Enzyme breaks down PET plastic in record time
Plastic bottles, punnets, wrap—lightweight packaging made of PET plastic becomes a problem if it is not recycled. Scientists at Leipzig University have now discovered a highly efficient enzyme that degrades PET in record time. The enzyme PHL7, which the researchers found in a compost heap in Leipzig, could make biological PET recycling possible much faster […]
Quantum magnets in motion
The behavior of microscopic quantum magnets has long been a subject taught in lectures in theoretical physics. However, investigating the dynamics of systems that are far out of equilibrium and watching them “live” has been difficult so far. Now, researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching have accomplished precisely this, using […]
Searching for cosmic-ray boosted sub-GeV dark matter using data from the PandaX-II experiment
Physicists worldwide are continuing their search for dark matter, an elusive type of matter that does not absorb, reflect or emit light and is believed to make up most of the matter in the universe. A type of dark matter that many teams have been specifically looking for is sub-GeV dark matter, dark matter particles […]
Research confirms eastern Wyoming Paleoindian site as Americas’ oldest mine
Archaeological excavations led by Wyoming’s state archaeologist and involving University of Wyoming researchers have confirmed that an ancient mine in eastern Wyoming was used by humans to produce red ocher starting nearly 13,000 years ago. That makes the Powars II site at Sunrise in Platte County the oldest documented red ocher mine—and likely the oldest […]
Three decades of space telescope observations converge on a precise value for the Hubble constant
Hubble constant. The new results more than double the prior sample of cosmic distance markers. His team also reanalyzed all of the prior data, with the whole dataset now including over 1,000 Hubble orbits. When NASA conceived of a large space telescope in the 1970s, one of the primary justifications for the expense and extraordinary […]
Discovery of high-speed moving plasma turbulence that outpaces the movement of heat
In order to achieve a fusion power plant, it is necessary to stably confine a plasma of more than 100 million degrees Celsius in a magnetic field and maintain it for a long time. A research group led by Assistant Professor Naoki Kenmochi, Professor Katsumi Ida, and Associate Professor Tokihiko Tokuzawa of the National Institute […]
Researchers unveil a secret of stronger metals
Forming metal into the shapes needed for various purposes can be done in many ways, including casting, machining, rolling, and forging. These processes affect the sizes and shapes of the tiny crystalline grains that make up the bulk metal, whether it be steel, aluminum or other widely used metals and alloys. Now researchers at MIT […]
Webb telescope nearly set to explore the solar system
As NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope moves through the final phases of commissioning its science instruments, we have also begun working on technical operations of the observatory. While the telescope moves through space, it will constantly find distant stars and galaxies and point at them with extreme precision to acquire images and spectra. However, we […]
Archaeologists reconstruct an ancient Aryan bow
A unique compound bow from the Bronze Age nearly 2 meters tall was reconstructed from authentic materials by SUSU specialists as part of an international team. This weapon had the greatest accuracy, shooting distance and killing power in its time. Reconstructing objects according to archaeological data is one of the most important fields of modern […]
Researchers discover new ‘unexpected’ phenomenon in quantum physics of materials
Researchers at Northeastern have discovered a new quantum phenomenon in a specific class of materials, called antiferromagnetic insulators, that could yield new ways of powering “spintronic” and other technological devices of the future. The discovery illuminates “how heat flows in a magnetic insulator, [and] how [researchers] can detect that heat flow,” says Gregory Fiete, a […]