Researchers at the University of Michigan have created a device that enables them to control the flow of electrons through a semiconductor using only laser light—no electrical power source required. This device was built to explore fundamental physics and realize a previously unobserved behavior, but it could also open doors for new applications in areas […]
For decades, Alzheimer’s research has been dominated by a seemingly intuitive idea: the disease is largely explained by the accumulation of abnormal proteins in the brain, primarily beta-amyloid and tau. However, while this view has been useful, it has fallen short in explaining certain fundamental aspects. One of the most striking is that Alzheimer’s affects […]
Building electronic devices often requires stacking different crystalline materials on top of one another with atomic precision. This process, called heteroepitaxy, works best when the two crystals share similar atomic patterns. When their symmetries differ, the upper crystal tends to grow in several orientations at once instead of a single one, creating defects that degrade […]
Auhtors: Samantha Lawler, Associate Professor, Astronomy, University of Regina and Aaron Boley, Professor, Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia A giant mirror to create “sunlight on demand” was just approved by the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), despite opposition from astronomers and the public, and real safety concerns. The FCC approved the company […]
Astronomy • Biochemistry • Chemistry • Evolution • Planetary Science
Sugars are key biomolecules in living organisms, as they form the backbone of DNA and RNA and play a fundamental role in metabolic processes. In theories of the origin of life, sugars are also essential for the synthesis of the first nucleic acids. Despite their importance, one of the major questions in origin-of-life research is […]
What if we could stop blood cancers before they even start? New research reveals that chronic inflammation dramatically reshapes the bone marrow environment years before leukemia emerges, potentially offering a window for early intervention. The Hidden Life of the Bone Marrow Every second, your bone marrow produces millions of new blood and immune cells through […]
Biochemistry • Chemical engineering • Chemistry • DIPC Biochemistry • Food processing
Enzymes and other biomolecules are often anchored onto solid materials so they can be reused, purified more easily, and made more stable, a strategy biotechnology has relied on since industrial-scale immobilized enzymes first appeared in chemical manufacturing in the mid-twentieth century. Immobilized enzymes today drive processes from food and pharmaceutical production to biosensors and medical […]
Chimeric antigen-specific receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapy targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA; BCMA-CAR T cells) has produced remarkable clinical responses in advanced multiple myeloma (MM), with a substantial fraction of patients achieving complete remission . However, many patients relapse within months, largely due to insufficient CAR T-cell persistence, a recognized mechanism of acquired resistance . A […]
Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used to solve the mathematical equations that describe the physical world, not only to recognize images or generate text. One promising approach, developed over the last decade, is the physics-informed neural network, or PINN: a type of neural network trained not on labeled examples but on the governing equations of […]
A few weeks after the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army, many scientific institutions felt the need to issue public statements against that war. At the time, I was president of the Commission for the History of Physics within the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) and, as such, I took part […]