https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. A trio of theoretical physicists at the Pennsylvania State University has calculated the upper limit for the possible quantization of time—they suggest 10−33 seconds as the upper limit for the period of a universal oscillator. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, Garrett Wendel, Luis Martínez and Martin Bojowald outline their theory and suggest a possible way to prove it. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-theorists-upper-limit-quantization.html General Physics Quantum Physics Fri, 26 Jun 2020 10:20:01 EDT news512385165 Scientists have recently engineered a modular system based on the Rubik's cube to design and reconfigure microfluidic systems. Research teams had previously pursued the arrangement of microfluidic blocks in diverse conformations to suit varied experiments. In this work, Xiaochen Lai and a team of scientists at the Tianjin University in China were inspired by the popular Rubik's puzzle to build a three-dimensional (3-D) microfluidic system. The setup could be easily twisted and turned to change its function. They mimicked the design of the Rubik's cube with modular pieces containing microchannel layouts to achieve a tight, leak-proof seal relative to device arrangement. Lai et al. used a single device to perform fluid mixing and droplet-based microbial culture for a range of practical applications as microfluidic sensors, pumps and valves in resource-limited settings. The work is now published on Nature: Microsystems and Microengineering. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-rubik-microfluidic-cube.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Fri, 26 Jun 2020 09:50:01 EDT news512383567 A team of researchers at Université de Bordeaux has developed a way to use mass spectrometry to isolate guanine-rich DNA ions. In their paper published in the journal Science, the researchers describe their method and how it might be used to expand the capabilities of mass spectrometry for structural analysis. Perdita Barran with the University of Manchester has published a Perspective piece outlining the history of the study of molecular chirality in crystals in the same issue, and also provides an overview of the work by the team in France. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-mass-spectrometry-isolate-guanine-rich-dna.html Materials Science Fri, 26 Jun 2020 09:40:27 EDT news512383217 Among the most easily recognizable features of any nervous system is the synapse. While the question of how synapses evolved has been a longstanding mystery, it can now largely be solved. In a nutshell, it appears that the synapses between neurons evolved directly from the original cell-to-cell contacts, namely, the adherence junctions and other bonds that linked the primitive epithelial sheets of early multicellular organisms. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-evolution-synapse.html Biotechnology Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 26 Jun 2020 09:10:01 EDT news512374495 A team of researchers working on the Borexino project has announced that they have observed carbon/nitrogen/oxygen (CNO) fusion neutrinos from the sun for the first time. Co-spokesman for the group, Gioacchino Ranucci, a physicist at the University of Milan, announced the observation at this year's virtual Neutrino 2020 conference. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-cno-fusion-neutrinos-sun.html General Physics Thu, 25 Jun 2020 09:50:01 EDT news512296840 An international team of researchers has used a porous porphyrin to create a sorbent that can be used to reclaim precious metals from electronic waste. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their sorbent and how well it worked when tested with discarded electronic equipment. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-porous-porphyrin-reclaim-precious-metals.html Materials Science Thu, 25 Jun 2020 09:40:25 EDT news512296821 When a stationary droplet containing a solute in a volatile solvent evaporates, the flow in the droplet can assemble into complex patterns. Researchers have examined such transport in evaporating sessile droplets in solvents. In a new report now published on Science Advances, Bryan A. Nerger and a team of scientists in chemical and biological engineering, and molecular biology at the Princeton University, U.S., demonstrated flow in evaporating aqueous sessile droplets containing the self-assembling polymer type I collagen. The material can be used to engineer hydrated networks of aligned collagen fibers. The team noted the Marangoni effect (a term originating from the spread of oil droplets on water) to direct the assembly of collagen fibers across millimeter-scale areas relative to environmental humidity and the geometric shape of the droplet. Nerger et al. incorporated and cultured skeletal muscle cells into the evaporating droplets to observe their collective orientation and subsequent differentiation to myotubes in response to the aligned networks of collagen. The work demonstrates a simple, tunable and high-throughput approach to engineer aligned fibrillar hydrogels to create cell-laden biomimetic materials. