“Really bizarre” quantum discovery defies the rules of physics

An international team has found that quantum oscillations can arise from the bulk of an insulator, not just its surface. 

The discovery exposes a new frontier where materials can act like metals under extreme magnetic fields. 

Credit: AI/ScienceDaily.com

Researchers have discovered quantum oscillations inside an insulating material, overturning long-held assumptions. Their work at the National Magnetic Field Laboratory suggests that the effect originates in the material’s bulk rather than its surface. The finding points toward a “new duality” in materials science—where compounds may behave as both metals and insulators—offering a fascinating puzzle for future research.

Lu Li, a physicist who studies advanced materials, knows that people often want to hear how his research could lead to new technologies or practical breakthroughs. But sometimes, what he uncovers is so unusual that its value lies purely in revealing how strange the universe can be.

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Scientists discover the nutrient that supercharges cellular energy

Leucine, an essential amino acid found in foods like meat and legumes, has been discovered to directly enhance mitochondrial energy production by preventing the breakdown of key mitochondrial proteins. Credit: Shutterstock

Mitochondria are tiny structures inside cells that generate the energy required for the body to move, grow, and maintain health. Because energy needs change continuously, mitochondria must constantly fine-tune their activity to keep up. This adaptability depends in part on the nutrients available to the cell. Yet until recently, scientists did not fully understand how nutrients influence this process of energy adjustment.


A research group led by Professor Dr. Thorsten Hoppe at the University of Cologne's Institute for Genetics and the CECAD Cluster of Excellence on Aging Research has now identified a new biological pathway showing how the amino acid leucine strengthens mitochondrial performance.

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Einstein’s overlooked idea could explain how the Universe really began

A bold new study from researchers in Spain and Italy reimagines the universe’s earliest moments, proposing that gravitational waves—not inflation—sparked the cosmos into being. Using advanced computer simulations, the team connects general relativity with quantum mechanics in a simple, verifiable model based on De Sitter space. Credit: AI/ScienceDaily.com




Researchers have unveiled a new model for the universe’s birth that replaces cosmic inflation with gravitational waves as the driving force behind creation. Their simulations show that gravity and quantum mechanics may alone explain the structure of the cosmos. This elegant approach challenges traditional Big Bang interpretations and revives a century-old idea rooted in Einstein’s work.

How did the universe come into existence, and what early processes shaped everything that followed? A new study published in Physical Review Research takes aim at this fundamental question. Scientists from Spain and Italy have introduced a model that reimagines what happened moments after the universe was born. Their approach could upend long-standing ideas about the forces and events that governed the universe's earliest evolution.

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Tiny gold quantum needles with astonishing powers discovered

Structural evolution of gold nanoclusters: From anisotropic nucleation to growth into gold quantum needles. The structures were determined by X-ray crystallography. Organic residues of the surface ligands were omitted for clarity. Color code: Au (gold): yellow; S: red. Credit: Takano et al 2025

Researchers Shinjiro Takano, Yuya Hamasaki, and Tatsuya Tsukuda of the University of Tokyo have successfully visualized the geometric structure of growing gold nanoclusters in their earliest stages. During this process, they also successfully "grew" a novel structure of elongated nanoclusters, which they named "gold quantum needles." 

Thanks to their responsiveness to light in the near-infrared range, these "needles" could enable much higher-resolution biomedical imaging and more efficient light-energy conversion. The findings were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

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Scientists found a new way to turn sunlight into fuel

As with natural photosynthesis, the new molecule temporarily stores two positive and two negative charges. 

Credit: Deyanira Geisnæs Schaad

A research team from the University of Basel, Switzerland, has developed a new molecule modeled on plant photosynthesis: under the influence of light, it stores two positive and two negative charges at the same time. The aim is to convert sunlight into carbon-neutral fuels.


Plants use the energy of sunlight to convert CO2 into energy-rich sugar molecules. This process is called photosynthesis and is the foundation of virtually all life: animals and humans can "burn" the carbohydrates produced in this way again and use the energy stored within them. This once more produces carbon dioxide, closing the cycle.

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Scientists just proved a fundamental quantum rule for the first time

Physicists have confirmed that even a single photon obeys the angular momentum conservation law when split, 

marking a first in quantum experiments and paving the way for powerful new quantum technologies. 

Credit: AI/ScienceDaily.com

Researchers at Tampere University and their collaborators from Germany and India have experimentally confirmed that angular momentum is conserved when a single photon is converted into a pair - validating a key principle of physics at the quantum level for the first time. This breakthrough opens new possibilities for creating complex quantum states useful in computing, communication, and sensing.


