Researchers from the Department of Physics at Universität Hamburg, observed a quantum state that was theoretically predicted more than 50 years ago by Japanese theoreticians but so far eluded detection. By tailoring an artificial atom on the surface of a superconductor, the researchers succeeded in pairing the electrons of the so-called quantum dot, thereby inducing the smallest possible version of a superconductor. The work appears in the journal Nature.

For nearly 40 years, materials called 'strange metals' have flummoxed quantum physicists, defying explanation by operating outside the normal rules of electricity.

A team of paleontologists from Brazil, Argentina and the U.S., has found the fossilized remains of a creature they describe as a precursor to the pterosaur at a dig site in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes features of the fossil, where it was found, its condition and where it fits with other ancient creatures.

Magnetars are the strongest magnets in the universe. These super-dense dead stars with ultra-strong magnetic fields can be found all over our galaxy but astronomers don't know exactly how they form.

Using NASA's Chandra spacecraft, astronomers have performed detailed X-ray observations of a complex galaxy cluster known as Abell 119. Results of the observational campaign, published August 9 on the pre-print server arXiv, shed more light on the properties and nature of this cluster.