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Rare exoplanet orbits twin stars in ‘Star Wars’-like twist

Astronomers find rare twist in exoplanet's twin star orbit
A hypothetical office overlooking the Paranal Observatory in Chile, with the European Southern Observatory’s VLT visible with its laser on the hill, and the four small SPECULOOS telescopes nearer the foreground. In the sky is a depiction of the orbital configuration of the 2M1510 system with the two brown dwarf stars in red orbiting one another, and the inferred exoplanet on a polar orbit in white. Within the office, a poster celebrating the original discovery of 2M1510’s two brown dwarfs is on the wall, while diagrams and patterns showing the apsidal precession of the brown dwarf’s orbit caused by the planets are shown on the table the roof and the floor. Credit: University of Birmingham / Amanda Smith

Astronomers have discovered a planet that orbits at a 90-degree angle around a rare...

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Gut microbes release cancer-fighting bile acids that block hormone signals

Gut microbes release cancer-fighting bile acids that block hormone signals
Graphical abstract. Credit: Cell (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.02.029

Bacteria naturally present in the human intestine (known as the gut microbiota) can transform cholesterol-derived bile acids into powerful metabolites that strengthen anti-cancer immunity by blocking androgen signaling, according to a preclinical study led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The study was published on April 15 in Cell.

“I was very surprised by our findings. As far as I know, no one has previously discovered molecules like these bile acids that can interact with the androgen receptor in this way,” said co-senior author Dr...

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Programmable photonic chip uses light to accelerate AI training and cut energy use

Penn engineers first to train AI at lightspeed
Postdoctoral fellow Tianwei Wu (left) and Professor Liang Feng (right) in the lab, demonstrating some of the apparatus used to develop the new, light-powered chip. Credit: Sylvia Zhang.

Penn Engineers have developed the first programmable chip that can train nonlinear neural networks using light—a breakthrough that could dramatically speed up AI training, reduce energy use and even pave the way for fully light-powered computers.

While today’s AI chips are electronic and rely on electricity to perform calculations, the new chip is photonic, meaning it uses beams of light instead. Described in Nature Photonics, the chip reshapes how light behaves to carry out the nonlinear mathematics at the heart of modern AI.

“Nonlinear functions are critical for training deep neural networks,”...

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Our closest neighboring galaxy may be being torn apart

Velocities of massive star candidates within the SMC shown as vectors. The colors of the arrows represent the direction of motion. Relative to the LMC, located at the bottom left of the image, most red arrows show movement towards the LMC, whereas most light blue arrows show movement away from the LMC, suggesting they are being pulled apart. (credit: Satoya Nakano)

Our closest neighboring galaxy may be being torn apart. Is the nearest galaxy to ours being torn apart? Research suggests so. A team led by Satoya Nakano and Kengo Tachihara at Nagoya University in Japan has revealed new insights into the motion of massive stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a small galaxy neighboring the Milky Way...

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