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-marangoni-alignment-fibrillar-cell-laden-hydrogels.html Biochemistry Materials Science Thu, 25 Jun 2020 09:30:01 EDT news512292521 A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in China and one in the U.S. has found that efforts to stabilize giant panda populations in the face of global warming have been successful. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group describes their study of climate change in the region where most of China's pandas live, and panda census data collected over multiple counts over the past several decades. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-offset-global-effective-panda-populations.html Environment Wed, 24 Jun 2020 09:50:01 EDT news512210874 A team of researchers from the University of Siena, University College Dublin and Elettra–Sincrotrone Trieste, have found evidence of microplastics in the guts of remote Antarctic hexapods. In their paper published in the journal Biology Letters, the group describes where the hexapods were found, how they were tested and what they learned. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-microplastics-gut-remote-antarctic-hexapod.html Ecology Wed, 24 Jun 2020 09:30:01 EDT news512209796 Using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), astronomers from South Africa and India have discovered a new remnant radio galaxy. The newly detected object, designated J1615+5452 has a size exceeding 300,000 light years and showcases a diffuse amorphous radio emission. The finding is detailed in a paper published June 17 on arXiv.org. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-remnant-radio-galaxy.html Astronomy Wed, 24 Jun 2020 09:00:02 EDT news512205540 A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in France and one in Spain has learned more about the origins of lead glassmaking in Spain. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their study of glass fragments found at a dig site in Cordoba, Spain, and what they learned about them. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-glass-fragments-cordoba-glimpse-glassmaking.html Archaeology & Fossils Tue, 23 Jun 2020 10:10:02 EDT news512125584 A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in the U.S. has conducted an analysis of the system-wide costs and benefits of using engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) on crop-based agriculture. In their paper published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, the group describes their analysis and what they found. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-analysis-system-wide-benefits-nanomaterials-crop-based.html Bio & Medicine Nanomaterials Tue, 23 Jun 2020 09:59:12 EDT news512125145 A team of researchers from the Danube Research Institute and the National Agricultural Research and Innovation Centre, both in Hungary, and Estación Biológica de Doñana, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas in Spain reports that is it possible for fish eggs to survive the trip through the bird digestive tract and subsequently to hatch. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their experiments with birds and fish eggs and what they found. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-fish-migrate-ingestion-birds.html Plants & Animals Ecology Tue, 23 Jun 2020 09:58:13 EDT news512125089 The vortex beam with orbital angular momentum (OAM) is a new and ideal tool to selectively excite dipole forbidden states through linear optical absorption. The emergence of the vortex beam with OAM provides intriguing opportunities to induce optical transitions beyond the framework of electric dipole interactions. The unique feature arose from the transfer of OAM from light-to-material as demonstrated with electronic transitions in atomic systems . https://phys.org/news/2020-06-orbital-angular-momentum-plasmonic-metamaterials.html General Physics Optics & Photonics Tue, 23 Jun 2020 09:30:02 EDT news512113447 Astronomers from Malta and Spain have conducted an observational campaign aimed at investigating the periodic behavior of a carbon star known as CGCS 673. The observations found that the studied object is a semi-regular variable star. The discovery is reported in a paper published June 15 on the arXiv pre-print repository. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-cgcs-semi-regular-variable-carbon-star.html Astronomy Tue, 23 Jun 2020 09:00:02 EDT news512114493 The CERN Council has unanimously endorsed the idea of building a newer, larger circular supercollider, dubbed the Future Circular Collider (FCC). The group made the announcement on June 19. The move is the first step toward building a 100 TeV 100-kilometer circumference collider around Geneva. As part of the vote, the group approved the launch of a technical and financial feasibility study for the new collider. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-cern-council-endorses-larger-supercollider.html General Physics Mon, 22 Jun 2020 10:20:02 EDT news512039342 Multinational conglomerate Honeywell International Inc. is claiming to have built the highest-performing quantum computer available today. It made the announcement in a blogpost on its website. The company further claims that its H0 quantum computer has a quantum volume score of 64—making it twice as powerful as any other quantum computer available. