Estimating quiet worlds, silent civilizations, and ancient relics in the milky way
Category: space
Scientists discover hidden geometry that bends electrons like gravity
Researchers have discovered a hidden quantum geometry inside materials that subtly steers electrons, echoing how gravity warps light in space. Once thought to exist only on paper, this effect has now been observed experimentally in a popular quantum material. The finding reveals a new way to understand and control how materials conduct electricity and interact with light. It could help power future ultra-fast electronics and quantum technologies.
Introduction: John Martinis
New cadets. New era. Infinite possibilities. Catch a new episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy every Thursday starting Jan. 15th on Paramount+.
Can quantum tunneling occur at macroscopic scales? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Chuck Nice sit down with John Martinis, UCSB physicist and 2025 Nobel Prize winner in Physics, to explore superconductivity, quantum tunneling, and what this means for the future of quantum computing.
What exactly is macroscopic quantum tunneling, and why did it take decades for its importance to be recognized? We’ve had electrical circuits forever, so what did Martinis discover that no one else saw? If quantum mechanics usually governs tiny particles, why does a superconducting circuit obey the same rules? And what does superconductivity really mean at a quantum level?
How can a system cross an energy barrier it doesn’t have the energy to overcome? What is actually tunneling in a superconducting wire, and what does it mean to tunnel out of superconductivity? We break down Josephson Junctions, Cooper pairs, and other superconducting lingo. Does tunneling happen instantly, or does it take time? And what does that say about wavefunction collapse and our assumptions about instantaneous quantum effects?
Learn what a qubit is and why macroscopic quantum effects are important for quantum computing. Why don’t quantum computers instantly break all encryption? How close are we to that reality, and what replaces today’s cryptography when it happens? Is quantum supremacy a scientific milestone, a geopolitical signal, or both? Plus, we take cosmic queries from our audience: should quantum computing be regulated like nuclear energy? Will qubits ever be stable enough for everyday use? Will quantum computers live in your pocket or on the dark side of the Moon? Can quantum computing supercharge AI, accelerate discovery, or even simulate reality itself? And finally: if we live in a simulation, would it have to be quantum all the way down?
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From Latent Manifolds to Targeted Molecular Probes: An Interpretable, Kinome-Scale Generative Machine Learning Framework for Family-Based Kinase Ligand Design
Newlypublished by gennady verkhivker, et al.
🔍 Key findings: Novel generative framework integrates ChemVAE-based latent space modeling with chemically interpretable structural similarity metric (Kinase Likelihood Score) and Bayesian optimization for SRC kinase ligand design, demonstrating kinase scaffolds spanning 37 protein kinase families spontaneously organize into low-dimensional manifold with chemically distinct carboxyl groups revealing degeneracy in scaffold encoding — local sampling successfully converts scaffolds from other kinase families into novel SRC-like chemotypes accounting for ~40% of high-similarity cutoffs.
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Scaffold-aware artificial intelligence (AI) models enable systematic exploration of chemical space conditioned on protein-interacting ligands, yet the representational principles governing their behavior remain poorly understood. The computational representation of structurally complex kinase small molecules remains a formidable challenge due to the high conservation of ATP active site architecture across the kinome and the topological complexity of structural scaffolds in current generative AI frameworks. In this study, we present a diagnostic, modular and chemistry-first generative framework for design of targeted SRC kinase ligands by integrating ChemVAE-based latent space modeling, a chemically interpretable structural similarity metric (Kinase Likelihood Score), Bayesian optimization, and cluster-guided local neighborhood sampling.
Paragon: Space-Charge-Neutralized Reflective Electron Projection Lithography
This is best exemplified by the RCA Permanent-Magnet Electron Microscope, based on the work of John H. Reisner and collaborators.
“The permanent magnet as an energizing source for magnetic electron lenses is not new. The use of a permanent magnetic yoke for the comparatively coarse focusing of cathode-ray tubes has long been known. The advantages of permanent magnet lens energization are very appealing — excellent stability (beyond the ability of any regulator), no heating losses in energizing coils, no need for extensive current supplies and regulators — advantages which heretofore were limited to electrostatic lenses.”
The Paragon idea is that “die at once” exposure is the key to high-volume manufacturing with electron projection lithography. Anything that would “reduce system throughput and/or require registration of plural exposures” is forbidden.
Puzzling slow radio pulses are coming from space. A new study could finally explain them
Cosmic radio pulses repeating every few minutes or hours, known as long-period transients, have puzzled astronomers since their discovery in 2022. Our new study, published in Nature Astronomy today, might finally add some clarity.
Radio astronomers are very familiar with pulsars, a type of rapidly rotating neutron star. To us watching the skies from Earth, these objects appear to pulse because powerful radio beams from their poles sweep our telescopes—much like a cosmic lighthouse.
The slowest pulsars rotate in just a few seconds—this is known as their period. But in recent years, long-period transients have been discovered as well. These have periods from 18 minutes to more than six hours.
Why are Tatooine planets rare? General relativity explains why binary star systems rarely host planets
Astronomers have found thousands of exoplanets around single stars, but few around binary stars—even though both types of stars are equally common. Physicists can now explain the dearth.
Of the more than 4,500 stars known to have planets, one puzzling statistic stands out. Even though nearly all stars are expected to have planets and most stars form in pairs, planets that orbit both stars in a pair are rare.
Of the more than 6,000 extrasolar planets, or exoplanets, confirmed to date—most of them found by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)—only 14 are observed to orbit binary stars. There should be hundreds. Where are all the planets with two suns, like Tatooine in Star Wars?
Quantum mechanical effects help overcome a fundamental limitation of optical microscopy
Researchers from Regensburg and Birmingham have overcome a fundamental limitation of optical microscopy. With the help of quantum mechanical effects, they succeeded for the first time in performing optical measurements with atomic resolution. Their work is published in the journal Nano Letters.
From smartphone cameras to space telescopes, the desire to see ever finer detail has driven technological progress. Yet as we probe smaller and smaller length scales, we encounter a fundamental boundary set by light itself. Because light behaves as a wave, it cannot be focused arbitrarily sharply due to an effect called diffraction. As a result, conventional optical microscopes are unable to resolve structures much smaller than the wavelength of light, placing the very building blocks of matter beyond direct optical observation.
Now, researchers at the Regensburg Center for Ultrafast Nanoscopy, together with colleagues at the University of Birmingham, have found a novel way to overcome this limitation. Using standard continuous-wave lasers, they have achieved optical measurements at distances comparable to the spacing between individual atoms.
Beyond the eye of the beholder: Mathematically defining attributes essential to color perception
Research on the perception of color differences is helping resolve a century-old understanding of color developed by Erwin Schrödinger. Los Alamos scientist Roxana Bujack led a team that used geometry to mathematically define the perception of color as it relates to hue, saturation and lightness.
Presented at the 2025 Eurographics Conference on Visualization, their work formalizes Schrödinger’s model of color, decisively establishing the perception of color attributes as an intrinsic property. The paper, “The Geometry of Color in the Light of a Non-Riemannian Space,” was published in the Computer Graphics Forum.
“What we conclude is that these color qualities don’t emerge from additional external constructs such as cultural or learned experiences but reflect the intrinsic properties of the color metric itself,” Bujack said. “This metric geometrically encodes the perceived color distance—that is, how different two colors appear to an observer.”