An international team of astronomers, including researchers from the Department of Physics at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), has uncovered the first decisive evidence that at least some fast radio burst (FRB) sources—brief but powerful flashes of radio waves from distant galaxies—reside in binary stellar systems. This means the FRB source is not an isolated star, as previously assumed, but part of a binary stellar system in which two stars orbit each other.

Using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) located in Guizhou, also known as the “China Sky Eye,” the team detected a distinctive signal that reveals the presence of a nearby companion star orbiting the FRB source.

The discovery, publ...

New research from the WISE group (Wearable, Intelligent, Soft Electronics) at The University of Hong Kong (HKU-WISE) has addressed a long-standing bioelectronic challenge: the development of soft, 3D transistors.

This work introduces a new approach to semiconductor device design with transformative potential for bioelectronics. It is published in Science.

Led by Professor Shiming Zhang from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, the research team included senior researchers who joined HKU-WISE from the University of Cambridge and the University of Chicago, together with HKU Ph.D...

Deep beneath the surface of distant exoplanets known as super-Earths, oceans of molten rock may be doing something extraordinary: powering magnetic fields strong enough to shield entire planets from dangerous cosmic radiation and other harmful high-energy particles.

Earth’s magnetic field is generated by movement in its liquid iron outer core—a process known as a dynamo—but larger rocky worlds like super-Earths might have solid or fully liquid cores that cannot produce magnetic fields in the sam...

Children born to mothers who consume a high-fat, high-sugar diet during pregnancy and breastfeeding face a higher risk of developing fatty liver disease later in life.

New research from the University of Oklahoma suggests that risk may be reduced. A recent study has found that supplementing pregnant and lactating mice with a naturally occurring compound produced by healthy gut bacteria significantly lowered rates of fatty liver disease in their offspring as they aged.

The research is published in the journal eBioMedicine.

How gut bacteria compound may help
The compound, called indole, is naturally made by healthy gut bacteria when they break down tryptophan, an amino acid found in foods such as turkey and nuts...