Zara Noor Abbas is a remarkable Pakistani television and film actor with a strong Instagram following of 6.8 million. Her notable dramas are Khamoshi, Zebaish, Ehd e Wafa, Badshah Begum, Jhoom, Stand Up Girl, Deewar e Shab and others. Currently, fans are praising her in Ek Jhooti Kahani with Mohib Mirza. The actor is the daughter of ace Pakistani senior artist Asma Abbas Gill and she loves her mother. Zara loves working with Asma Abbas.
Recently, the Khamoshi actress opened up about her work experience from a special project in which she is sharing screen with her mother and daughter simultaneously.
Zara Noor Abbas is working in a commercial with Asma Abbas and Noor e Jahan which is directed by Asim Raza. Zara shared a beautiful and emotional note which said, “This one is so important for so many reasons. My first commercial with my amma. And my first commercial with Asim. This felt like coming back home after a tiring and exciting experience at work. I was introduced in the films by Asim and everyone who was cast had more or less worked with him before on an advertisement. I had never worked with him before PHL (Parey hut luv) and 7 years later, I played his heroine again. But only this time, his other favourite was around. My amma. Maybe zyada favourite I’d say. What a day. The team. The creatives. Everyone was so happy to see me with NooreJahan. And so supportive also. Having children, and raising them, with the help of a supportive work environment and colleagues is a blessing. And I think. I got super lucky. Alhamdullilah. Evil Eyes off”
Here are Zara Noor Abbas’s pictures with her mother and daughter:
Fans loved to see Zara Noor Abbas’s latest pictures from the set of her commercial, especially her picture with her daughter Noor e Jahan. Read a few comments:
Trafford was in celebratory mood earlier in the week when he collected the PFA’s Championship player of the year award at the Opera House in Manchester city centre, reward for his performances in the second tier for Burnley.
The 22-year-old kept 29 clean sheets in the league last season for the Clarets, and after joining City he was quickly on song, as Guardiola pointed out, in the opening win at Wolves.
But this was a different story, a difficult first showing in a City shirt at Etihad Stadium.
Trafford came through the City ranks and rejoined the club for £27m from Burnley this summer having not made a senior appearance in his first spell.
He will have been dreaming of playing Premier League football for City at the Etihad, but it turned into an uncomfortable afternoon, Trafford slipping away from centre stage at the final whistle with songs from joyful Spurs fans ringing in his ears.
Guardiola has turned to youth in his rebuild.
Saturday’s team, with an average age of 24 years and 326 days, was the youngest starting XI named by the Spaniard in the Premier League and they have plenty to learn.
Tottenham’s Richarlison pressed relentlessly all game and forced Trafford into conceding a corner, while the keeper was lucky not to be dismissed for a collision on the edge of the box with Spurs winger Mohammed Kudus.
And at 1-0 behind, with the crowd beginning to get anxious, those shaky moments then turned into a calamity as Trafford played a loose pass inside the area to Ruben Dias, who failed to control, and Joao Palhinha eventually smashed in.
City failed to recover, slipping to defeat in their first home game of the campaign.
“City were well beaten today,” former Premier League striker Chris Sutton said on BBC Radio 5 Live. “I’ve got to say I’m not sure about the goalkeeper situation.
“Is James Trafford really top drawer? If it’s a choice between Trafford and Ederson, I’m going with Ederson.
“It was poor for the goal, a weak pass into Dias, not even passing on to the right side, and that absolutely killed them with Spurs going in 2-0 at half-time.”
JAKARTA/MANILA: Asian activists are preparing to set sail with the Global Sumud Flotilla, an international fleet from 44 countries aiming to reach Gaza by sea to break Israel’s blockade of food and medical aid.
They have banded together under the Sumud Nusantara initiative, a coalition of activists from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Maldives, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan, to join the global flotilla movement that will begin launching convoys from Aug. 31.
Sumud Nusantara is part of the GSF, a coordinated, nonviolent fleet comprising mostly small vessels carrying humanitarian aid, which will first leave Spanish ports for the Gaza strip, followed by more convoys from Tunisia and other countries in early September.
The international coalition is set to become the largest coordinated civilian maritime mission ever undertaken to Gaza.
