Many electronic devices today are dependent on semiconductor logic circuits based on switches hard-wired to perform predefined logic functions. Physicists have developed a novel molecular memristor, or an electronic memory device, that has exceptional memory reconfigurability. Unlike hard-wired standard circuits, the molecular device can be reconfigured using voltage to embed different computational tasks. The energy-efficient…

Research published today in Nature Microgravity used an Earth-bound simulator of the space station instrument to grow E. coli, demonstrating that it can be nurtured with methods that promise to be more suitable for space travel than existing alternatives. «If we can get microorganisms to grow well in space, astronauts can use them to make…

A cache of 118 million-year-old fossilized dinosaur and bird feathers has been recovered from an ancient lake deposit that once lay beyond the southern polar circle. Feathered dinosaur fossils are famous, but known from a handful of localities worldwide. Examples from the Southern Hemisphere are especially rare, and mainly include only isolated feathers. An international…

Researchers have discovered a new clue in the search for the origin of life by showing that peptides can form on dust under conditions such as those prevailing in outer space. These molecules, which are one of the basic building blocks of all life, may therefore not have originated on our planet at all, but…

Scientists demonstrate a state of vibration that exists simultaneously at two different times. They evidence this quantum superposition by measuring the strongest class of quantum correlations between light beams that interact with the vibration. Such superpositions are hard to create, as they are destroyed if any kind of information about the place and time of…

Engineering researchers have developed and demonstrated a new approach for designing photonic devices. The advance allows them to control the direction and polarization of light from thin-film LEDs, paving the way for a new generation of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies. «This is a fundamentally new device architecture for photonic devices,» says…

Unlike our Sun, most stars live with a companion. Sometimes, two come so close that one engulfs the other — with far-reaching consequences. When astronomers used the telescope Alma to study 15 unusual stars, they were surprised to find that they all recently underwent this phase. The discovery promises new insight on the sky’s most…

Scientists have helped three amputees merge with their bionic prosthetic legs as they climb over various obstacles without having to look. The amputees report using and feeling their bionic leg as part of their own body, thanks to sensory feedback from the prosthetic leg that is delivered to nerves in the leg’s stump. «After all…

Researchers recently announced that an amoeba called Naegleria has evolved more distinct sets of tubulins, used for specific cellular processes, than previously thought. Their insight has a host of implications, which range from developing treatments for brain-eating infections to better understanding how life on earth evolved such enormous diversity. Much of life on earth relies…

For any disordered medium (such as a sugar cube, for example), special light waves can be found which are practically not changed by the medium, only attenuated. These ‘scattering invariant light modes’ could play a major role in new imaging technologies. Why is sugar not transparent? Because light that penetrates a piece of sugar is…