In creating a comprehensive, AI-enabled research agent for the biomedical sciences, Stanford University researchers hope to speed innovation by eliminating the tedium of scientific legwork. Biomni, an AI-powered, multiskilled biomedical research agent, is no mere chatbot. It is a full-fledged “co-scientist” capable of designing and developing complex research workflows, said Jure Leskovec, the Alfred and Rebecca Lin Professor and professor of computer science in the School of Engineering and senior author of the paper introducing Biomni in the journal Science.

“If you think of an agent as a carpenter, a carpenter without tools is just a carpenter who can talk,” Leskovec said, explaining what sets Biomni apart from popular generative AI chatbots...

Scientists have found the oldest quasars ever seen, revealing giant black holes blazing across the universe when it was only 670 million years old. Astronomers have uncovered 31 of the oldest known quasars, including the two earliest ever detected, shining from a time when the universe was only about 670 million years old. Powered by supermassive black holes billions of times the Sun’s mass, these incredibly bright objects challenge scientists’ understanding of how such enormous black holes formed so quickly after the Big Bang.

Quasars rank among the brightest and most powerful objects in the universe...

Scientists have uncovered surprisingly strong quantum entanglement inside a hand-sized crystal, revealing that even macroscopic materials can behave in profoundly quantum ways. A centimeter-sized crystal has revealed clear signs of quantum entanglement, showing that large, everyday objects can display surprisingly deep quantum behavior. The discovery could help solve the mystery of strange metals while opening new possibilities for ultra-precise quantum sensors and other advanced technologies.

Quantum phenomena are usually associated with extremely small objects such as individual atoms, molecules, or photons that must be carefully isolated from their surroundings...

A new Southwest Research Institute-led study proposes a solution to a longstanding puzzle in planetary science: What caused the concentration, assembly, and preservation of millimeter-sized, spherical mineral grains within the parent bodies of the most common meteorites? The work is published in the journal Science Advances.

Chondritic asteroids are ancient bodies that orbit the sun, while a chondrite meteorite is a rocky fragment that falls to Earth. Both contain primitive materials. Chondrite meteorites are largely made of chondrules—tiny, once-molten droplets of rock—embedded in a fine-grained matrix.

“While several mechanisms may have created the chondrules themselves, I have always been surprised by how homogeneous the chondritic asteroids seem to be,” said SwRI’s Hal L...