“This movement comes at a very crucial time, as we know how things are in Gaza with the lack of food entering the strip that they are not only suffering from the impacts of war but also from starvation,” Indonesian journalist Nurhadis told Arab News ahead of his trip.
“Israel is using starvation as a weapon to wipe out Palestinians in Gaza. This is why we continue to state that what Israel is doing is genocide.”
Since October 2023, Israel has killed more than 62,000 Palestinians and injured over 157,000 more. As Tel Aviv continued to systematically obstruct food and aid from entering the enclave, a UN-backed global hunger monitor — the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification — declared famine in Gaza on Friday, estimating that more than 514,000 people are suffering from it.
Nurhadis is part of a group of activists from across Indonesia joining the GSF, which aims to “break Israel’s illegal blockade and draw attention to international complicity in the face of the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.”
“We continue to try through this Global Sumud Flotilla action, hoping that the entire world, whether it’s governments or the people and other members of society, will pressure Israel to open its blockade in Palestine,” he said.
“This is just beyond the threshold of humanity. Israel is not treating Palestinians in Gaza as human beings and the world must not keep silent. This is what we are trying to highlight with this global convoy.”
The GSF is a people-powered movement that aims to help end the genocide in Gaza, said Rifa Berliana Arifin, Indonesia country director for the Sumud Nusantara initiative and executive committee member of Jakarta-based Aqsa Working Group.
“Indonesia is participating because this is a huge movement. A movement that aspires to resolve and end the blockade through non-traditional means. We’ve seen how ineffective diplomatic, political approaches have been, because the genocide in Gaza has yet to end. This people-power movement is aimed at putting an end to that,” Arifin told Arab News.
“This is a non-violent mission … Even though they are headed to Gaza, they are boarding boats that have no weapons … They are simply bringing themselves … for the world to see.”
As the Sumud Nusantara initiative is led by Malaysia, activists are gathering this weekend in Kuala Lumpur, where a ceremonial send-off for the regional convoy is scheduled to take place on Sunday, led by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
One of them is Philippine activist Drieza Lininding, leader of civil society group Moro Consensus Group, who is hoping that the Global Sumud Flotilla will inspire others in the Catholic-majority nation to show their support for Palestine.
“We are appealing to all our Filipino brothers and sisters, Muslims or Christians, to support the Palestinian cause because this issue is not only about religion, but also about humanity. Gaza has now become the moral compass of the world,” he told Arab News.
“Everybody is seeing the genocide and the starvation happening in Gaza, and you don’t need to be a Muslim to side with the Palestinians. It is very clear: if you want to be on the right side of history, support all programs and activities to free Palestine … It is very important that as Filipinos we show our solidarity.”
The iPad Air hasn’t been a particularly interesting product for a number of years. Apple redesigned it in 2020 with the fourth generation model, and since then – it’s just been spec bumps and small feature upgrades. However, I think the next refresh could be a great opportunity to introduce a large feature upgrade: Face ID.
Face ID has remained iPad Pro exclusive
Despite the fact that Face ID is now an 8 year old technology, you can still only get it on the iPad Pro. This is in stark contrast to the iPhone lineup, where non-Pro models have had Face ID since 2018, and now even the cheapest iPhone 16e includes Face ID.
Recently, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple would be debuting a new iPad Air model next spring – alongside a new budget iPad, iPhone 17e, and new Studio Display model. While not confirmed, the next iPad Air will likely equip the M4 chip.
As mentioned earlier, iPad Air has been a boring product for years. It’s been purely chip upgrades, small upgrades like the Center Stage camera, and an introduction of a new 13-inch model. That could change, though – with Face ID.
M4 model should introduce Face ID
Apple has clearly been dragging their feet on introducing Face ID to more iPad models. Why?
Well, I think the biggest reason was that before the OLED redesign last year – the iPad Air and iPad Pro were incredibly similar. There was only a $200 price premium between the two models, and for the most part, you were paying the premium for a 120Hz display, Face ID, and faster silicon. If you removed Face ID from the equation, there’d be much less of a reason to pay the iPad Pro premium.
