Tag: science

MIT’s Chilling Experiment That Could Prove Gravity Is Quantum

MIT researchers have found a bold new way to approach one of science’s biggest mysteries: is gravity truly a quantum force?

By chilling a tiny mirror to near absolute zero using lasers — a method traditionally used in atomic physics — they’ve opened a new experimental window into the intersection of quantum mechanics and gravity. This fusion of cutting-edge cooling and classical tools might finally let scientists observe whether gravity behaves like other quantum forces, a question that has puzzled physicists for decades.

The Gravity Puzzle: Is It Quantum?

One of the most profound open questions in modern physics is: “Is gravity quantum?”

While the other fundamental forces—electromagnetic, weak nuclear, and strong nuclear—have been successfully described by quantum theory, gravity still stands apart. So far, scientists haven’t been able to create a consistent quantum theory of gravity, leaving a major gap in our understanding of the universe.

“Theoretical physicists have proposed many possible scenarios, from gravity being inherently classical to fully quantum, but the debate remains unresolved because we’ve never had a clear way to test gravity’s quantum nature in the lab,” says Dongchel Shin, a PhD candidate in the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE). “The key to answering this lies in preparing mechanical systems that are massive enough to feel gravity, yet quiet enough — quantum enough — to reveal how gravity interacts with them.”

Keep reading

Japanese Scientists Develop Artificial Blood Compatible With All Blood Types

A critical component of healthcare, blood transfusions play a vital role in saving lives around the globe every day. Maintaining an adequate blood supply, though, is no easy task, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). The demand for O–negative blood — the universal donor type — often exceeds supply and donations have a limited shelf life. Looking to address the issue are a group of Japanese scientists led by Hiromi Sakai at Nara Medical University. They’ve developed a new type of artificial blood that can be used in patients of any blood type.  

The artificial blood is created by extracting hemoglobin — a protein containing iron that facilitates the transportation of oxygen in red blood cells — from expired donor blood. It is then encased in a protective shell to create stable, virus-free artificial red blood cells. As these artificial cells have no blood type, there is no need for compatibility testing. The synthetic blood can reportedly be stored for up to two years at room temperature and five years under refrigeration. That is a significant improvement over donated red blood cells, which can only be stored under refrigeration for a maximum of 42 days.  

Keep reading

PETA thanks Trump for ending Navy experiments on cats and dogs, calls for broader ban

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has thanked the Trump administration for banning Navy-funded experiments on dogs and cats.

On Thursday, PETA wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Navy Secretary John Phelan, thanking the administration for the new ban and requesting a broader ban on all animal testing in all military branches.

Phelan announced on Tuesday that all Department of the Navy testing on cats and dogs would be banned.

Keep reading

An Attempt To Reset Science

An executive order on science slipped through last week with almost no comment from the media. Its central concern is to set science on a better path after so many years of egregious abuses in which the core principles of science have been set aside in favor of political messaging.

The title is “Restoring Gold Standard Science.” It is an ambitious attempt to reframe what science is and does, not to politicize it but exactly the opposite. Only better science with the highest standards, the order says, is capable of restoring trust.

You have surely heard that the Trump administration is waging war on science. Read this order: the opposite is true.

“Over the last 5 years, confidence that scientists act in the best interests of the public has fallen significantly. A majority of researchers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics believe science is facing a reproducibility crisis. The falsification of data by leading researchers has led to high-profile retractions of federally funded research.”

To solve the problem, the order seeks to “restore the American people’s faith in the scientific enterprise and institutions that create and apply scientific knowledge in service of the public good. Reproducibility, rigor, and unbiased peer review must be maintained. This order restores the scientific integrity policies of my first Administration and ensures that agencies practice data transparency, acknowledge relevant scientific uncertainties, are transparent about the assumptions and likelihood of scenarios used, approach scientific findings objectively, and communicate scientific data accurately.”

Keep reading

Physicists confirm the incredible existence of “time mirrors”

For decades, theoretical physicists tossed around the idea that time reflection, also known as “time mirrors,” might one day be demonstrated in a real-world experiment.

This idea seemed too big and wild, yet it kept popping up in serious discussions of quantum mechanics where equations hinted at surprising behavior.

A team led by Hady Moussa from the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) in New York City has now confirmed that these mysterious events actually exist.

They pulled off a successful test by changing the properties of a device in a quick, uniform way so that signals reversed direction in time.

