Category: 7. Science

Yichao Zhang, an assistant professor in the University of Maryland Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has developed an electron microscopy technique to directly image “moiré phasons” — a physical phenomenon that impacts superconductivity and heat conduction in two-dimensional materials for next-generation electronic and quantum devices. A paper about the research, which documents images of the thermal vibration of individual atoms for the first time, published July 24 in the journal Science. (See video link below.)

Two-dimensional materials, which are sheet-like structures a few nanometers thick, are being explored as new components of next-generation quantum and electronic devices. A feature in twisted two-dimensional materials are “moiré phasons,” critical to understanding the materials’ thermal conductivity, electronic behavior, and structural order. Previously, moiré phasons were difficult to detect experimentally, preventing further understanding of the materials that could revolutionize quantum technologies and energy-efficient electronics.

Zhang’s research team took on this challenge by using a new technique called “electron ptychography,” which achieved the highest resolution documented (better than 15 picometer) and detected blurring of individual atoms caused by thermal vibrations. Her work has revealed that spatially localized moiré phasons dominate thermal vibrations of twisted two-dimensional materials, which fundamentally reshaped how scientists understand its impact.

The breakthrough study, which confirmed the longstanding theoretical predictions of moiré phasons, also demonstrated that “electron ptychography” can be used to map thermal vibrations with atomic precision for the first time — which was previously an experimental capability out of reach.

“This is like decoding a hidden language of atomic motion,” said Zhang. “Electron ptychography lets us see these subtle vibrations directly. Now we have a powerful new method to explore previously hidden physics, which will accelerate discoveries in two dimensional quantum materials.”

Zhang’s research team will next focus on resolving how thermal vibrations are affected by defects and interfaces in quantum and electronic materials. Controlling the thermal vibration behavior of these materials could enable the design of novel devices with tailored thermal, electronic, and optical properties — paving the way for advances in quantum computing, energy-efficient electronics, and nanoscale sensors.

A fossilized creature that lived more than 500 million years ago is turning the origin story of spiders and scorpions on its head. Scientists now say that its brain structure indicates arachnids may not have evolved on land, as was previously believed, but rather in the oceans.

This bold idea comes from a new study by researchers at the University of Arizona and King’s College London. The team examined an ancient arthropod fossil and found surprising similarities to modern spiders.

Fossil indicates arachnid origins

Spiders, scorpions, and their kin – collectively known as arachnids – have barely changed in the past 400 million years.

Arachnids have reigned as top arthropod predators on land, and their fossil record strongly suggested that they evolved and diversified in terrestrial ecosystems.

The team studied a rare fossil of Mollisonia symmetrica, which has long been considered an early marine chelicerate in the same broader group that includes horseshoe crabs (Limulidae) and is closely related to the arachnids.

The assumption had always been that Mollisonia was part of an ocean lineage that led to land-based arachnids, but only much later on.

Ocean fossil had a spider’s brain

According to the researchers, this didn’t hold up under closer scrutiny. Instead of looking like the nervous system of a horseshoe crab, Mollisonia’s brain was like that of a modern spider.

Its nervous system included a distinct, radiating layout of ganglia – clusters of nerve cells – and an unsegmented brain that sendt signals to pincer-like front limbs. This unexpected configuration is a clue.

“It is still vigorously debated where and when arachnids first appeared, and what kind of chelicerates were their ancestors, and whether these were marine or semi-aquatic, like horseshoe crabs,” said Professor Nicholas Strausfeld, lead author of the study.

Modern arachnid brain structure

Mollisonia had a two-part body: a broad carapace at the front and a segmented tail-like trunk at the back.

Some researchers have compared this body shape to that of a scorpion. But nobody expected this creature to have anything close to a modern arachnid brain structure.

The Mollisonia nervous system had five pairs of ganglia in the prosoma (the front part of the body) for controlling the five limb pairs. That same layout is seen in spiders today.

The fossil also revealed short nerves that extend from the brain to a set of claw-like appendages – similar to the fangs in modern arachnids.