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-honeywell-built-highest-performing-quantum.html Quantum Physics Mon, 22 Jun 2020 10:08:28 EDT news512039301 Molecular clock dates for the first animals to walk the Earth don't match the fossil record. Comparing the disparate DNA of two different species and extrapolating how long it would take for them to mutate from a common ancestor suggests animals existed 833-650 million years ago, but the oldest animal fossils discovered so far only date back 580 million years. One explanation is shortcomings in the fossil record—animals did exist, but the rocks and environment were not suitable for fossilization until only 580 million years ago. Now, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and high-resolution infrared spectroscopy have identified the minerals in the mudstones around ancient microfossils, giving insights into their formation suggesting that the right conditions for fossilization existed long before the first animal fossils found so far began to form. The results might also hint at how best to look for evidence of life on Mars. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-microfossil-spectroscopy-dates-earth-animals.html Earth Sciences Mon, 22 Jun 2020 09:30:01 EDT news512033195 An international team of astronomers has detected a teraelectronvolt (TeV) emission from a gamma-ray burst designated GRB 190114C. The discovery could improve the understanding of very high energy (VHE) sources in the universe. The finding is detailed in a paper published June 12 on the arXiv pre-print repository. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-astronomers-teraelectronvolt-emission-gamma-ray-grb.html Astronomy Mon, 22 Jun 2020 09:00:02 EDT news512033125 A team of chemists and engineers at MIT has found a new way to apply microfluidic electrochemical technologies to single-electron transfer (SET) redox-neutral reactions. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes introducing a microfluidic redox-neutral electrochemistry to the platform and explain why they believe it has broad applicability to SET chemistry. Jian-Quan Liu, Andrey Shatskiy and Markus Kärkäs have published a Perspective piece in the same journal issue outlining the recent history of photoredox catalysis and electrosynthesis, and explaining why it is an important component of the search for new synthetic methods—they also outline the work by the team at MIT. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-method-microfluidic-electrochemical-technologies-single-electron.html Materials Science Fri, 19 Jun 2020 10:10:06 EDT news511779601 Three-dimensional (3-D) structures at the nanoscale are important in modern devices, although their fabrication with traditional top-down approaches is complex and expensive. Block copolymers (BCPs) that are analogous to atomic lattices can spontaneously form a rich variety of 3-D nanostructures to substantially simplify 3-D nanofabrication. In a new report on Science Advances, Jiaxing Ren and a research team in molecular engineering, chemical engineering and materials science at the University of Chicago, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the Argonne National Laboratory in the U.S. and Israel formed a 3-D superlattice using BCP micelles. They controlled the process using lithographically defined 2-D templates that matched a crystallographic plane in the 3-D superlattice. Using scanning transmission electron microscopy tomography, the team demonstrated precise control across the lattice symmetry and orientation. They achieved excellent ordering and substrate registration through 284-nanometer-thick films. To mediate lattice stability, the scientists tapped into molecular packing frustration of the superlattice and observed surface-induced lattice reconstruction, which led to form a unique honeycomb lattice. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-three-dimensional-superlattice-block-copolymer-epitaxy.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Fri, 19 Jun 2020 10:10:01 EDT news511780003 A team of researchers from Harvard Medical School and Stanford University has learned more about the role Meissner corpuscles play in sensing touch in mice. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes the novel ways they tested responses to changes in mouse skin biology and what they learned about the role Meissner corpuscles play in the sense of touch in mammals. Kara Marshall and Ardem Patapoutian, with the Scripps Research Institute, have published a Perspective piece in the same journal issue outlining the history of the study of Meissner corpuscles and the work done by the team on this new effort. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-characterize-meissner-corpuscles-mice.html Plants & Animals Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 19 Jun 2020 10:00:02 EDT news511779467 Artificial tongues have received increased attention due to their ability to detect the five basic tastes, but until now scientists have been unable to fully enable human tongue-like biomimicry for astringency in the lab. To mimic the mechanisms of human tongue-like perception of astringency, Jeonghee Yeom and a team of scientists in energy engineering and chemical engineering at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in the Republic of Korea, used a saliva-like, chemiresistive ionic hydrogel anchored to a flexible substrate to create a soft artificial tongue. They exposed the construct to astringent compounds and allowed hydrophobic aggregates to form in the microporous network, transforming it into a micro/nanoporous structure with improved ionic conductivity. Using the unique human tongue-like structure, they detected tannic acid (TA) across a wide spectrum (0.0005 to 1 weight percentage) with high sensitivity and a fast response time. As a proof-of-concept, the sensor detected the degree of astringency in beverages and fruits based on a simple wipe-and-detect method. The platform will have powerful future applications in humanoid robots and as taste monitoring devices, the research work is now published on Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-soft-ion-conducting-hydrogel-artificial-tongue.