Understanding time mirrors

This sort of time flip has been described as looking into a mirror and spotting your back instead of your face. It sounds like science fiction, but it has a basis in real physics.

Researchers had predicted for more than 50 years that sudden shifts in a wave’s environment could trigger such reversals.

Time reflections differ from everyday mirror views in one crucial way. Instead of light or sound bouncing back in space, the wave is forced to reverse its flow in time.

That shift causes the frequency of the wave to change, sparking a chain reaction of interesting phenomena in the system.

In normal reflections, you see an immediate image or hear an echo. A time reflection, on the other hand, makes part of the signal run backward.

There is no need for any speculation about time travel, though, since these effects involve a swift flip in the medium’s physical traits.

Time mirrors and metamaterials

To achieve this, the group used an engineered metamaterial designed to control electromagnetic wave behavior in unusual ways. Metamaterials allow scientists to manipulate waves far beyond ordinary mirrors or lenses.

By carefully adjusting electronic components on a strip of metal, they introduced a sudden jump that reversed the direction of incoming signals. They filled the strip with electronic switches hooked to capacitor banks.

That arrangement supplied the necessary burst of energy to force the wave to flip direction in time, an effect that used to be considered nearly impossible with accessible power.

The outcome was a time-reversed copy of the original wave, appearing just as predicted but never before seen with clarity.

Adjusting the system’s impedance at the right instant was key. Impedance is a measure of how much a structure resists electric current, and doubling it turned out to be the trick for flipping the wave in time.

By pulling this off in a lab setting, they proved that the energy hurdle can be overcome when conditions are precisely controlled.

Past attempts had failed because uniform shifts across the entire device were tough to generate, but the new approach surmounted that barrier.

Keep reading

China’s Groundbreaking Diabetes Breakthrough—And the Global Backlash

In a revelation that could transform global healthcare, Chinese scientists have reportedly developed a stem cell therapy that reverses both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. While this scientific leap offers new hope for over 500 million people worldwide living with the chronic disease, it also threatens to shake up the multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical industry that thrives on treating—not curing—diabetes.

At the core of this innovation is a technique that uses a patient’s own fat cells to generate insulin-producing islet cells. These engineered cells are then transplanted into the body, where they naturally regulate blood sugar levels. Since the cells are autologous (derived from the same person), there’s no risk of immune rejection, and patients don’t require immunosuppressants.

Initial trials have produced jaw-dropping results:

  • A 25-year-old woman with Type 1 diabetes went off insulin completely within 75 days.
  • A 59-year-old man with Type 2 diabetes was insulin-free in just 11 weeks. One year later, he remains off all medication.

This therapy takes advantage of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology, a method of reprogramming adult cells to behave like embryonic stem cells. Scientists then coax these cells into becoming islet cells, which the pancreas uses to produce insulin.

The process essentially rebuilds a diabetic pancreas from the inside out—without the need for donor organs, immune-suppressing drugs, or lifelong insulin therapy.

Keep reading

MIT is transforming plants into bright, eco-friendly city lights

Turning ordinary houseplants into sustainable, glowing lamps may soon become a reality, thanks to groundbreaking research by scientists at MIT. By embedding specialized nanoparticles into plant leaves, researchers have successfully transformed common plants into rechargeable, plant-based lights, significantly advancing the field of sustainable lighting technology.

A Bright Idea: Plants as Sustainable Lights

Every day, millions of electronic devices, built from plastic and circuit boards, become waste. Scientists have searched for innovative ways to create sustainable alternatives. Recently, researchers have turned to living plants for solutions. Unlike traditional plastic-based devices, plants naturally break down, avoiding long-term environmental harm.

Michael Strano, a chemical engineering professor at MIT, leads a team aiming to make plants function as light-emitting devices. “We wanted to create a light-emitting plant with particles that will absorb light, store some of it, and emit it gradually,” says Strano. This innovative concept could revolutionize how spaces are illuminated, moving away from traditional electrical systems.

How It Works: The Science of Plant Glow

The secret lies within a plant’s leaf structure. Leaves have specialized layers filled with tiny pores called stomata, which control the flow of air and water. Just beneath the leaf surface is a spongy mesophyll layer, rich with space to store nanoparticles.

MIT scientists infused leaves with microscopic particles of strontium aluminate, a phosphorescent compound often used in glow-in-the-dark paints. These nanoparticles, only about 650 nanometers wide, were coated in silica to protect the plants from damage. Infused through stomata pores, these particles settle evenly across the mesophyll layer, forming a thin film.

