A close-up of part of the fiber optical tweezers developed by a research team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). The two fibers seen here project intersecting beams of laser light to create a three-dimensional optical trap that can hold and move individual cells. Credit: Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)

A team of researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has demonstrated how a device that uses beams of light to grip and manipulate tiny objects, including individual cells, can be miniaturized, opening the door to creating portable devices small enough to be inserted into the bloodstream to trap individual cancer cells and diagnose cancer in its earliest stages.

The technique, known as optical tweezers, uses optical beams of laser light to create an attractive force fi...

Artist’s impression of the architecture of a silicon CMOS chip for a spin-based quantum computer; above is mostly standard CMOS components, and below the quantum bits in operation. (Illustration: Tony Melov)

A reimagining of today’s computer chips by Australian and Dutch engineers shows how a quantum computer can be manufactured – using mostly standard silicon technology. Research teams all over the world are exploring different ways to design a working computing chip that can integrate quantum interactions. Now, UNSW engineers believe they have cracked the problem, reimagining the silicon microprocessors we know to create a complete design for a quantum computer chip that can be manufactured using mostly standard industry processes and components.

The new chip design, published in the jou...

VLT image of Saturn’s giant vortex at mid-infrared wavelengths. Credit: European Space Agency

Cassini mission study into immense northern storms on Saturn. Immense northern storms on Saturn can disturb atmospheric patterns at the planet’s equator, finds the international Cassini mission in a study led by Dr Leigh Fletcher from the University of Leicester. This effect is also seen in Earth’s atmosphere, suggesting the two planets are more alike than previously thought.

Despite their considerable differences, the atmospheres of Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn all display a remarkably similar phenomenon in their equatorial regions: vertical, cyclical, downwards-moving patterns of alternating temperatures and wind systems that repeat over a period of multiple years...

Rainy day concept (stock image). Credit: © JenkoAtaman / Fotolia

Search for link between achy joints and rainy weather in a flood of data comes up dry. Rainy weather has long been blamed for achy joints. Unjustly so, according to new research from Harvard Medical School. The analysis, in BMJ, found no relationship between rainfall and joint or back pain.

The notion that certain symptoms and weather go hand in hand has persisted since antiquity. The newly published analysis led by Anupam Jena of Harvard Medical School’s Department of Health Care Policy, used a “big data” approach, linking insurance claims from millions of doctor’s visits with daily rainfall totals from thousands of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather stations.

“No matter how we looked at the data, we di...