Jan 18, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Although dark matter makes up 27% of the universe, astronomers have been unable to observe it directly. Now, in a new study (The Astrophysical Journal, "Prospects for Detecting Gaps in Globular Cluster Stellar Streams in External Galaxies with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope"), an...
Lightest black hole or heaviest neutron star?
Jan 18, 2024 (Nanowerk News) An international team of astronomers, led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, have used the MeerKAT radio telescope to discover an intriguing object of an unknown nature in the globular cluster NGC 1851. The massive object is heavier than the heaviest...
DNA becomes our ‘hands’ to construct advanced nanoparticle materials
Jan 18, 2024 (Nanowerk News) In a paper published in Science ("Space-tiled colloidal crystals from DNA-forced shape-complementary polyhedra pairing"), scientists Chad Mirkin and Sharon Glotzer and their teams at Northwestern University and University of Michigan, respectively, present findings in nanotechnology that could impact the way advanced materials are made. The...
Moon rocks with unique dust found
Jan 18, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Our Earth's Moon is almost completely covered in dust. Unlike on Earth, this dust is not smoothed by wind and weather, but is sharp-edged and also electrostatically charged. This dust has been studied since the Apollo era at the end of the 1960s. Now, an...
Second image of M87* black hole: All theoretical predictions confirmed
Jan 18, 2024 (Nanowerk News) The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration – including theoretical physicists from Goethe University – has released new images of M87*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy Messier 87, using data from observations taken in April 2018. The new images reveal a...
Nanotechnology uncovering the hidden secrets of cancer
Jan 18, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Metastasis, the spreading of cancer cells to other parts of the body, contributes to 9 out of 10 cancer-related deaths. However, the intricate mechanisms triggering this process remain a mystery. 3DSecret is on a mission to change that. The European consortium 3DSecret, coordinated by INL...
Self-assembling robotic structures with mechanical metamaterials for autonomous construction (w/video)
Jan 18, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Imagine intelligent infrastructure that automatically self-assembles, reshapes and repairs itself on demand. Buildings that organically grow new rooms when needed, self-optimizing their layout forever. Bridges that strengthen or elongate past obstacles without human intervention. And colonies on Mars constructed from local materials without astronaut extravehicular...
reimagining the optical diode effect
Jan 18, 2024 (Nanowerk News) At the heart of global internet connectivity, optical communications form an indispensable foundation. Key to this foundation are optical isolators, created by combining multiple components. The result is a complex structure that transmits light in only one direction, to prevent damage to lasers and minimize...
Seeing the shape of atomic nuclei
Jan 18, 2024 (Nanowerk News) Scientists have developed a new way to study the shapes of atomic nuclei and their internal building blocks. The method relies on modeling the production of certain particles from high-energy collisions of electrons with nuclear targets. Such collisions will take place at the future Electron-Ion...
AI-based algorithm enables better genetic diagnoses
Jan 17, 2024 (Nanowerk News) A team from the Institute of Human Genetics at the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH), the Faculty of Medicine at Kiel University and the University of Lübeck has developed an algorithm that uses machine learning to predict whether gene variants can be responsible for certain diseases....