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Electron microscopy maps protein landscapes that drive photosynthesis

Research led by scientists at Washington State University has revealed insights on how plants form a microscopic landscape of proteins crucial to photosynthesis, the basis of Earth’s food and energy chain. The discovery provides a new view of the molecular engine that converts sunlight into bioenergy and could enable future fine-tuning of crops for higher yields and other useful traits.

Colleagues at WSU, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel used a novel, technology-powered approach to peer inside plant leaf cells and visualize the landscape of the photosynthetic membrane—the ribbon-like structure where plants harvest sunlight. The findings were recently published in the journal Science Advances.

“These membranes are highly efficient biological solar cells,” said the study’s principal investigator and corresponding author, Helmut Kirchhoff. “They convert sunlight energy into chemical energy that fuels not only the plant’s metabolism but that of most life on Earth.”

Scientists control ‘free-flowing’ electric currents with light

By controlling magnetic fields using light, a team of researchers led by NTU scientists has solved a long-standing challenge to precisely direct electric currents produced by quantum materials. Their findings unlock new avenues for controlling the flow of electricity through such materials and could herald the age of energy-efficient quantum computing devices. The research is published in Nature in January.

Like water moving through lakes and rivers, electrons in electric currents encounter resistance when flowing through electronic devices. This resistance generates large amounts of heat, which poses a problem for large computing facilities such as data centers and quantum computers, incurring major costs for cooling.

With artificial intelligence driving the demand for more computing applications, there is a need to produce electricity that flows without resistance to avoid generating excessive amounts of heat. These “free-flowing” electric currents could pave the way for novel low-power electronics and new quantum computing technologies.

Miniature laser technology could bring lab testing into your home

A research team at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, has developed new laser technology that could lead to tiny, cost-effective biosensors. The sensors integrate lasers and optics together on a centimeter-sized chip, which could move testing from hospitals to patients’ homes. This, in turn, would free up hospital beds and reduce visits to clinics.

The team’s study, “Flat Plasmonic Biosensor with an On-Chip Metagrating-Integrated Laser,” is published in ACS Sensors.

By studying how various biomolecules interact with each other—for example, antibodies in the immune system and xenobiotic antigens—researchers can gain valuable insights leading to new medicines and vaccines or assess whether a sample contains signs of infection.

Study shows spiral sound can shift sideways

A new University of Mississippi study shows that some sound waves don’t just move forward—they also move slightly to the side. Understanding this movement could help researchers develop more precise acoustic tools. Likun Zhang, associate professor of physics and astronomy and senior scientist at the National Center for Physical Acoustics, published his team’s study on the behavior of spiral sound waves in Physical Review Letters.

The experiment is the first measurement of the Hall Effect as it applies to acoustics. The Hall Effect occurs when something traveling forward—traditionally an electric current—is deflected slightly to the side by an external influence such as a magnetic field.

“About five years ago, our group extended the concept of the Hall Effect to acoustics, where we predicted that this would be the case,” Zhang said. “But this follow-up is the first time that we’ve been able to say, experimentally, ‘Here is that shift, and we can prove that it’s there.’”

How does snow gather on a roof? Simulation considers turbulence alongside snowflake size

No two snowflakes may be the same, but models that fail to take these variations into consideration often fall short when calculating the way snow accumulates on roofs. In Physics of Fluids, researchers from Harbin Institute of Technology in China modeled the way snow gathers on a roof based on snowflake size and distribution.

“In cold regions, snow load is a critical factor in structural design,” said author Qingwen Zhang. “However, traditional models often simplify snow as a uniform material with a single particle size, overlooking the natural heterogeneity of snowflake sizes and distributions.”

Astronomers Spot Bizarre Supernova That Could Unlock the Secret of Dark Energy

A rare gravitationally lensed supernova could help astronomers determine how fast the universe is expanding and shed light on dark energy. Astronomers may be closer to understanding one of the greatest mysteries in cosmology: dark energy, the unknown force thought to be driving the accelerating e

JWST Detects Evidence of “Monster Stars” That May Have Created the Universe’s First Giant Black Holes

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of researchers has discovered chemical fingerprints from enormous primordial stars that were among the first to form after the Big Bang.

Engineers Create Unusual Magnetic Material That Behaves Like Graphene

Researchers at the University of Illinois have discovered a surprising mathematical connection between two areas of condensed-matter physics that were long considered separate. The electronic and magnetic behavior of two-dimensional materials both hold significant promise for future technologies.

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