The bubble of gas around the red supergiant DFK 52 ALMA/Mark Siebert et al. 2025 A dying star is expelling a vast sphere of dust and gas around it that is about half as wide as our solar system. Astronomers are at a loss to explain it, as there is no known mechanism that could…
Greece continued to battle major wildfires across the country amid a severe heatwave, but firefighters have brought many outbreaks under control. Extreme heat persisted, with temperatures reaching 42.4C (108.32F) in central Greece on Sunday. Firefighters were working on five major fire fronts late on Sunday in the Peloponnese area west of Athens, as well as…
Researchers have demonstrated a new eco-friendly plastic that decomposes in deep ocean conditions. In a deep-sea experiment, the microbially synthesized poly(d-lactate-co-3-hydroxybutyrate) (LAHB) biodegraded, while conventional plastics such as a representative bio-based polylactide (PLA) persisted. Submerged 855 meters (~2,800 feet) underwater, LAHB films lost over 80% of their mass after 13 months as microbial biofilms actively…
A nuclear winter is a theoretical concept, but if the climate scenario expected to follow a large-scale nuclear war, in which smoke and soot from firestorms block sunlight, came to fruition, global temperatures would sharply drop, extinguishing most agriculture. A nuclear winter could last for more than a decade, potentially leading to widespread famine for…
Ivermectin administered to the whole population significantly reduces malaria transmission, offering new hope in the fight against the disease. The BOHEMIA trial, the largest study on ivermectin for malaria to date, showed a 26% reduction in new malaria infection on top of existing bed nets, providing strong evidence of ivermectin’s potential as a complementary tool…
Stevia may provide more benefits than as a zero-calorie sugar substitute. When fermented with bacteria isolated from banana leaves, stevia extract kills off pancreatic cancer cells but doesn’t harm healthy kidney cells, according to a research team at Hiroshima University. The researchers published their findings in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. “Globally, the incidence…
Abell 2744, the galaxy cluster where AMORE6 was spotted NASA, ESA, Jennifer Lotz, Matt Mountain, Anton M. Koekemoer, HFF Team (STScI) A galaxy marooned in an empty region of the universe appears to be unexpectedly full of primordial stars. This could give astronomers their first glimpse of a kind of stellar object thought to have…
Millipedes get a bad rap — their many legs put people off and could classify them as “creepy crawly.” But these anthropods’ secretions could hold the key to new drug discovery for the treatment of neurological diseases and pain. Chemist Emily Mevers and her team recently discovered a new set of complex structures in millipede…
New research shows that metasurfaces could be used as strong linear quantum optical networks This approach could eliminate the need for waveguides and other conventional optical components Graph theory is helpful for designing the functionalities of quantum optical networks into a single metasurface In the race toward practical quantum computers and networks, photons — fundamental…
A virus that typically infects black-eyed peas is showing great promise as a low-cost, potent cancer immunotherapy — and researchers are uncovering why. In a study published in Cell Biomaterials, a team led by chemical and nano engineers at the University of California San Diego took a closer look at how the cowpea mosaic virus…