When illuminated briefly—just ten seconds—with blue LED lights, these nanoparticles absorb and store energy. Once charged, the plants emit a soft, visible glow lasting for nearly an hour. After the first few vibrant minutes, the glow gently fades but can be quickly recharged repeatedly over weeks, offering a sustainable lighting alternative.

Keep reading

Medieval alchemy dream comes true: How physicists made gold from lead

In a breakthrough that would make medieval alchemists envious, scientists at Europe’s Large Hadron Collider have successfully transformed lead into gold, producing 89,000 atoms per second.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a giant particle accelerator that smashes atoms together at super-high speeds. Scientists there have found a way to knock three tiny particles called protons out of lead atoms, turning them into gold atoms.

The team behind this discovery, called the ALICE collaboration, used a unique way to create gold. Instead of crashing lead atoms head-on, they looked at what happens when the atoms just barely miss each other. Researchers explained that when this happens, powerful electromagnetic fields around the atoms can cause them to change into different elements.

“It’s impressive that our detectors can handle both major collisions that create thousands of particles and these smaller events that make just a few particles at a time,” Marco Van Leeuwen, who leads the ALICE project, said in a press release.

During one period of experiments from 2015 to 2018, the scientists created about 86 billion gold atoms. That sounds like a lot, but when you add up all that gold, scientists said it only weighs about 29 picograms, which is less than a trillionth of a gram. You’d need trillions of times more to make even a tiny piece of jewelry.

The machine can create about 89,000 gold atoms every second, but each atom only exists for a tiny fraction of a second before breaking apart. Recent upgrades to the machine have almost doubled the amount of gold it can make, but it’s still far from practical use.

According to Uliana Dmitrieva, a scientist for the ALICE collaboration, this is the first time scientists have been able to detect and study gold production at the LHC in this way.

“Thanks to the unique capabilities of the ALICE ZDCs, the present analysis is the first to systematically detect and analyse the signature of gold production at the LHC experimentally,” Dmitrieva said in the release.

Keep reading

‘Dark photon’ theory of light aims to take down the famous double-slit experiment, upending quantum physics

For centuries, most scientists have shared the belief that light behaves as both a wave and a particle. This idea, then, became the central component to quantum theory, sprouting the field of science known as quantum mechanics.

The double-slit experiment supported the idea, showing bright and dark bands that indicated wave-like interference. But now, a new study suggests that this experiment might not lock us into seeing light as a wave.

According to the experts, we can interpret those interference bands using quantum particles alone.

The research was led by Gerhard Rempe, the director of the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics. He teamed up with collaborators at Federal University of São Carlos and ETH Zurich for the study.

Modern physics and our view of light

In 1801, Thomas Young introduced an experiment by shining light through two narrow openings to produce intersecting fringes on a screen. His findings led many to conclude that light must be a wave.

A century later, quantum mechanics began to take shape, revealing that quantum particles like electrons could mimic wave-like light interference too.

Albert Einstein’s work on the photoelectric effect showed that light travels in discrete packets called photons. Niels Bohr then elaborated on wave-particle duality, ushering in one of the cornerstones of modern physics.

Dark and visible photons

The new approach from the research team explores the concept of bright and dark modes.

In their view, interference patterns can emerge from combining “detectable” and “undetectable” photon states. These bright states interact with an observer, while dark states remain hidden.

Such hidden photons might linger at places where we would normally think the light cancels out. Observers who try to track the path of these photons alter the state, flipping what was dark into bright or vice versa.

From this perspective, the light pathways can be viewed as quantum superpositions, rather than purely classical wave interference.

Keep reading

Human ‘bodyoids’: We will soon be able to manufacture brain-less human bodies to generate replacement organs

Why do we hear about medical breakthroughs in mice, but rarely see them translate into cures for human disease? … [In] large part from a common root cause: a severe shortage of ethically sourced human bodies.

[We are forced] to rely heavily on animals in medical research, a practice that can’t replicate major aspects of human physiology and makes it necessary to inflict harm on sentient creatures. In addition, the safety and efficacy of any experimental drug must still be confirmed in clinical trials on living human bodies. These costly trials risk harm to patients, can take a decade or longer to complete, and make it through to approval less than 15% of the time.

Keep reading