Now, with the iPad Pro – theres a $400 premium over the iPad Air, for a much thinner design (ironically), an incredible OLED display, access to a more premium Magic Keyboard, the option for a nano-texture display, as well as Face ID and 120Hz.
With all of those features on the table, I don’t think Face ID is adding much weight to the list of reasons why someone would buy an iPad Pro. Now, you buy the iPad Pro for the display, the thinner design, and more premium iPad experience.
Wrap up
All in all, I think now would be a perfect time to introduce Face ID on the iPad Air. It’d give more reason for someone to purchase a $599 iPad Air over the $349 base model iPad, and it’d add some juice to the iPad Air line – a device that’s largely been unchanged since 2020. It probably wouldn’t take away from iPad Pro sales in a way that it previously might’ve.
Would you upgrade your iPad Air if it gained Face ID? Let us know in the comments.
My favorite Apple accessory recommendations:
Follow Michael: X/Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Mimicking the way experienced human observers track growth over time, 3D-NOD integrates novel labeling, registration, and data augmentation strategies to boost sensitivity and accuracy. Tested across multiple crop species, the system achieved an impressive mean F1-score of 88.13% and IoU of 80.68%, offering a powerful tool for real-time, organ-level plant phenotyping.
Accurate plant growth monitoring underpins modern agriculture, enabling yield prediction, stress detection, and precise phenotyping. Traditional methods—measuring plant height, canopy volume, or detecting diseases—often rely on 2D images, which cannot fully capture depth or resolve self-occluded structures. Spatiotemporal phenotyping, which tracks individual organs over time, offers richer insights but faces challenges in detecting small, newly emerged organs and handling complex plant architectures. 3D sensing technology addresses these limitations by capturing depth information, but current 3D approaches are either computationally heavy or require organs to be large enough for tracking. Based on these challenges, the researchers developed a method to improve early-stage detection of plant growth events from time-series 3D data.
A study (DOI: 10.1016/j.plaphe.2025.100002) published in Plant Phenomicson 22 February 2025 by Dawei Li’s team, Donghua University, presents a highly sensitive 3D deep learning framework for detecting new plant organs, enabling more accurate and real-time growth monitoring to advance precision agriculture and phenotyping.
The researchers evaluated the 3D-NOD framework using a high-precision 3D plant dataset containing tobacco, tomato, and sorghum. They constructed a spatiotemporal dataset of 37 growth sequences, comprising 468 point clouds, each with over ten growth stages. Since most sequences captured seedlings, the primary growth events were budding. Using the Semantic Segmentation Editor under Ubuntu, they annotated all points under the Backward & Forward Labeling (BFL) strategy into two semantic classes—“old organ” and “new organ.” The training set included 25 sequences and the test set 12 sequences. To enhance learning, each mixed point cloud underwent Humanoid Data Augmentation (HDA) to generate ten variants for training the DGCNN backbone. Performance was assessed with Precision, Recall, F1-score, and Intersection over Union (IoU). Compared to PointNet, PointNet++, DGCNN, and PAConv, 3D-NOD achieved superior sensitivity in new organ detection, with F1 and IoU for new organs reaching 76.65% and 62.14%, respectively, despite many buds being too small for human identification. Qualitative results confirmed accurate detection of tiny buds across all three species with low false alarms. Ablation studies demonstrated that removing any key component—BFL, Registration & Mix-up (RMU), or parts of HDA—caused noticeable performance declines, underscoring their combined importance. Interestingly, detection was best in sorghum, likely due to its faster bud growth. To meet real-time phenotyping needs, the team adapted the pipeline for single point cloud testing by creating pseudo-temporal inputs, enabling inference without multiple growth stages. Comparative analyses on tomato, tobacco, and sorghum sequences showed only minor accuracy reductions compared to standard spatiotemporal testing, highlighting the framework’s versatility for both multi-stage and single-stage growth monitoring scenarios.
3D-NOD offers a robust, scalable solution for precision agriculture and breeding programs. By accurately detecting organ-level growth events early, it enables researchers and growers to monitor crop development more closely, improve trait measurements, and optimize resource use. This capability is vital for high-throughput phenotyping, where rapid and non-invasive measurement of plant traits drives selection efficiency. The framework’s adaptability to different species suggests broad potential in monitoring diverse crops under field or greenhouse conditions. Beyond agriculture, the method could inform botanical research, forestry, and ecological studies where fine-scale structural changes in plants are critical indicators of health and development.