While the nerve connections to the chelicerae come from the rear of the brain in crabs, these connections come from the front of the brain in Mollisonia (and all modern spiders).

“It’s as if the Limulus-type brain seen in Cambrian fossils, or the brains of ancestral and present-day crustaceans and insects, have been flipped backwards, which is what we see in modern spiders,” said Professor Strausfeld.

Advantages of the spider brain

This flipped brain may be the reason that spiders are so good at what they do – stalking, pouncing, and spinning intricate webs.

“This is a major step in evolution, which appears to be exclusive to arachnids,” said Frank Hirth of King’s College London.

“Yet already in Mollisonia, we identified brain domains that correspond to living species with which we can predict the underlying genetic makeup that is common to all arthropods.”

Hirth suggested that this reversal creates neural shortcuts, making a spider’s brain better at coordinating fast and precise movements.

“The arachnid brain is unlike any other brain on this planet and it suggests that its organization has something to do with computational speed and the control of motor actions,” said Professor Strausfeld.

From ocean predators to land hunters

Arachnids may have had a head start when it came to surviving on land.

The first land animals were probably insect-like and millipede-like arthropods. But a Mollisonia-like ancestor may have made the transition too – and then turned its attention to those early pioneers.

“We might imagine that a Mollisonia-like arachnid also became adapted to terrestrial life making early insects and millipedes their daily diet,” said Professor Strausfeld.

These early arachnid predators may have helped push insects to evolve wings to fly away from danger.

“Being able to fly gives you a serious advantage when you’re being pursued by a spider,” noted Professor Strausfeld. “Yet, despite their aerial mobility, insects are still caught in their millions in exquisite silken webs spun by spiders.”

A fossil under the microscope

To capture the tiny details of Mollisonia’s nervous system and brain, Professor Strausfeld spent time at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University.

The fossil was photographed under different lighting conditions, using polarizing filters and magnification to capture features invisible to the naked eye.

Still, the researchers needed to be sure this wasn’t just a coincidence – a case of two unrelated animals evolving similar traits.

To rule that out, David Andrew, a former University of Arizona graduate student now at Lycoming College, ran a statistical comparison. He analyzed 115 neural and anatomical traits across both living and extinct arthropods.

The results were clear: in terms of its nervous system, Mollisonia sits right next to modern arachnids on the evolutionary tree.

Other Mollisonia-like fossils haven’t been preserved well enough to check for similar spider brain features. But if they had the same nervous system structure, their descendants could explain the many arachnid species we see today.

The full study was published in the journal Current Biology.

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Fresh tracks stamped into 76 million-year-old mud are telling a new story about dinosaur society in southern Alberta. A densely packed patch of footprints shows several species strolling together – a first for the Late Cretaceous rock record.

The find comes from the Skyline Tracksite in Dinosaur Provincial Park, a place famous for skeletons but almost bare of tracks until now. 

“It was incredibly exciting to be walking in the footsteps of dinosaurs 76 million years after they laid them down,” explained Dr. Brian Pickles of the University of Reading who helped unearth the assemblage. 

Dinosaurs walked together

The slab is no bigger than two parking spaces, yet it preserves thirteen footprints from horn frilled ceratopsian dinosaurs, a probable ankylosaurid, three prints from two large tyrannosaurid carnivores, and one dainty track from a small meat eater.

All of the tracks head in nearly the same direction and sit on the same mud layer, evidence that the animals passed by within hours, perhaps minutes, of one another.

Because the ceratopsian imprints sit shoulder to shoulder with equal spacing, the team suspects the animals were moving as a coordinated group.

Such orderly trackways match earlier monodominant bonebeds from Styracosaurus herds in the same formation, strengthening the case that horned dinosaurs traveled together for much of the year.

Mixed herds are rare even in footprints; earlier prints show single species gatherings or solitary walkers.

The Canadian site therefore widens the behavioral picture, hinting that plant-eaters of different builds could coordinate their movements when the landscape demanded it.

