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1,000th Near-Earth Asteroid Observed by Planetary Radar Since 1968

Lead image: This animation shows asteroid 2016 AJ193 rotate as it was observed by Goldstone’s 70-meter (230 foot) antenna on Aug. 22, 2021. Three-quarters of a mile (1.3-kilometers) wide, the object was the 1,001st near-Earth asteroid to be measured by planetary radar since 1968. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Seven days after this historic milestone, a massive antenna at NASA’s Deep Space Network Goldstone complex imaged another, far larger object. On August 14, 2021, a small near-Earth asteroid (NEA) designated 2021 PJ1 passed our planet at a distance of over 1 million miles (about 1.7 million kilometers). Between 65 and 100 feet (20…

Researchers Develop “Nanopore-Tal” Technology That Enables Cells To Talk to Computers

Lead image: University of Washington and Microsoft researchers have introduced a new class of reporter proteins that can be directly read by a commercially available nanopore sensing device. Here, UW doctoral student Nicolas Cardozo pipettes a solution containing NanoporeTERs onto a portable MinION device as UW research assistant professor Jeff Nivala looks on. Credit: Dennis Wise/University of Washington Genetically encoded reporter proteins have been a mainstay of biotechnology research, allowing scientists to track gene expression, understand intracellular processes, and debug engineered genetic circuits. But conventional reporting schemes that rely on fluorescence and other optical approaches come with practical limitations that…

New Insulation Material Enables More Efficient Electricity Distribution

Lead image: The basis of the new material is polyethylene, which is already used for insulation in existing HVDC cables. Now, by adding very small amounts – 5 parts per million – of the conjugated polymer known as poly(3-hexylthiophene), the researchers were able to lower the electrical conductivity by up to three times. Credit: Yen Strandqvist/Chalmers University of Technology High-voltage direct current cables which can efficiently transport electricity over long distances play a vital role in our electricity supply. Optimizing their performance is therefore an important challenge. With that aim in mind, scientists from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, present…

Photonic Chip Breakthrough Opens a Path Toward Quantum Computing in Real-World Conditions

Quantum Computing Platform Accelerates Transition from Bulk Optics to Integrated Photonics on a Silicon Chip Smaller Than a Penny The quantum computing market is projected to reach $65 billion by 2030, a hot topic for investors and scientists alike because of its potential to solve incomprehensibly complex problems. Drug discovery is one example. To understand drug interactions, a pharmaceutical company might want to simulate the interaction of two molecules. The challenge is that each molecule is composed of a few hundred atoms, and scientists must model all the ways in which these atoms might array themselves when their respective molecules…

Scientists Discover New Crystal That Exhibits Exotic Form of Magnetism

This ain’t your grandma’s fridge magnet. It’s much, much more! An exotic form of magnetism has been discovered and linked to an equally exotic type of electrons, according to scientists who analyzed a new crystal in which they appear at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The magnetism is created and protected by the crystal’s unique electronic structure, offering a mechanism that might be exploited for fast, robust information storage devices. The newly invented material has an unusual structure that conducts electricity but makes the flowing electrons behave as massless particles, whose magnetism is linked to the direction…