###
References
DOI
10.1016/j.plaphe.2025.100002
Original Source URL
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plaphe.2025.100002
Funding information
This work was supported by the self-collected funds from Dawei Li.
About Plant Phenomics
Science Partner Journal Plant Phenomics is an online-only Open Access journal published in affiliation with the State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics & Germplasm Enhancement, Nanjing Agricultural University (NAU) and distributed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Like all partners participating in the Science Partner Journal program, Plant Phenomics is editorially independent from the Science family of journals. Editorial decisions and scientific activities pursued by the journal’s Editorial Board are made independently, based on scientific merit and adhering to the highest standards for accurate and ethical promotion of science. These decisions and activities are in no way influenced by the financial support of NAU, NAU administration, or any other institutions and sponsors. The Editorial Board is solely responsible for all content published in the journal. To learn more about the Science Partner Journal program, visit the SPJ program homepage.
Matt Rife defends Sydney Sweeney amid backlash over jeans ad campaign
Sydney Sweeney has found an unlikely ally in comedian Matt Rife as backlash continues over her recent American Eagle jeans ad.
The Euphoria star sparked controversy last month after fronting a denim campaign with the tagline “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans.”
Critics accused the ads, which played on the word “genes”, of echoing eugenics messaging, with some even labeling the campaign “Nazi propaganda.”
Others dismissed the outrage as overblown, calling the backlash “unhinged.”
According to Daily Mail, Rife, who has faced his own controversies in recent months, came to Sweeney’s defense on X, writing, “I keep seeing people mad at Sydney Sweeney for noooothing. She’s learning that the internet is full of absolute garbage losers who will twist anything you say into a c**y misinterpretation. People are awful.”*
Meanwhile, American Eagle later issued a statement standing by the actress, insisting the campaign was intended to spotlight its denim line.
The brand said, “‘Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans’ is and always was about the jeans,” adding that 70 percent of responses to the ads have been positive.
Moreover, the backlash came at a rocky time for Sweeney, whose new film Americana recently underperformed at the box office.
Additionally, Rife, who previously courted criticism for a domestic violence joke in his Netflix special, also stirred debate after starring in a recent E.l.f. Cosmetics ad, which prompted the company to issue a public apology.
Despite the noise, Sweeney has remained focused on her growing career and defended her decision to embrace provocative campaigns, telling The Wall Street Journal this week, “Everything is a conversation with the audience. And yes, I’m very strategic.”
For centuries, humanity relied on coastal landmarks and tide gauges to understand sea levels. But satellites changed everything. Since the early 1990s, orbiting instruments have provided precise, global records of ocean surface height.
These data revealed not only how seas are rising but also how predictions from decades ago were impressively accurate.
Satellites changed sea-level tracking
Study lead author Torbjörn Törnqvist is a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Tulane University.
“The ultimate test of climate projections is to compare them with what has played out since they were made, but this requires patience – it takes decades of observations,” said Törnqvist.
He noted that the team was quite amazed at how good those early projections were, especially considering how crude the models were back then, compared to what is available now.
“For anyone who questions the role of humans in changing our climate, here is some of the best proof that we have understood for decades what is really happening, and that we can make credible projections.”
Sea-level rise differs across regions
Professor Sönke Dangendorf emphasized the importance of translating global patterns into regional forecasts.
“Sea level doesn’t rise uniformly – it varies widely. Our recent study of this regional variability and the processes behind it relies heavily on data from NASA’s satellite missions and NOAA’s ocean monitoring programs,” he said.
“Continuing these efforts is more important than ever, and essential for informed decision-making to benefit the people living along the coast.”
Satellites confirm acceleration
When satellites first began tracking sea levels in the early 1990s, they showed an average increase of about one eighth of an inch per year. It was only later that scientists confirmed this pace was speeding up.
By October 2024, NASA researchers announced that the rate of rise had doubled over three decades. That moment offered the perfect opportunity to compare real-world changes against projections made nearly thirty years earlier.
