Category archives: Science

ASKAP J1745 is a ‘Rosetta stone’ for the mysterious signals that keep coming from space

ASKAP J1745 is a ‘Rosetta stone’ for the mysterious signals that keep coming from space

AstronomyAstrophysics

By Invited Researcher

Author: Kovi Rose, Astrophysics PhD Candidate, University of Sydney Kovi Rose, University of Sydney A pair of stars spiralling around each other. That’s the origin of a new source of repeating radio bursts we’ve detected, called ASKAP J1745. In recent years, astronomers have been puzzling over mysterious bursts of radio signals, known as long-period transients […]

Climate change is transforming Biscayne Bay

Climate change is transforming Biscayne Bay

Environment

By Mapping Ignorance

Climate change and sea level rise are altering the chemistry of Biscayne Bay in ways that could threaten South Florida’s coastal ecosystems, water resources, fisheries, and recreation, according to a study led by scientists from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science and Miami-Dade County’s Department of Environmental Resources Management […]

Catching intramolecular vibrational redistribution in real time

Catching intramolecular vibrational redistribution in real time

ChemistryQuantum chemistry

By DIPC

Molecules are never truly still. Even in apparently stable matter, atoms vibrate continuously, stretching and bending the chemical bonds that hold them together. These vibrations are not random noise: they determine how molecules absorb light, exchange energy, and undergo chemical reactions. One of the central challenges in chemistry is learning how to direct energy into […]

An AI solution to an 80‑year‑old Erdős problem

An AI solution to an 80‑year‑old Erdős problem

Artificial IntelligenceMathematics

By Invited Researcher

Author: Melissa Lee, Senior Lecturer, School of Mathematics, Monash University Last week, OpenAI shocked the mathematical community by revealing that one of its internal artificial intelligence (AI) models had found a counterexample to a famous conjecture made by legendary Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős in 1946. The planar unit distance problem, or Erdős problem 90, has […]

Hydrogen atoms and the hidden wormholes of entanglement

Hydrogen atoms and the hidden wormholes of entanglement

Quantum physicsTheoretical physics

By César Tomé

The idea sounds almost like science fiction: two tiny particles that are quantum mechanically linked might also be connected by microscopic shortcuts through spacetime itself, tiny wormholes. This possibility, known as the ER = EPR conjecture, has become a serious topic at the frontier where quantum mechanics meets gravity. The entanglement-is-just-a-wormhole idea The initials point […]

Expansion microscopy: a new technique to see inside microbes

Expansion microscopy: a new technique to see inside microbes

Biology

By Rosa García-Verdugo

How can scientists see the intricate details inside cells far too small for regular light microscopes? A powerful technique called expansion microscopy is revolutionizing how researchers study tiny organisms from plankton to developing embryos. Making the invisible visible Expansion microscopy works by doing the opposite to what we had been doing until now: instead of […]

DFT insights into bond-breaking processes in photoresponsive ruthenium drugs

DFT insights into bond-breaking processes in photoresponsive ruthenium drugs

ChemistryDIPC PhotochemistryPharmacy

By DIPC

Light can do more than illuminate matter. In some metal complexes, it can break chemical bonds in a highly controlled way, releasing specific molecules only when and where light is applied. This idea lies behind photoactivated chemotherapy, a strategy in which relatively inactive compounds become chemically reactive after irradiation. Ruthenium complexes are among the most […]

Does dark energy evolve?

Does dark energy evolve?

Cosmology

By César Tomé

For more than two decades, the standard picture of the Universe has rested on a surprisingly simple idea. Space is expanding, galaxies are moving farther apart, and a mysterious ingredient called dark energy is driving that expansion to accelerate. In the simplest model, dark energy is constant through time, an unchanging property of empty space […]

Bottom trawling is scraping oceans of wildlife

Bottom trawling is scraping oceans of wildlife

BiologyEnvironment

By Invited Researcher

Authors: Sarah Foster, Program Leader, Project Seahorse and Senior Researcher, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia and Amanda Vincent, Professor, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia Bottom trawlers extract one-quarter of the world’s fisheries catches by weight and raise significant ecological, economic and social concerns. Given that […]