Predator prints followed dinosaurs

Two tyrannosaur prints slice across the herbivore lane, as if the hunters were pacing the herd from a safe distance.

The three-toed marks, about 18 inches long, resemble footprints from the Bellatoripes fredlundi trackway farther north that first suggested tyrannosaurs sometimes moved in pairs or packs.

Whether the predators shadowed the plant eaters that day is unknown, yet their presence offers a motive for banding together.

In modern savannas, zebras often merge with wildebeest to dilute risk and borrow their neighbors’ sharp senses; studies in the Serengeti show vigilance drops for both species inside mixed herds.

Applying that logic to the Cretaceous, stocky ankylosaurs with clubbed tails could add armor, while horned ceratopsians contributed sheer numbers and vision at different heights. Together they might have complicated the hunting plans of a predator.

The prints sit in a thin mudstone band deposited when a winding river abandoned its channel, leaving a shallow lake that dried in patches.

Foot pressure pushed watery clay aside, building raised rims still visible today. The overlying sand quickly buried the impressions, and iron minerals later cemented the layer into a rust colored bench.

Because steep badland slopes erode about one tenth of an inch each year, the rocks seldom expose flat bedding planes where tracks show up.

The team’s “search image” looking for those iron-rich rims peeking above softer sandstone has already revealed several more tracksites in the park, suggesting many prints went unnoticed for decades.

With portable GPS gear, the researchers mapped every depression, then photographed the surface in overlapping grids to create a precise 3D model.

The digital replica lets scientists measure stride length, toe angles, and the subtle suction cups left when feet pulled free, all without further damaging the fragile layer.

Dinosaur prints are fragile and rare

Dinosaur tracks are far more vulnerable than bones. While skeletons can fossilize deep underground and survive eons of erosion, footprints are surface impressions that vanish quickly if not buried and preserved under the right conditions.

Even once exposed, the thin ironstone layers that hold them can flake apart within months due to wind, rain, and temperature swings.

Researchers also face difficulties in identifying which dinosaur made which track, especially when skeletal features overlap between species.

For instance, distinguishing between ceratopsian and ankylosaurid tracks can be tricky without clear impressions of both front and hind feet. This uncertainty limits how precisely behavior can be inferred from fossil footprints.

Why the discovery matters

Until now, signs of dinosaur social life rested largely on mass death bonebeds or long, single species trackways.

The Skyline Tracksite adds the missing piece: it captures different herbivores walking side by side – a behavior that parallels today’s large mammal guilds that share both grass and predators.

The trackway also reminds field crews to rethink “empty” rock. Dinosaur Provincial Park has yielded more than 400 articulated skeletons, yet typical tracks were thought absent.

Recognizing the tell tale mud rims may transform ichnology in the Canadian badlands and other steep terrains carved from Late Campanian river deposits.

The study is published in the journal PLOS One.

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In October 2022, space telescopes detected the most powerful gamma ray burst ever recorded. Known as GRB 221009A and dubbed the “BOAT” (Brightest Of All Time), this explosion was so intense it overwhelmed multiple instruments designed to study such events. Now, new observations from this burst are helping us to understand one of the universe’s most mysterious phenomena.

This sequence constructed from Fermi Large Area Telescope data reveals the sky in gamma rays centered on the location of GRB 221009A. (Credit : NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration)

Gamma ray bursts are among the most powerful events in the universe, releasing more energy in seconds than our Sun will produce in its entire 10 billion year lifetime. These brilliant flashes occur when massive stars collapse into black holes or when neutron stars collide. The initial burst lasts only seconds to minutes, followed by an afterglow that gradually fades over hours to months.

Despite their incredible brightness, gamma ray bursts are notoriously difficult to study. They occur in distant galaxies billions of light years away, and their gamma rays weaken significantly during the long journey to Earth. Their brief, unpredictable nature makes catching them in the act extremely challenging.