Close call with predictions
In 1996, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its assessment report, just as satellite monitoring began.
The report projected about 8 centimeters of sea-level rise over 30 years. The actual outcome was 9 centimeters, nearly identical.
However, the models underestimated melting ice sheets by over 2 centimeters. Back then, the destabilizing effects of warming ocean waters on Antarctic ice were poorly understood. Greenland’s ice was also flowing into the ocean faster than anticipated.
Components of sea-level rise
The study shows that thermal expansion of seawater and melting of smaller glaciers were predicted fairly well. But contributions from Greenland and Antarctica were treated as negligible.
In reality, these ice sheets accounted for nearly a quarter of observed sea-level rise. Another overlooked factor was groundwater depletion, which transferred more water to oceans than expected.
Ignoring ice-sheets caused errors
Early IPCC reports assumed that the dynamic behavior of ice sheets could be ignored for decades. This assumption proved incorrect. Later assessments that excluded dynamic ice flow produced unrealistically low projections.
Once dynamic ice loss was included, estimates increased significantly. Modern assessments now highlight the “deep uncertainty” surrounding possible ice-sheet disintegration, which could drive sea levels far higher than expected.
Past models were surprisingly accurate
Thermal expansion was slightly overestimated, which balanced out the underestimated role of ice sheets.
This created projections that, by chance, matched reality more closely than their flawed assumptions should have allowed.
Still, the overall accuracy offers confidence in today’s more advanced models, especially since early reports successfully predicted atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
Future climate projections
Predictions made in the 1990s have proven largely accurate, but the greatest challenges still lie ahead.
Ongoing uncertainty about ice sheets and human emissions makes continuous monitoring vital for helping coastal societies prepare for what lies ahead.
“Given the advances in both resolution and process understanding since the 1990s, the early success of the IPCC-SAR projection gives considerable confidence to climate projections for the future,” wrote the researchers.
“Meanwhile, the importance of continued monitoring of all relevant components of the climate system by key agencies cannot be understated.”
The study is published in the journal Earth’s Future.
—–
Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.
Check us out on EarthSnap, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.
Perfect debut at the Sachsenring for Schumacher CLRT: In its first season in the Porsche Sixt Carrera Cup Deutschland, the French team celebrated a one-two victory in the one-make cup with the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.
Dutchman Flynt Schuring took the chequered flag after 23 laps ahead of teammate Alessandro Ghiretti. Going into Sunday’s race, the Porsche Junior from France now tops the overall standings with a nine-point lead over Robert de Haan. The Dutchman finished fifth on the storied circuit in Saxony.
Schuring started from pole position, with Ghiretti alongside him. ‟My start wasn’t ideal, I had to squeeze Alessandro a little bit,” said Schuring, recalling the only critical moment on his way to his third win of the season. The Frenchman had attempted to overtake his young teammate in the sprint to the first corner. ‟I was already alongside Flynt, with my right tyres on the grass – luckily, he left me enough space to get back on track. The most important thing for the team is that both cars reached the finish,” said Ghiretti, summarising those decisive seconds.
Just one corner later, the Porsche Junior even had to briefly concede second place to Ariel Levi. However, the Israeli driver representing Team GP Elite spun and triggered a short safety car phase. At the restart, Schuring kept his teammate at bay and went on to claim a comfortable victory. The Dutchman, who had just turned 19, was presented with the trophy by his older brother. Morris Schuring, who finished fifth overall in the Carrera Cup Deutschland two years ago, now contests the DTM with the Manthey Junior Team in a Porsche.
Behind the Schumacher CLRT duo, two Dutch drivers from Team GP Elite crossed the line. ‟My front tyres deteriorated significantly towards the end, so for me it was just a matter of surviving,” said Huub van Eijndhoven after securing third place. Teammate Kas Haverkort gained two positions during the race. The best-placed member of the Porsche Sixt Carrera Cup Deutschland Talent Pool also passed compatriot Robert de Haan, who lies second overall. The Dutchman from Team Proton Huber Competition experienced a loss of power but managed to cling on to fifth place at the finish. Janne Stiak was the best-placed German, finishing sixth. The young German competes in a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup for Target Competition.
