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New research from scientists at Queen Mary University of London has revealed how long-lived Peter Pan discs form, which could provide new insights into how planets arise.

Planet-forming, or protoplanetary discs are giant discs of gas and dust found circling young stars. The recently discovered Peter Pan discs received their name as like their fictional counterpart they are thought to “never grow up,” living around 5-10 times longer than other typical protoplanetary discs.

Whilst astronomers have been aware of the existence of Peter Pan discs since 2016, questions around how and why these discs live so long and the implications for how planets form, have been left unanswered.

In this study, the scientists used computer ...

Engineers design nanoparticles that stimulate the immune system, helping it to attack tumors. MIT engineers have now come up with a way to boost the effectiveness of one type of cancer immunotherapy. They showed that if they treated mice with existing drugs called checkpoint inhibitors, along with new nanoparticles that further stimulate the immune system, the therapy became more powerful than checkpoint inhibitors given alone. This approach could allow cancer immunotherapy to benefit a greater percentage of patients, the researchers say.

“These ...

Researchers have developed a new easy-to-use smart optical film technology that allows smart window devices to autonomously switch between transparent and opaque states in response to the surrounding light conditions.

The proposed 3D hybrid nanocomposite film with a highly periodic network structure has empirically demonstrated its high speed and performance, enabling the smart window to quantify and self-regulate its high-contrast optical transmittance. As a proof of concept, a mobile-app-enabled smart window device for Internet of Things (IoT) applications has been realized using the proposed smart optical film with successful expansion to the 3-by-3-inch scale...

Brown dwarfs are the middle child of astronomy, too big to be a planet yet not big enough to be a star. Like their stellar siblings, these objects form from the gravitational collapse of gas and dust. But rather than condensing into a star’s fiery hot nuclear core, brown dwarfs find a more zen-like equilibrium, somehow reaching a stable, milder state compared to fusion-powered stars.

Brown dwarfs are considered to be the mis...