Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Michigan have created the world’s smallest fully programmable, autonomous robots: microscopic swimming machines that can independently sense and respond to their surroundings, operate for months and cost just a penny each.

Barely visible to the naked eye, each robot measures about 200 by 300 by 50 micrometers, smaller than a grain of salt. Operating at the scale of many biological microorganisms, the robots could advance medicine by monitoring the health of individual cells and manufacturing by helping construct microscale devices.

Powered by light, the robots carry microscopic computers and can be programmed to move in complex patterns, sense local temperatures and adj...

An international team of astronomers has achieved a first in probing the early universe, using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), detecting a supernova—the explosive death of a massive star—at an unprecedented cosmic distance.

The explosion, designated SN in GRB 250314A, occurred when the universe was only about 730 million years old, placing it deep in the era of reionization. This remarkable discovery provides a direct look at the final moments of a massive star from a time when the first stars and galaxies were just beginning to form.

The event, which has ...

Could an electric vehicle travel from Seoul to Busan and back on a single charge? Could drivers stop worrying about battery performance even in winter? A Korean research team has taken a major step toward answering these questions by developing an anode-free lithium metal battery that can deliver nearly double driving range using the sa±me battery volume.

Breakthrough in battery energy density
A joint research team led by Professor Soojin Park and Dr. Dong-Yeob Han of the Department of Chemistry at POSTECH, together with Professor Nam-Soon Choi and Dr. Saehun Kim of KAIST, and Professor Tae Kyung Lee and researcher Junsu Son of Gyeongsang National University, has successfully achieved a volumetric energy density of 1,270 Wh/L in an anode-free lithium metal battery...

Black holes are notorious for gobbling up everything that comes their way, but astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered that even supermassive black holes can be picky eaters, and this can have a significant impact on their growth.

This discovery, now published in The Astrophysical Journal, was made by an international team of astronomers led by Makoto A. Johnstone, a Ph.D. candidate with the University of Virginia. The team used ALMA to study seven nearby galaxy mergers hosting supermassive black holes separated by only a few thousand light-years.

How galaxy mergers affect black holes
When two massive, gas-rich galaxies merge, gravity drives vast amounts of cold molecular gas toward the centers of both systems, where supermassive ...