Following a run of bad luck earlier in the season, reigning ProAm champion Sören Spreng finally celebrated a class victory. ‟At last, a perfect race for me again,” said the German, who races for GP Elite. Michael Schrey continues to lead the ProAm standings. Driving for Team Bonk Motorsport, the German finished second ahead of Australian Samer Shahin in another GP Elite Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.
For Rookie winner Joseph Warhurst, also a member of the Talent Pool, the race looked to be over after the first corner. ‟In the scramble at the start, a somebody pushed me into the gravel,” said the 20-year-old Englishman, who was nevertheless able to continue the race. ‟At that point, I had already settled for third place,” he admitted. But when two Rookies ahead of him later dropped back after mistakes, he secured an unexpected victory. With his third win of the season, Warhurst closed the gap to Rookie championship leader Sacha Norden, who finished third. Splitting the two Proton Huber Competition teammates, Brazilian Matheus Ferreira from Target Competition claimed second place.
Both title contenders will start from the front row on Sunday
The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars will return to action at the Sachsenring tomorrow, Sunday. Robert de Haan, currently second in the overall standings, has secured pole position for the twelfth race of the season. Alongside him, championship leader Alessandro Ghiretti will line up on the grid for the 30-minute sprint, beginning at 11:20 hours CEST.
Fans can also follow the weekend’s second race live with English commentary on the internet, including on the Porsche Motorsport Hub and the Porsche Sixt Carrera Cup Deutschland channels on YouTube and Facebook Facebook.
Results race 11, Porsche Sixt Carrera Cup Deutschland, Sachsenring (DEU)
1. Flynt Schuring (NLD/Schumacher CLRT), 23 laps 2. Porsche Junior Alessandro Ghiretti (FRA/Schumacher CLRT), +0.670 seconds 3. Huub van Eijndhoven (NLD/Team GP Elite), +3.462 seconds 4. Kas Haverkort (NLD/Team GP Elite), +6.859 seconds 5. Robert de Haan (NLD/Proton Huber Competition), +13.202 seconds 6. Janne Stiak (DEU/Target), +13.857 seconds
Standings Porsche Sixt Carrera Cup Deutschland (after 11 of 16 races)
1. Porsche Junior Alessandro Ghiretti (FRA/Schumacher CLRT), 183 points 2. Robert de Haan (NLD/Proton Huber Competition), 174 points 3. Porsche Junior Theo Oeverhaus (DEU/Bonk Motorsport), 127 points
Full results and championship standings on the Porsche Motorsport Hub.
Researchers confirmed active flat bands in a kagome superconductor, opening new possibilities for designing quantum materials and future electronic technologies. (Artist’s concept). Credit: SciTechDaily.com
A research team has provided the first experimental proof that flat electronic bands in a kagome superconductor are active and directly shape electronic and magnetic behaviors.
Researchers from Rice University, working with international partners, have found the first clear evidence of active flat electronic bands within a kagome superconductor. The discovery marks an important step toward creating new strategies for designing quantum materials, including superconductors, topological insulators, and spin-based electronics, which could play a central role in advancing future electronics and computing.
The findings, published on August 14 in Nature Communications, focus on the chromium-based kagome metal CsCr₃Sb₅, a material that becomes superconducting when placed under pressure.
Kagome metals are defined by their unique two-dimensional lattice of corner-sharing triangles. Recent theories have suggested that these structures can host compact molecular orbitals, or standing-wave patterns of electrons, which may enable unconventional superconductivity and unusual magnetic states driven by electron correlation effects.
In most known materials, such flat bands are positioned too far from the relevant energy levels to influence behavior. In CsCr₃Sb₅, however, they play an active role and directly shape the properties of the material.
Pengcheng Dai, Ming Yi, and Qimiao Si of Rice’s Department of Physics and Astronomy and Smalley-Curl Institute, along with Di-Jing Huang of Taiwan’s National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, led the study.
Ming Yi. Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University
“Our results confirm a surprising theoretical prediction and establish a pathway for engineering exotic superconductivity through chemical and structural control,” said Dai, the Sam and Helen Worden Professor of Physics and Astronomy.
