Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms trained on real astronomical observations now outperform astronomers in sifting through massive amounts of data to find new exploding stars, identify new types of galaxies and detect the mergers of massive stars, accelerating the rate of new discovery in the world’s oldest science.

But AI, also called machine learning, can reveal something deeper, University of California, Berkeley, astronomers found: Unsuspected connections hidden in the complex mathematics arising from general relativity—...

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) created a solar cell with a record 39.5% efficiency under 1-sun global illumination. This is the highest efficiency solar cell of any type, measured using standard 1-sun conditions.

“The new cell is more efficient and has a simpler design that may be useful for a variety of new applications, such as highly area-constrained applications or low-radiation space applications,” said Myles Steiner, a senior scientist in NREL’s High-Efficiency Crystalline Photovoltaics (PV) Group and principal investigator on the project...

Newfound black holes in dwarf galaxies shed light on the origin of our galaxy’s supermassive black hole. A team led by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found a previously overlooked treasure trove of massive black holes in dwarf galaxies. The newly discovered black holes offer a glimpse into the life story of the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy.

As a giant spiral galaxy, the Milky Way is believed to have been built up from mergers of many smaller dwarf galaxies...

James Bibb, Ph.D., and colleagues have described a novel preclinical drug that could have the potential to combat depression, brain injury and diseases that impair cognition. The drug, which notably is brain-permeable, acts to inhibit the kinase enzyme Cdk5.

Cdk5 is a crucial regulator of signaling in brain neurons. Over three decades of study, it has been implicated in neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Knocking out the enzyme in mice makes them resilient to stress, enhances their cognition, protects neurons from stroke and head trauma, and lessens neurodegeneration.

While inhibitors of Cdk5 could offer potential therapeutic benefits and new ways to study basic brain function, previous first- and second-gene...