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Thu, 18 Jun 2020 10:00:01 EDT news511691681 A team of researchers at the University of Nebraska's School of Biological Sciences has found that Tibetan antelopes evolved in a unique way to survive high in the mountains. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes their genetic analysis of the high-altitude Tibetan antelope and what they learned about its genetic evolution. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-tibetan-antelopes-unique-survive-high.html Plants & Animals Evolution Thu, 18 Jun 2020 09:40:02 EDT news511691625 A team of researchers from the University of Amsterdam, the University of York and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, has found evidence of human ability to infer behavioral information from chimpanzee vocalizations. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group describes experiments they conducted with human volunteers listening to chimpanzee vocalizations and what they found. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-humans-infer-behavioral-chimpanzee-vocalizations.html Plants & Animals Evolution Wed, 17 Jun 2020 10:25:58 EDT news511608355 A team of researchers from Nottingham Trent University, l'Institut National de Recherche en Agriculture and Centre Apicole de Recherche et d'Information reports accurately predicting honeybee swarming by listening to sounds made by the queen bee in a nest. In their paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, the group describes what they learned about honeybees when they placed accelerometers in the hives. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-honeybee-swarming-queen-bee.html Plants & Animals Ecology Wed, 17 Jun 2020 09:40:01 EDT news511605263 A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in the U.S. and one in France has found evidence that suggests the bright patches spotted on Titan's surface 20 years ago are dry lake beds. In their paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the group describes their study of data on the bright patches and what they learned from it. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-bright-patches-titan-lake-beds.html Space Exploration Wed, 17 Jun 2020 09:33:49 EDT news511605225 Nanolight sources based on resonant excitons of plasmons near a sharp metallic nanostructure have attracted great interest in optical nanoimaging. However, the resonant phenomenon only works for one type of wavelength that resonates with plasmons. Compared to plasmonic resonance, the alternative plasmon nanofocusing method can generate a source of nanolight by propagating and compressing plasmons on a tapered metallic nanostructure, independent of wavelength, due to its reliance on propagation. In a new report on Science Advances, Takayuki Umakoshi and a research team in applied physics and chemistry in Japan generated a white nanolight source spanning across the entire visible light range through plasmon nanofocusing. Using the process, they demonstrated spectral bandgap nanoimaging of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The experimental demonstration of the source of white nanolight will enable diverse research fields to progress toward next-generation, nanophotonic technologies. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-white-nanolight-source-optical-nanoimaging.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 17 Jun 2020 09:30:02 EDT news511520956 In the vast majority of superconducting materials, Cooper pairs have what is known as even parity, which essentially means that their wave function does not change when electrons swap spatial coordinates. Conversely, some unconventional superconductors have been found to contain odd-parity Cooper pairs. This quality makes these unconventional materials particularly promising for quantum computing applications. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-simultaneous-nodal-superconductivity-broken-time-reversal.html General Physics Superconductivity Wed, 17 Jun 2020 09:30:01 EDT news511424587 An international team of astronomers has carried out spectroscopic observations of a distant star known as RAVE J183013.5−455510. Results of this observational campaign show that this object exhibits a peculiar chemical abundance pattern. The finding is detailed in a paper accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal and posted June 8 on arXiv.org. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-peculiar-chemical-abundance-pattern-star.html Astronomy Wed, 17 Jun 2020 09:00:01 EDT news511597672