Astronomers have recently found hundreds of “polluted” white dwarf stars in our home galaxy, the Milky Way. These are white dwarfs caught actively consuming planets in their orbit. They are a valuable resource for studying the interiors of these distant, demolished planets. They are also difficult to find.

Historically, astronomers have had to manually review mountains of survey data for signs of these stars. Follow-up observations would then prove or refute their suspicions.

By using a novel form of artificial intelligence, called manifold learning, a team led by University of Texas at Austin graduate student Malia Kao has accelerated the process, leading to a 99% success rate in identification...

A collaboration between researchers at the Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS) in London and the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, has solved a decades-old mystery which could pave the way to better cancer treatments in the future.

The work, which uncovered the basic mechanism of how one of our most vital DNA repair systems recognizes DNA damages and initiates their repair, has eluded researchers for many years. Using cutting edge imaging techniques to visualize how these DNA repair proteins move on a single molecule of DNA, and electron microscopy to capture how they “lock-on” to specific DNA structures, this research opens the way to more effective cancer treatments.

The collabor...

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) scientists confirm the identification of a new class of semiconductor nanocrystals with bright ground-state excitons, a significant advancement in the field of optoelectronics, in an article published in the American Chemical Society (ACS) journal ACS Nano.

The groundbreaking theoretical research could revolutionize the development of highly efficient light-emitting devices and other technologies.

Generally, the lowest-energy exciton in nanocrystals is poorly emitting, earning the name “dark” exciton. Because it slows the emission of light, the dark exciton limits the performance of nanocrystal-based devices like lasers or light-emitting diodes (LEDs)...

Proposed lunar biorepository could store genetic samples without electricity or liquid nitrogen. New research led by scientists at the Smithsonian proposes a plan to safeguard Earth’s imperiled biodiversity by cryogenically preserving biological material on the moon. The moon’s permanently shadowed craters are cold enough for cryogenic preservation without the need for electricity or liquid nitrogen, according to the researchers.

The paper, published today in BioScience and written in collaboration with researchers from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI), Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and others, outlines a roadmap to create a lunar biorepository, including ideas for governance, t...