AVP) and […]
Jawbone discovery shows vicious bear dog’s power, reach The discovery of a near-complete jawbone of a newly identified species of “bear dog” indicates the ancient beasts were powerful predators with a global presence when they roamed the earth up to 23 million years ago. The flat-footed, long-snouted bear dogs ranged in size from 9 to […]
The scattering of conduction electrons in metals due to impurities with magnetic moments is known as the Kondo effect, after Jun Kondo, who analysed the phenomenon in 1964. This scattering increases the electrical resistance and has as a consequence that, in contrast to ordinary metals, the resistance reaches a minimum as the temperature is lowered […]