Nasa has postponed its historic mission to send astronauts around the moon and back again, after issues arose during a critical test of its most powerful rocket yet. The US space agency had planned to launch the Artemis II mission from Kennedy Space Center in Florida as early as next week, but announced overnight that
Physicists have put thousands of atoms into a “Schrödinger’s cat” state — smashing the record for the most macroscopic object to be observed in a quantum state. In a new study, researchers observed nanoparticles of 7,000 sodium atoms acting as a cohesive wave, pushing the strange world of quantum mechanics to new limits. Building on
February’s full “Snow Moon” has risen, dazzling stargazers with an incredible performance as it climbed over the eastern horizon below the stars of the constellation Leo to flood the night sky with its icy light. The Snow Moon turned full in the early hours of Feb. 1, when the lunar disk sat opposite the sun
Thrinaxodon, a small carnivorous predator and cynodont from the Early Triassic period, has long intrigued paleontologists due to its anatomical similarities to modern mammals.Its mix of reptilian and mammalian features made it a likely candidate for studying transitions in key evolutionary traits. But until now, there was no solid biomechanical evidence linking it to the
In the heart of our galaxy, scientists have discovered the largest sulfur-bearing molecule ever detected beyond Earth, with significant implications for the study of the cosmic origins of life. The chemical is known as thiepine, or 2,5-cyclohexadiene-1-thione (C₆H₆S), a ring-shaped sulfur-bearing hydrocarbon produced in biochemical reactions. When examining the molecular cloud G+0.693–0.027, a star-forming region
The Sun has unleashed a quartet of strong solar flares, which could herald a wild week of space weather. It all kicked off at 12:33 UTC on February 1, when the Sun fired off an X1.0 flare. About 11 hours later, at 23:37 UTC, a massive eruption occurred with an X8.1 flare. Two more followed
“You have to be a pleasant person to work with, that’s number one,” Purvis says. “You have to deal with pressure, stress and uncertainty and still be able to perform in your job – you can train for every scenario but something’s going to happen that we can’t predict.” What has also become apparent from
Generative artificial intelligence models have been used to create enormous libraries of theoretical materials that could help solve all kinds of problems. Now, scientists just have to figure out how to make them. In many cases, materials synthesis is not as simple as following a recipe in the kitchen. Factors like the temperature and length
In vivo imaging of ER dynamics in adult C. elegans Many ER proteins are enriched in specific structural and functional subdomains20,28,36. To study ER dynamics during ageing, we developed transgenic C. elegans strains with labels capable of distinguishing rough or tubular ER. SEC-61.B is an essential component of the ER translocon enriched in rough ER
In the moments following the Big Bang, the extreme heat and pressure coerced matter into a goopy mix of tiny particles. But how goopy? The answer had remained rather unclear to physicists—until now. Quarks and gluons are fundamental particles that make up protons and neutrons. These particles are typically bound together, but the extreme conditions