Latest Science News
Scientists Crack 20-Year Nuclear Mystery Behind Gold Creation
Researchers at the University of Tennessee discovered the first detailed measurements of neutron energies in beta-delayed two-neutron emission from indium-134, providing crucial insight into how stellar events create heavy elements like gold. The team also observed a long-predicted neutron state in tin-133 that has eluded scientists for two decades, revealing that current theoretical models are incomplete and require more sophisticated frameworks to explain nuclear decay patterns
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Rare Asteroid 2026 EG1 Makes Closest Approach to Earth
A bus-sized asteroid measuring between 32 and 72 feet wide passed within 197,466 miles of Earth on March 12, 2026, closer than the moon's distance and traveling at 21,513 miles per hour. The asteroid was detected just four days before its flyby, highlighting NASA's expanding near-Earth object tracking capabilities with over 41,000 NEOs currently monitored
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UW Astronomers Discover Evidence of Planetary Collision in Distant Solar System
University of Washington researchers captured rare evidence of a collision between two planets in a distant solar system, detected through observations of an oddly-behaving star. This discovery could advance understanding of planetary system dynamics and evolution in exoplanetary systems.
DopFone App Enables Fetal Heart Rate Tracking via Smartphone
University of Washington researchers created DopFone, a system that uses a smartphone's speaker and microphone to accurately estimate fetal heart rate by mimicking Doppler ultrasound technology. The machine learning model analyzes subtle variations in the phone's audio echo caused by fetal heartbeats, providing an accessible diagnostic tool
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Vera Rubin Observatory Issues First Real-Time Sky Change Alerts
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, with its ultrafast alerting system developed at the University of Washington, has issued its first real-time alerts detecting changes in the night sky. The system is expected to eventually detect up to seven million cosmic changes each night and notify scientists worldwide
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Ancient Barred Spiral Galaxy Discovery Pushes Back Timeline
Astronomers supported by University of Washington postdoctoral researcher Yingjie Cheng discovered a contender for one of the earliest observed spiral galaxies containing a stellar bar, a visual feature that plays an important role in galaxy evolution. This discovery challenges existing timelines for when such complex galactic structures formed.
UChicago Researchers Advance Quantum Computing with Spin-Qubit Development
University of Chicago Pritzler Molecular Engineering researchers developed electronic spin qubits based on fluorescent proteins expressed in living cells, attracting pharmaceutical and medical imaging communities for disease detection and targeted drug delivery applications. Their work on rare-earth doped oxides and solid-state spin-qubits advances fundamental building blocks for scalable quantum networks
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Hybrid Bilayer Crystals Show Room-Temperature Charge Control
UChicago researchers synthesized four-atom-thick hybrid bilayer crystals combining perylene molecular crystals with transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers, demonstrating room-temperature switchable charge localization. The ion-gate-controlled transistors achieved complete charge localization at densities up to 3 × 10^13 per square centimeter, introducing a new molecule-based 2D quantum materials platform
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AI Biosecurity Study Reveals Mixed Results in Protein Screening
Microsoft-led researchers demonstrated that AI can design dangerous protein sequences that evade biosecurity screening, but a follow-up study found that two of four major biosecurity screening tools robustly detected fragmented sequences as short as 50 nucleotides. The results suggest current screening defenses are partially effective, though advancing AI will require continuous defensive innovations
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Texas A&M Scientists Build Hardest AI Test Ever With Surprising Results
Researchers at Texas A&M University created a comprehensive AI testing framework involving experts from nearly every discipline including historians, physicists, linguists, and medical researchers. The massive international collaboration demonstrated that diverse human expertise is essential for exposing gaps in current AI systems that automated testing alone might miss
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Cambridge Scientists Develop Light-Based Drug Molecule Modification
University of Cambridge researchers discovered a new method to alter complex drug molecules using light rather than toxic chemicals, representing a significant advancement in pharmaceutical synthesis. This technique emerged from a failed experiment, demonstrating how unexpected results can lead to innovative scientific breakthroughs.
NASA's James Webb Telescope Observes Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS using its Near-Infrared Spectrograph instrument on February 18 and 26, 2026. The observations provide unprecedented data on this rare interstellar visitor passing through our solar system.