An impression of the encounter between the Milky Way galaxy and the smaller Sausage galaxy about 8 billion to 10 billion years ago. The record of this ancient encounter is still preserved in the velocities and chemistry of the stars.
Credit: V. Belokurov (Cambridge, UK); Based on image by ESO/Juan Carlos Muñoz

An international team has discovered an ancient and dramatic head-on collision between the Milky Way and a smaller object, dubbed the “Sausage” galaxy. The cosmic crash was a defining event in the early history of the Milky Way and reshaped the structure of our galaxy, fashioning both its inner bulge and its outer halo, the astronomers report in a series of new papers.

The astronomers propose that around 8 billion to 10 billion years ago, an unknown dwarf galaxy smashed into our own ...

Joule, Sun et al.: “Heat-insulating multifunctional semitransparent polymer solar cells” https://www.cell.com/joule/fulltext/S2542-4351(18)30242-3

Environmentally friendly building trends have boosted the popularity of window coatings that keep heating and cooling costs down by blocking out unneeded parts of sunlight. They have also inspired scientists and engineers to create thin, see-through solar cells to turn windows into miniature electricity generators. Researchers in China have gone a step further and combined these two functions into one window-compatible material that could double the energy efficiency of an average household. Their work appears July 3 in the journal Joule.

“Building-integrated photovoltaics are a great example of a market where silicon photovoltaics, despite thei...

Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) F-test result comparing three subjective age (SA) groups (younger, same and older) in Korean Social Life, Health and Aging Project (KSHAP) data (n = 68). Significant group differences in regional gray matter (GM) density are visualized (p < 0.01, uncorrected, k > 500). Post hoc pairwise t-tests of the three groups indicated whether family-wise error (FWE)-corrected (voxel-level or cluster-level p < 0.05) voxels were included in the initially identified F-test clusters.

The first study to link subjective age to biological age shows that elderly people who feel younger have less signs of brain aging. While everyone gets older, not everyone feels their age. A recent study finds that such feelings, called subjective age, may reflect brain aging...

The next generation of Harvard’s Ambulatory Microrobot (HAMR) can walk on land, swim on the surface of water, and walk underwater, opening up new environments for this little bot to explore. Credit: Yufeng Chen, Neel Doshi, and Benjamin Goldberg/Harvard University

‘HAMR’ can walk on land, swim, and walk under water. In nature, cockroaches can survive underwater for up to 30 minutes. Now, a robotic cockroach can do even better. Harvard’s Ambulatory Microrobot, known as HAMR, can walk on land, swim on the surface of water, and walk underwater for as long as necessary, opening up new environments for this little bot to explore.

This next generation HAMR uses multifunctional foot pads that rely on surface tension and surface tension induced buoyancy when HAMR needs to swim but can also apply a...