The only way astronomers have been able to detect rogue planets is through microlensing events caused by the slight gravitational effect of an object on background light. This occurs when the light from a distant star suddenly appears magnified to an observer (telescopes on Earth), as if a lens were placed in front of it. The magnification of light lets astronomers know that something has passed in front of the distant star.

Theoretically, microlensing can allow for the calculation of the mass of the object passing in front of the star by analyzing how much the light was bent and thus magnified...

Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and AlveoliX have developed the first human lung-on-chip model using stem cells taken from only one person. These chips simulate breathing motions and lung disease in an individual, holding promise for testing treatments for infections like tuberculosis (TB) and delivering personalized medicine.

The research is published in the journal Science Advances.

Air sacs in the lungs called alveoli are the essential site of gas exchange and also an important barrier against inhaled viruses and bacteria that cause respiratory diseases like flu or TB.

Researchers have been working to recreate the battle between human cells and bacteria in the lab by building a lung-on-a-chip: small units of human lung on a plast...

Taiwan’s world-leading microchip manufacturer TSMC says it has started mass producing next-generation “2-nanometer” chips.

AFP looks at what that means, and why it’s important:

What can they do?
The computing power of chips has increased dramatically over the decades as makers cram them with more microscopic electronic components.

That has brought huge technological leaps to everything from smartphones to cars, as well as the advent of artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT.

Advanced 2-nanometer (2nm) chips perform better and are more energy-efficient than past types, and are structured differently to house even more of the key components known as transistor...

Dark matter is an elusive type of matter that does not emit, absorb or reflect light, interacting very weakly with ordinary matter. These characteristics make it impossible to detect using conventional technologies used by physicists to study matter particles.

As it has never been observed before, the exact composition of dark matter remains unknown. One proposed theory is that this elusive type of matter is comprised of light particles with very small masses, below 1 eV (electronvolt), which behave more like waves than particles.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo and Chuo University recently explored the possibility of searching for sub-GeV dark matter using quantum sensors, advanced systems that rely on quantum mechanical effects to detect ex...