The finding provides experimental proof for ideas that had only existed in theoretical models. It also shows how the intricate geometry of kagome lattices can be used as a design tool for controlling the behavior of electrons in solids.
“By identifying active flat bands, we’ve demonstrated a direct connection between lattice geometry and emergent quantum states,” said Yi, an associate professor of physics and astronomy.
Experimental Techniques and Findings
The research team employed two advanced synchrotron techniques alongside theoretical modeling to investigate the presence of active standing-wave electron modes. They used angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) to map electrons emitted under synchrotron light, revealing distinct signatures associated with compact molecular orbitals. Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) measured magnetic excitations linked to these electronic modes.
“The ARPES and RIXS results of our collaborative team give a consistent picture that flat bands here are not passive spectators but active participants in shaping the magnetic and electronic landscape,” said Si, the Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor of Physics and Astronomy, “This is amazing to see given that, until now, we were only able to see such features in abstract theoretical models.”
Theoretical support was provided by analyzing the effect of strong correlations starting from a custom-built electronic lattice model, which replicated the observed features and guided the interpretation of results. Fang Xie, a Rice Academy Junior Fellow and co-first author, led that portion of the study.
Obtaining such precise data required unusually large and pure crystals of CsCr₃Sb₅, synthesized using a refined method that produced samples 100 times larger than previous efforts, said Zehao Wang, a Rice graduate student and co-first author.
The work underscores the potential of interdisciplinary research across fields of study, said Yucheng Guo, a Rice graduate student and co-first author who led the ARPES work.
“This work was possible due to the collaboration that consisted of materials design, synthesis, electron and magnetic spectroscopy characterization, and theory,” Guo said.
Reference: “Spin excitations and flat electronic bands in a Cr-based kagome superconductor” by Zehao Wang, Yucheng Guo, Hsiao-Yu Huang, Fang Xie, Yuefei Huang, Bin Gao, Ji Seop Oh, Han Wu, Jun Okamoto, Ganesha Channagowdra, Chien-Te Chen, Feng Ye, Xingye Lu, Zhaoyu Liu, Zheng Ren, Yuan Fang, Yiming Wang, Ananya Biswas, Yichen Zhang, Ziqin Yue, Cheng Hu, Chris Jozwiak, Aaron Bostwick, Eli Rotenberg, Makoto Hashimoto, Donghui Lu, Junichiro Kono, Jiun-Haw Chu, Boris I. Yakobson, Robert J. Birgeneau, Guang-Han Cao, Atsushi Fujimori, Di-Jing Huang, Qimiao Si, Ming Yi and Pengcheng Dai, 14 August 2025, Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62298-5
Funding: U.S. Department of Energy, Welch Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, U.S. National Science Foundation
Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.
Learner Tien, the tennis student schooling the masters of the sport
A second-generation immigrant of Vietnamese descent, education was naturally an important pillar in Tien’s upbringing, even if he gravitated more towards tennis rather than any school subject.
It explains his name, inspired by his mother’s job as a teacher and the value of learning, while his sister, Justice, takes her name from their father, a lawyer. “An attorney seeks justice. A teacher seeks a learner. They were virtuous names,” Tien’s dad, Khuong Dan Tien, told the Los Angeles Times in 2023.
On his academic background, Learner tells us, “I was a pretty good student – I was homeschooled for most of my life. My mom was an English and math teacher, so she was obviously pretty tough on me and always pushed me pretty hard in those subjects, but I never really had a love for anything in particular.
“It’s not like I loved school, or it was super enjoyable. If I didn’t end up playing professional tennis, there isn’t one subject that I would really want to pursue. I don’t think my grades were that bad, I think they were pretty good.”
Tien discovered his passion for tennis when he was five years old, and although he was pushed more in the academic realm than the sporting, it was on the court that the Californian flourished.
Indeed, it is remarkable that, at just 19 years of age, Tien is set for his fourth consecutive appearance at his home Slam. That does not come from coincidence.
In 2022, he lifted the USTA Boys 18s National Championship, a junior tournament for under-18-year-olds, which he won aged 16.
The national triumph earned the Irvine native a wildcard into that year’s US Open, where he was beaten in the first round.
