Scientists make Breakthrough in Quantum Materials Research

A “bending station,” a device crafted in the laboratory of Luis Jaurequi, UCI professor of physics and astronomy, can change the electrical characteristics of materials at the atomic scale. Steve Zylius / UCI

The advance will allow researchers to transform everyday materials into conductors for use in quantum computers. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and Los Alamos National Laboratory, publishing in the latest issue of Nature Communications, describe the discovery of a new method that transforms everyday materials like glass into materials scientists can use to make quantum computers.

“The materials we made are substances that exhibit unique electrical or quantum properties because of their specific atomic shapes or structures,” said Luis A...

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Staggering Structure in 19 Nearby Spiral Galaxies

The James Webb Space Telescope observed 19 nearby face-on spiral galaxies in near- and mid-infrared light as part of its contributions to the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) program.

It’s oh-so-easy to be absolutely mesmerized by these spiral galaxies. Follow their clearly defined arms, which are brimming with stars, to their centers, where there may be old star clusters and – sometimes – active supermassive black holes. Only NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope can deliver highly detailed scenes of nearby galaxies in a combination of near- and mid-infrared light — and a set of these images was publicly released today.

These Webb images are part of a large, long-standing project, the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) progr...

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Re-energizing Mitochondria to Treat Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s nerve cells manifest a decrease in the connections between nerve cells, called synapses, shown here within the blue circles. Half the synapse is marked with a red fluorescent stain and the other half with a yellow stain. Credit: Scripps Research

Nerve cells in the brain demand an enormous amount of energy to survive and maintain their connections for communicating with other nerve cells. In Alzheimer’s disease, the ability to make energy is compromised, and the connections between nerve cells (called synapses) eventually come apart and wither, causing new memories to fade and fail.

A Scripps Research team, reporting in the journal Advanced Science, has now identified the energetic reactions in brain cells that malfunction and lead to neurodegeneration...

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Black Hole at the Center of a Galaxy in the Early Universe received Less Mass Influx than expected, astronomers find

Reddish vortex seen from from the side above with a bright centre and a thin ray protruding vertically from the plane
Cosmic powerhouse: Artist’s impression of a quasar whose core region was literally set in motion in the early universe. While galaxies often merged with each other at that time, large amounts of matter were thrown into the centres of the galaxies. When matter orbits the supermassive black hole in the centre of a galaxy, energy is released, which explains the enormous brightness of an active galaxy. The quasar can therefore still be observed from a great distance today.
© ESO / M. Kornmesser

With the upgraded GRAVITY-instrument at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer of the European Southern Observatory, a team of astronomers led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics has determined the mass of a black hole in a galaxy only 2 billion years after the Big Bang...

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