Swift captured the afterglow of GRB 221009A about an hour after it was first detected. The bright rings form as a result of X-rays scattered from otherwise unobservable dust layers within our galaxy that lie in the direction of the burst. (Credit : NASA/Swift)

When GRB 221009A erupted, it triggered follow up observations worldwide. The ‘Large Sized Telescope’ (LST-1) in La Palma, Spain, began studying the burst just 1.33 days after the initial explosion. Over the following 20 days, researchers collected data that revealed something unexpected.

The team detected an excess of high energy gamma rays from the burst’s afterglow. While this signal wasn’t strong enough to claim a formal detection by scientific standards, it provided valuable clues about the burst’s structure and behaviour. The observations support a more complex picture of how gamma ray bursts work. It’s long been debated whether these explosions produce simple, uniform jets of plasma or more complicated structures. The LST-1 data suggests that GRB 221009A involved a structured jet, essentially a narrow, ultra fast core surrounded by a wider, slower moving shell of material.

The LST-1 pictured at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos on the Canary island of La Palma.

This challenges the simpler ‘top-hat’ model that many researchers previously used to understand these events. The structured jet model helps explain how particles get accelerated to extreme energies and why we see the specific patterns of radiation that we do.

The LST-1 telescope achieved something remarkable during these observations. It successfully collected data under very bright moonlight conditions, a significant challenge given its extremely sensitive cameras. The full Moon initially prevented other similar telescopes from observing the burst, but technical innovations by the LST team allowed them to continue working despite the bright conditions.

Their new observational technique now opens new possibilities for studying transient events, even when lunar conditions would normally make observations impossible. The success with GRB 221009A marks just the beginning of a new era in high energy astrophysics, where researchers can examine the inner workings of astronomical sources in extraordinary detail.

Source : Brightest gamma-ray burst hints at hidden layers in cosmic jet formation

Space travel takes quite a toll on the human body. Astronauts experience muscle weakness, bone loss, vision changes, and cardiovascular shifts during their time in microgravity. While scientists understand many of the immediate effects of spaceflight, questions have long been asked about whether these changes cause lasting damage, particularly to the heart and blood vessels.

A new study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology provides encouraging answers to the previous concerns. The researcher team followed 13 NASA astronauts for up to five years after their return from the International Space Station, monitoring their cardiovascular health through detailed medical examinations and ultrasound imaging of key arteries.

Boeing crew flight test astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, center, pose with Expedition 71 flight engineers Mike Barratt, left, and Tracy Dyson, both NASA astronauts, in their spacesuits aboard the International Space Station’s Quest airlock on June 24, 2024. (Credit : NASA)

The astronauts, ranging from their late 30s to late 50s when they launched, spent between four months and nearly a year aboard the space station. During their missions, they experienced the typical cardiovascular changes associated with microgravity; reduced blood circulation, decreased physical capacity, and the dizziness that many astronauts feel when first returning to Earth’s gravity.

However, the team found that long term results were remarkably positive. They used ultrasound to examine the astronauts’ carotid arteries in the neck and brachial arteries in the arms, key indicators of cardiovascular health. They found no evidence of the arterial thickening or stiffening that typically signals future heart disease risk.

Blood and urine tests revealed that inflammation and oxidative stress markers, which had elevated during spaceflight, returned to normal within just one week of landing. The astronauts’ blood vessels maintained their ability to dilate properly, another crucial sign of cardiovascular health.

The crew of Apollo 11 floats on the ocean after their return from the Moon as Navy divers assist in retrieving them (Credit : NASA)

Perhaps most importantly, none of the astronauts developed any signs, symptoms, or diagnoses of cardiovascular disease during the five year follow up period. When researchers used standard risk assessment tools to calculate the astronauts’ chances of developing heart disease in the next decade, they found only modest increases that were largely attributable to normal ageing rather than spaceflight exposure.

The study did reveal some minor changes over time. Total cholesterol and glucose levels rose moderately over the seven year observation period, but other diabetes markers remained stable.

