In Disney’s ‘Moana,’ the Characters Navigate using the Stars—an Astronomer explains how these methods work

If you have visited an island like one of the Hawaiian Islands, Tahiti or Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, you may have noticed how small these land masses appear against the vast Pacific Ocean. If you’re on Hawaii, the nearest island to you is more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away, and the coast of the continental United States is more than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) away. To say these islands are secluded is an understatement.

For me, watching the movie “Moana” in 2016 was eye-opening. I knew that Polynesian people traveled between a number of Pacific islands, but seeing Moana set sail on a canoe made me realize exactly how small those boats are compared with what must have seemed like an endless ocean...

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Foundational Technology to Make Cancer Cells Revert to Normal Cells?

Schematic diagram of the research results. Professor Kwang-Hyun Cho’s research team developed a source technology to systematically discover key control factors that can induce reversibility of colon cancer cells through a systems biology approach and a digital twin simulation analysis of the differentiation trajectory of normal colon cells, and verified the effects of reversion on actual colon cancer through molecular cell experiments and animal experiments. 

A research team has developed a groundbreaking technology that can treat colon cancer by converting cancer cells into a state resembling normal colon cells without killing them, thus avoiding side effects.

Despite the development of numerous cancer treatment technologies, the common goal of current cancer therapies is to elim...

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Twisted Edison: Filaments Curling at the Nanoscale Produce Light Waves that Twirl as they Travel

Behind the bulb, a screen displays the temperature of the glowing filament. The wavelengths of light emitted by the filament depend on its temperature, and how well the filament twirls the light depends on how close the wavelengths are to the pitch of the filament’s twists. Credit: Brenda Ahearn/Michigan Engineering

Bright, twisted light can be produced with technology similar to an Edison light bulb, researchers at the University of Michigan have shown. The finding adds nuance to fundamental physics while offering a new avenue for robotic vision systems and other applications for light that traces out a helix in space.

“It’s hard to generate enough brightness when producing twisted light with traditional ways like electron or photon luminescence,” said Jun Lu, an adjunct research i...

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Mysteries of Icy Ocean Worlds – New Research Advances Understanding of the Habitability of Icy Moons

Behind the bulb, a screen displays the temperature of the glowing filament. The wavelengths of light emitted by the filament depend on its temperature, and how well the filament twirls the light depends on how close the wavelengths are to the pitch of the filament’s twists. Photo: Brenda Ahearn/Michigan Engineering

As NASA’s Europa Clipper embarks on its historic journey to Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, Dr. Matt Powell-Palm, a faculty member at Texas A&M University’s J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering, has unveiled groundbreaking research that could transform our understanding of icy ocean worlds across the solar system. The study published in Nature Communications, co-authored with planetary scientist Dr...

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