NGC 5907 X-1: record-breaking pulsar

ESA’s XMM-Newton has found a pulsar the spinning remains of a once-massive star that is a 1000X brighter than previously thought possible. The pulsar is also the most distant of its kind ever detected, with its light travelling 50 million light-years before being detected by XMM-Newton. Pulsars are spinning, magnetised neutron stars that sweep regular pulses of radiation in two symmetrical beams across the cosmos. If suitably aligned with Earth these beams are like a lighthouse beacon appearing to flash on and off as it rotates. They were once massive stars that exploded as a powerful supernova at the end of their natural life, before becoming small and extraordinarily dense stellar corpses.
This X-ray source is the most luminous of its type detected to...

(a) Open-shutter photograph of fireball EN09121418 taken by Dr. Spurny (coauthor) at the Czech Fireball Network. (b) Intensity at a slant distance of 100 km for fireball EN091214 from Dr. Spurny. The CFN radiometers have flat response below 5 kHz. Intensity curves from different fireballs are in supplementary section. (c) Fourier transform of intensity-time history along with the normalized gain of the human ear for reference.

When a meteor is about to conk your neighborhood and gives fair warning by emitting sizzling, rustling and hissing sounds as it descends, you might think that the universe is being sporting...

A novel substance inhibits the pain effectively and is well tolerated. (Picture: Center of Dental Medicine; UZH)

Trigeminal neuralgia is characterized by sharp, lancinating pain in the teeth or facial area. The standard treatment for this chronic nerve pain can cause burdening side effects. A novel substance inhibits the pain effectively and is well tolerated, as documented by the initial results of an international study involving the Center of Dental Medicine at the University of Zurich.

Trigeminal neuralgia pain bouts are triggered by touch, such as shaving, putting on make-up, showering, talking and tooth brushing, or even a gust of wind...

Predictive materials discovery framework.

A novel workflow combining machine learning and density functional theory calculations has been developed by Northwestern Engineering and Los Alamos National Laboratory to create design guidelines for new materials that exhibit useful electronic properties, such as ferroelectricity and piezoelectricity. Few layered materials have these qualities in certain geometries – crucial for developing solutions to electronics, communication, and energy problems – ie there was very little data from which to formulate the guidelines using traditional research approaches.

“When others look for new materials, typically they look in places where they have a lot of data from similar materials...