These findings are particularly significant because the astronauts maintained active lifestyles after their missions, including those who retired from NASA. This suggests that the protective effects aren’t just due to continued rigorous training but reflect genuine cardiovascular resilience.

Astronauts on board ISS and during long duration space missions must undertake significant exercise to maintain health. (Credit : NASA)

The research addresses crucial questions as space agencies plan increasingly ambitious missions, including eventual trips to Mars that could last years rather than months. Understanding how the human body responds to extended spaceflight is essential for ensuring astronaut safety and mission success.

The study concluded that astronauts appear remarkably resilient to the cardiovascular stresses of spaceflight, with their heart and blood vessel systems showing no signs of lasting damage even years after returning to Earth. This represents positive and encouraging news for both current astronauts and the future of human space exploration.

Source : Good news for astronauts: Arteries remain normal years after long-duration spaceflight

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

The scientists who precisely measure the position of Earth are in a bit of trouble. Their measurements are essential for the satellites we use for navigation, communication and Earth observation every day.

Defense tech company AeroVironment and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have shown off a wild concept for deploying six helicopters above the surface of Mars to scout for water and possible human landing sites.

The concept, dubbed “Skyfall,” builds on NASA’s extremely successful and revolutionary Ingenuity Mars helicopter, which became the first manmade object to achieve powered flight on another planet in 2021. It flew a whopping 72 times over three years, vastly exceeding expectations.

AeroVironment’s plan is to “deploy six scout helicopters on Mars, where they would explore many of the sites selected by NASA and industry as top candidate landing sites for America’s first Martian astronauts,” according to a press release.

As seen in a flashy animation, the “Skyfall Maneuver” will attempt to deploy the six rotorcraft from a much larger spacecraft during its descent through the Martian atmosphere, making it a highly ambitious endeavor. However, the plan would also “eliminate the necessity for a landing platform — traditionally one of the most expensive, complex and risky elements of any Mars mission,” per the company.

Whether such a venture will receive enough funding to be realized remains unclear at best. While AeroVironment has kicked off internal investments ahead of a planned 2028 launch, budgetary restraints at NASA could pose a major challenge. The Trump administration is planning to massively slash the space agency’s budget in what critics are calling an “existential threat” to science, making anything at NASA currently an uncertain bet. Just last week, NASA’s JPL reportedly held a “going out of business sale” for existing satellites, signaling tough times ahead.

It’s not the only concept vying to follow up on the tremendous success of Ingenuity. In December, NASA showed off a SUV-sized “Mars Chopper” with six rotor blades that could allow it to carry science payloads up to 11 pounds across distances of up to 1.9 miles per Mars day.

AeroVironment’s leadership claims its Skyfall concept could explore far more of the Red Planet for a fraction of the price, compared to conventional landers and rovers.

“Skyfall offers a revolutionary new approach to Mars exploration that is faster and more affordable than anything that’s come before it,” said AeroVironment’s head of space ventures, William Pomerantz, in the statement. “With six helicopters, Skyfall offers a low-cost solution that multiplies the range we would cover, the data we would collect, and the scientific research we would conduct — making humanity’s first footprints on Mars meaningfully closer.”

Skyfall is planning to borrow heavily from its predecessor Ingenuity, including “its lightweight aircraft structure suitable for the thin atmosphere of Mars.”

“Ingenuity established the United States as the first and only country to achieve powered flight on another planet,” said AeroVironment’s president of autonomous systems, Trace Stevenson. “Skyfall builds on that promise, providing detailed, actionable data from an aerial perspective that will not only be of use planning for future crewed missions, but can also benefit the planetary science community in their search for evidence that life once existed on Mars.”

AeroVironment has worked on space-based laser communication terminals, as well as ground-based phased array antennas, to improve satellite command and control capabilities. How that expertise will translate to launching and landing six rotorcraft on Mars remains to be seen — but we’ll be rooting for the project.

More on Mars helicopters: NASA Shows Off SUV-Sized “Mars Chopper” With Six Rotor Blades