This recovered bismuth sample has a rhombohedral structure and contains liquid structural motifs after deep melting at high pressures. The surprising structural memory effect in the molten state is responsible for the unexpected change from magnetic repulsion to magnetic attraction in bismuth. Credit: Image courtesy of Yu Shu and Guoyin Shen

New work used high pressure and temperature to reveal a kind of “structural memory” in samples of bismuth, a discovery with great electrical engineering potential. Bismuth is a historically interesting element for scientists, as a number of important discoveries in the metal physics world were made while studying it, including important observations about the effect of magnetic fields on electrical conductivity. Bismuth has a number of phases...

The spins of about 70% of the red giant stars observed in the clusters were strongly aligned in a study by researchers including Dr Dennis Stello.

A study of the internal sound waves created by starquakes, which make stars ring like a bell, has provided unprecedented insights into conditions in the turbulent gas clouds where stars were born 8 billion years ago. Astronomers used this asteroseismology approach to work out the orientation of the angle of spin of 48 stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way. The spins of about 70% of the red giant stars observed in the clusters were strongly aligned in a study by researchers including Dr Dennis Stello...

About 700 million years ago, runaway glaciers covered the entire planet in ice. Harvard researchers modeled the conditions that may have led to this so-called ‘snowball Earth.’ Credit: Image courtesy of NASA

Explaining a ‘once-in-a-billion-year event’. What caused the largest glaciation event in Earth’s history, known as ‘snowball Earth’? Geologists and climate scientists have been searching for the answer for years but the root cause of the phenomenon remains elusive. Now, Harvard University researchers have a new hypothesis about what caused the runaway glaciation that covered Earth pole-to-pole in ice. Researchers have pinpointed the start of what’s known as the Sturtian snowball Earth event to about 717 million years ago – give or take a few 100,000 years...

1. Signaling pathways and Sequence of Events induced by injury. Approximate time sequences after injury are given within brackets. Abbreviations: NF-kB (nuclear factor-kB), TGFβ1 (transforming growth factor-β1).
2. Burns from Barbeque Fire:
(upper panel): Second degree burns from a barbeque fire before treatment with curcumin gel.
(lower panel): Rapid healing 5 days after curcumin gel applied hourly.
3. Improvement one day later after hourly application of curcumin gel. Pain and blistering were much improved.

Dr...