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Recent Discoveries Stories

An experimental setup at Purdue University uses two laser beams, a spatial filter, and a single-photon detector to demonstrate how an individual photon can switch a stronger beam of light on and off, a potential breakthrough for processing information in quantum photonic circuits.
Three Purdue experiments explore how to make, control and stabilize the light that future quantum circuits could use.
Shy Cohenupda
Radio pulses spaced about eight minutes apart trace a white dwarf orbiting a Sun-like star more than 5,000 light-years away.
SpaceRadio pulses reveal a white dwarf binary system more than 5,000 light-years awayJoseph Shavit
Bright galaxies give way to dark voids in this artist’s impression of the universe’s distant future. The study estimates that white dwarfs could evaporate in about 10⁷⁸ years if a proposed process similar to Hawking radiation occurs.
SpaceThe universe will end much sooner than previously predicted, new model findsJoseph Shavit
A Danish study links regular coffee drinking to lower small-intestinal pH and greater bacterial richness in stool.
HealthRegular coffee drinking linked to changes in gut functionsMac Oliveau
Sit-stand desk users logged 43 more minutes of daily computer activity in a study of 10,145 employees. The study did not measure output.
DiscoveriesThis small change at work significantly improves productivityJoseph Shavit
An artist’s rendering shows a proposed atmospheric probe approaching Uranus, with Neptune at right. A future probe could measure argon isotopes to help distinguish gas inherited during planet formation from gas produced by radioactive decay in buried rock.
SpaceAncient argon may hide clues to the rocky interiors of Uranus and NeptuneJoseph Shavit
Conceptual architecture of freespace twistronics and optical supertopologies.
DiscoveriesScientists twist laser light into patterns that can repair themselvesShy Cohen
An artist’s reconstruction shows a child and an adult shaping a clay figurine at a Natufian settlement. Overlapping fingerprints on a figure found at Eynan-Mallaha suggest that a child and an older maker handled the same piece while the clay was still soft.
DiscoveriesAncient fingerprints suggest children helped make clay figurines 15,000 years agoJoshua Shavit
In this illustration, scientists and visitors discuss a prism demonstration at a public science event. In a recent survey, both groups saw curiosity as central to science, but differed on the roles of creativity and established methods.
DiscoveriesScientists and the general public define science very differentlyJoshua Shavit
In this reconstruction, a fishmonger displays freshwater perch and pike near a medieval Danish friary. Carbon from freshwater fish can make human bones appear centuries older in radiocarbon dating.
DiscoveriesFreshwater fish can make human bones appear centuries olderJoshua Shavit
Fossilized teeth from giant prehistoric rodents discovered in Thailand’s Krabi Province, including the newly identified Yakamys sirindhornae, provide new clues about the early evolution and diversity of large-bodied rodents in Southeast Asia.
DiscoveriesPaleontologists discover a giant rodent that lived in Thailand 34 million years agoRebecca Shavit
Pandora’s Cluster (Abell 2744), a massive galaxy cluster whose gravitational pull magnifies light from distant objects, including Abell2744-QSO1, an unusually compact and distant source from the early universe.
SpaceLittle red dots may hold the secret to the universe’s first black holesJoseph Shavit
A conceptual visualization shows laser-controlled vibrations in a nitrogen molecular ion beside its calcium-ion partner, which enables nondestructive quantum-state readout. Colors and scale are illustrative.
DiscoveriesGlobal first: Scientists identify and trigger ‘forbidden’ vibrations in single moleculesJoshua Shavit
An illustration shows how the unusual skull and neck anatomy of Scaphokogia huachafo, an extinct relative of modern pygmy sperm whales, positioned its snout toward the seafloor, suggesting an adaptation for feeding near the ocean bottom.
DiscoveriesSix-million-year-old whale fossil reveals an extraordinarily lopsided faceHannah Shavit-Weiner
An illustration depicts a black hole pulling matter from a nearby companion star into a swirling accretion disk, a process that can sometimes produce powerful jets of material whose triggering mechanisms remain poorly understood.
SpaceX-ray warning signs offer advance notice of black hole jet ejectionsJoseph Shavit
An artistic view of Earth uses subtle axis lines to illustrate polar motion linked to groundwater depletion. The lines are conceptual and not to scale.
Green ImpactClimate change is literally changing the way Earth spins, scientists warnJoseph Shavit
Strangers help an older shopper gather dropped groceries, illustrating how a brief exchange of kindness and appreciation may foster human connection and belonging.
DiscoveriesThe kindness of strangers inspires a new theory of human connectionJoshua Shavit