Conservation laws are the heart of our natural scientific understanding as they govern which processes are allowed or forbidden. A simple example is that of colliding billiard balls, where the motion - and with it, their linear momentum - is transferred from one ball to another.A similar conservation rule also exists for rotating objects, which have angular momentum. Interestingly, light can also have an angular momentum, e.g., orbital angular momentum (OAM), which is connected to the light's spatial structure.

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Parkinson’s reversal? One drug brings dying brain cells back to life

A potent LRRK2 inhibitor rebuilt primary cilia, revived dopamine signaling, and doubled nerve-ending density 

in mice with Parkinson’s mutations, suggesting enzyme-blocking therapy could slow or reverse disease. 

Credit: Shutterstock

Putting the brakes on an enzyme might rescue neurons that are dying due to a type of Parkinson's disease that's caused by a single genetic mutation, according to a new Stanford Medicine-led study conducted in mice.


The genetic mutation causes an enzyme called leucine-rich repeat kinase 2, or LRRK2, to be overactive. Too much LRRK2 enzyme activity changes the structure of brain cells in a way that disrupts crucial communication between neurons that make the neurotransmitter dopamine and cells in the striatum, a region deep in the brain that is part of the dopamine system and is involved in movement, motivation and decision making.

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Jupiterian Lightening

Scientists have recorded lightning on Jupiter in radio observations. Recently, however, a historic event occurred when the Juno space probe took the first-ever photograph of a Jupiterian lightning bolt.

Here's What We Know

A NASA freelancer accidentally discovered the lightning photo in the raw data collected by the spacecraft. The image was taken on December 30, 2020, when the probe flew close to the gas giant's north pole for the 31st time.

The lucky recipient of the photo is Kevin M. Gill. In 2022, he completed processing the data from the JunoCam. It is known that the picture was taken from an altitude of about 32,000 km.

In the near future, scientists will be able to get more photos of Jupiterian thunderstorms. This is because the spacecraft will regularly fly over the night side of the planet for several months.

Source: ScienceDaily

Long Lasting Phone Batteries

Phone batteries tend to wear out after only a few years, but the problems don’t end there: the batteries contain heavy metals, which can be damaging to the environment if they are disposed of incorrectly. And yet, figuring out how to dispose of your old phone correctly can be a daunting task. Luckily, researchers in Australia may have just found a way around all of that.


The team of researchers from the RMIT School of Engineering used a nanomaterial called MXene to create a battery that could last up to nine years. ScienceDaily reports that this battery could become a viable alternative to the industry standard lithium-ion batteries, which wear out very quickly and are a challenge to recycle.

MXene has high electrical conductivity, similar to graphene, but with even more benefits because of how malleable it is, according to the researchers.


“Unlike graphene, MXenes are highly tailorable and open up a whole range of possible technological applications in the future,” Professor Leslie Yeo, the lead senior researcher on the project, told ScienceDaily.  READ MORE...

Culture 40,000 Years Old

The migration of homo sapiens from Africa to the rest of the globe is an enduring point of fascination for archaeologists, who have been piecing together human movements across history since the dawn of the discipline. A new study published in Nature last week has helped unlock another piece of the puzzle.

That study, conducted by a research team led by Fa-Gang Wang, is an examination of Xiamabei, a 40,000-year-old archaeological site in northern China. At this site, researchers discovered evidence of a culture that processed ochre, which is used to make pigments. The discovery may seem like a small one, but it led the researchers to rethink how modern humanity evolved.

Ochre is a pigment found in clay, and its presence at archaeological sites suggests the people who lived in Xiamabei had advanced cognitive skills, partly because its points to creativity. However, the pigment can also be used to more practical ends, such as tanning hides.

At Xiamabei, researchers discovered that the humans at the site brought different deposits of ochre there and processed it through pounding and abrasion. This resulted pigments of varying color and consistency. Evidence of the pounding was found on a limestone slab where this processing took place. These humans produced such large quantities of ochre that the slab was stained with pigment.

The unique nature of the tools and processing method found at Xiamabei suggest that instead of one continuous wave of migration across Asia, colonization of this territory happened in distinct phases, the researchers said. “Our findings show that current evolutionary scenarios are too simple,” Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute said in an interview with Science Daily. “Modern humans, and our culture, emerged through repeated but differing episodes of genetic and social exchanges over large geographic areas, rather than as a single, rapid dispersal wave across Asia.”

Another clue as to this disjointedness is what the researchers didn’t find: formal bone tools and ornaments, which were available at the time, but which evidently were not used by some of Xiamabei’s oldest inhabitants.