Physicists working with the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter detector, buried 1.6 kilometers underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in a former South Dakota gold mine, have recorded a single particle interaction they cannot easily explain. The team analyzed 220 days of data collected between March 2023 and April 2024 and found one event in a region where dark matter is expected to appear and background noise is low. If the event came from dark matter, the particle would have a mass of at least 200 GeV, more than 200 times the mass of a proton. The signal stands at 2.6 sigma, short of the 5-sigma level needed to claim a discovery. Researchers say more data will decide whether it is real.
Researchers at the University of California San Diego have shown that a natural enzyme can accurately read and copy DNA written with an eight-letter alphabet, including four synthetic letters not found in nature. The team studied RNA polymerase from E. coli bacteria, which normally transcribes the four natural letters A, T, C and G. Structural images showed the enzyme recognizes the synthetic base pairs using the same signals it relies on for natural DNA. The findings, published in Nature Communications, advance a long-standing goal in synthetic biology: expanding the language of DNA. Earlier work has used expanded alphabets to build synthetic DNA that can recognize liver cancer cells. Scientists say the approach could lead to new diagnostics, therapies and engineered biological systems.
Alzheimer's disease may leave marks on the brain more than seven years before the first signs appear on a standard amyloid PET scan, according to a study published in Nature Neuroscience. Researchers at the University of Oslo followed cognitively healthy older adults with repeated MRI scans for nearly two decades. They found structural brain changes at least seven years before high levels of amyloid plaques became visible on PET scans, which are currently treated as the earliest detectable sign of the disease. The authors say the finding represents the earliest brain-imaging signal linked to Alzheimer's detected to date, and it suggests the disease process starts earlier and involves more than plaque buildup.
Hubble Space Telescope images have revealed a growing 10-sided wave around Saturn's south pole, a younger counterpart to the planet's famous north-pole hexagon. The decagon developed between 2023 and 2025 and is still evolving, according to a study published this week in the journal Science Advances. Unlike the northern hexagon, which has stayed stable for more than 40 years, the decagon's corners shift on a roughly 32-day cycle, suggesting a meandering atmospheric wave rather than a rigid structure. Researchers led by the University of the Basque Country used computer simulations to show the pattern may be driven by a large rotating vortex. The discovery offers a rare live example of how giant planetary storms form and evolve.
Chemists at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory have developed a method to create nanocrystals from metal nitrides, a group of materials that had resisted previous attempts at nanoscale synthesis. The work, published in Nature, opens the door to making flexible electronics and printable devices from familiar materials such as gallium nitride, used in LED lighting and displays; titanium nitride, used in medical implants; and niobium nitride, a superconductor. The team said it produced nearly a dozen materials that could not be made by traditional methods. The crystals are so small that billions could fit on a fingernail. Nanocrystals, including quantum dots, helped inspire the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and researchers say expanding the range of materials that can be made at this scale could reshape electronics and medicine.
NASA has launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a new observatory designed to study dark energy, dark matter, and exoplanets. The telescope lifted off after surviving budget cuts during the Trump administration. Roman will survey huge areas of the sky, mapping galaxies to measure how the universe's expansion has changed over time. Scientists hope the data will help explain dark energy, the mysterious force driving the universe to expand faster. The mission will also use gravitational microlensing to find planets, including some that may be habitable. Roman's wide field of view gives it a major advantage over older telescopes, allowing it to capture vast cosmic regions in a single image. The launch marks a new chapter in astrophysics, with data expected to flow for years.
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have captured the clearest image yet of Betelgeuse's companion star, named Siwarha. The star, about 650 light-years away in Orion, was first proposed as an explanation for Betelgeuse's mysterious dimming a century ago. The new observations reveal Siwarha is two to three times the mass of the Sun, far larger than expected, and that it stirs a trail of dense gas through Betelgeuse's atmosphere. The team timed its observations using 2024 predictions of the companion's orbit. The finding could help explain Betelgeuse's strange brightness changes and refine forecasts of its eventual supernova.
NASA has launched a powerful new space telescope on a multi-year mission to study dark energy and dark matter. Scientists call the mission a giant leap forward in understanding why the universe is expanding faster and faster. The telescope will map galaxies and measure how light bends across cosmic distances, building a new picture of the hidden forces that shape the cosmos. The launch went smoothly, and engineers are now checking the instruments. The first scientific results are expected within months, but the full survey will take years. The mission is designed to answer one of the biggest open questions in physics: what is the universe mostly made of? The data it returns could reshape textbooks and guide astronomy for the next generation.
Physicists at Harvard have shown that a steady stream of sound waves can shield a fragile quantum bit from the noise around it, nearly tripling how long the qubit holds information. The team, reporting in Nature Physics, used mechanical vibrations to protect quantum states that would otherwise decay quickly. In one demonstration, researchers applied all-mechanical coherence protection to a silicon-vacancy spin in diamond. The approach avoids the electromagnetic interference that can disturb delicate quantum systems and could pave the way for sound-based quantum networks on chips, as well as hybrid systems that combine different types of quantum technology. Quantum bits are the building blocks of future computers, but they lose their stored information quickly when disturbed by heat, vibration or stray fields. The new sound-shield method offers a simpler, more robust way to keep quantum data alive for longer.
Physicists at Harvard have found that a steady stream of sound waves can shield a fragile quantum bit from its noisy surroundings. The technique nearly tripled how long the qubit held information in experiments. The team used acoustic waves to create a protective barrier around a silicon-vacancy spin in diamond, a common type of qubit. The findings open a path toward sound-based quantum networks on chips and hybrid quantum systems that combine different kinds of qubits. Quantum computers rely on qubits that are easily disturbed by heat, vibration, and electrical noise. Keeping qubits stable for longer is one of the biggest challenges in the field. The Harvard team published its results in Nature Physics. Researchers say the approach could be combined with other error-correction methods to build more reliable quantum computers.