Bubbling, frothing and sloshing: Long-Hypothesized Plasma Instabilities Finally Observed

Plasma jets illustration
An artist’s representation of plasma interacting with magnetic fields. (Image credit: Kyle Palmer / PPPL Communications Department)

Results could aid understanding of how black holes produce vast intergalactic jets. Scientists have observed new details of how plasma interacts with magnetic fields, potentially providing insight into the formation of enormous plasma jets that stretch between the stars.

Whether between galaxies or within doughnut-shaped fusion devices known as tokamaks, the electrically charged fourth state of matter known as plasma regularly encounters powerful magnetic fields, changing shape and sloshing in space...

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Researchers develop Affordable, Rapid Blood Test for Brain Cancer

Researchers develop affordable, rapid blood test for brain cancer
The biochip is used to detect biomarkers for glioblastoma, a fast-growing brain cancer. Credit: Matt Cashore / University of Notre Dame

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame have developed a novel, automated device capable of diagnosing glioblastoma, a fast-growing and incurable brain cancer, in less than an hour. The average glioblastoma patient survives 12–18 months after diagnosis.

The crux of the diagnostic is a biochip that uses electrokinetic technology to detect biomarkers, or active Epidermal Growth Factor Receptors (EGFRs), which are overexpressed in certain cancers such as glioblastoma and found in extracellular vesicles.

“Extracellular vesicles or exosomes are unique nanoparticles secreted by cells...

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Generative AI brings us Closer to Automating Investment Expertise

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini excel at being trained on large data-sets to generate informative responses to prompts. Yi Cao, an assistant professor of accounting at the Donald G. Costello College of Business at George Mason University, and Long Chen, associate professor and area chair of accounting at Costello, are actively exploring how individual investors can use LLMs to glean market insights from the dizzying array of available data about companies.

Their new working paper, appearing in SSRN Electronic Journal and co-authored with Jennifer Wu Tucker of the University of Florida and Chi Wan of University of Massachusetts Boston, examines AI’s ability to identify “peer firms,” or product market competitors in an industry.

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Hidden Magmatism discovered at the Chang’e-6 Lunar Landing Site

Lunar igneous activities including intrusive and extrusive magmatism, and their products contain significant information about the lunar interior and its thermal state. Their distribution is asymmetrical on the nearside and farside, reflecting the global lunar dichotomy. In addition to previously returned lunar samples all from nearside (Apollo, Luna, and Chang’e-5), samples from the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin on the farside have long been thought to hold the key to rebalancing the asymmetrical understandings of the Moon and disclosing the lunar dichotomy conundrum.

Earlier this year, the Chang’e-6 mission of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, successfully launched on May 3, landed on the lunar surface on June 2, and returned to the Earth on June 25 carrying a total of 1935...

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