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Extreme Conditions of Early Universe Recreated in Collider Experiment

A team of researchers have made progress in understanding how some of the Universe’s heaviest particles behave under extreme conditions similar to those that existed just after the Big Bang.

A study published in Physics Reports provides new insights into the fundamental forces that shaped our Universe and continues to guide its evolution today.

The research, conducted by an international team from the University of Barcelona, the Indian Institute of Technology, and Texas A&M University, focuses on particles containing heavy quarks, the building blocks of some of the most massive particles in existence.

Astronomers perform a comprehensive study of two open clusters

Using the TUBITAK National Observatory and ESA’s Gaia satellite, astronomers from the Istanbul University in Turkey and elsewhere have conducted comprehensive observations of two open clusters, namely: Czernik 41 and NGC 1342. Results of the observational campaign, published July 7 on the arXiv preprint server, deliver important insights into the properties of these clusters.

Open clusters (OCs) are groups of stars formed from the same giant molecular cloud and loosely gravitationally bound to each other. Astronomers are interested in inspecting OCs in detail as such studies could be crucial for improving our understanding of the formation and evolution of our galaxy.

That is why a group of researchers led by Istanbul University’s Burçin Tanık Öztürk decided to take a closer look at two well-known OCs—Czernik 41, discovered in 1966, and NGC 1,342, dubbed the Stingray Cluster, which was identified by William Herschel in 1799. For this purpose, they employed the T100 telescope at the TUBITAK National Observatory in Turkey and analyzed the data from the Gaia satellite.

Single-neuron projectomes of macaque prefrontal cortex reveal primate-specific connectivity principle

In a study published in Cell on July 10, researchers reported the first comprehensive study of whole-brain projectomes of the macaque prefrontal cortex (PFC) at the single-neuron level and revealed the organization of macaque PFC connectivity.

The team from the Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology (CEBSIT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with a team from the HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, compared macaque and mouse PFC single-neuron projectomes and revealed highly refined axon targeting and arborization in primates.

The PFC in primates, including humans, has dramatically expanded over the course of evolution, which is believed to be the structural basis of high cognitive functions. Previous studies of PFC connectivity in have mainly relied on population-level viral tracing and imaging (fMRI), which in general lack single-cell resolution to examine projection diversity. Meanwhile, whole-brain imaging data for tracing axons in the primate brain are massive in size.

Inflation without an inflaton

A novel mechanism of inflation is proposed where, starting only from a preexisting de Sitter background, no scalar fields are present, and density perturbations arise from the nonlinear evolution of gravitational waves, which unavoidably arise as quantum vacuum oscillations of the metric. This model-free picture of the early Universe gives concrete predictions that can be tested against cosmological observations.

Planets may start forming before stars even finish growing

New high-resolution images of protoplanetary disks in the Ophiuchus star-forming region, created with improved analysis. The resolution is shown by the white ellipse in the lower left of each panel, with a smaller ellipse indicating higher resolution. The white line in the lower right of each panel indicates a scale of 30 au. The evolution stage of the central stars progresses from left to right, and from top to bottom in the same row. (Credit: ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), A. Shoshi et al.)

In a stellar nursery 460 light-years away, astronomers sharpened old ALMA data and spotted crisp rings and spirals swirling around 27 infant stars—evidence that planets start taking shape just a few hundred thousand years after their suns ignite, far earlier than anyone expected.

Signs of planet formation may appear earlier than expected around still-forming baby stars, according to new results of higher resolution images produced using new improved techniques to reanalyze radio astronomy archive data. These newly discovered signs of planet formation will provide a better understanding of when it begins around a young star, thereby elucidating the process that leads to planet formation, including habitable planets like Earth.

A chimeric viral platform for directed evolution in mammalian cells

Directed evolution is a process of mutation and artificial selection to breed biomolecules with new or improved activity. Here the authors develop a directed evolution platform (PROTein Evolution Using Selection; PROTEUS) that enables the generation of proteins with enhanced or novel activities within a mammalian context.

Detecting Ice Structures from Space

Depending on the temperature and pressure, ice adopts one of 20 different crystalline phases. Researchers can typically tell one ice phase from the other using x rays or neutron beams, but such techniques are impractical for studying ice on distant celestial bodies. Thomas Loerting from the University of Innsbruck in Austria and his colleagues have now shown that infrared spectroscopy can discriminate between two types of high-pressure ice [1]. The results suggest that astronomical observatories in the infrared could probe ice-covered planets or moons, revealing information about their geological evolution and potential habitability.

The ice in your freezer is hexagonal ice, but at lower temperatures, higher pressures, or both, other forms can exist. Ice phases are distinguished by the ordering of oxygen atoms and hydrogen atoms. For example, ice V has oxygens arranged in ring structures, while its hydrogens have random (disordered) positions. This phase, which is stable at pressures of 500 megapascals and temperatures of 253 K, is thought to form in the interior of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede, Saturn’s moon Enceladus, and other icy moons.

In the lab, Loerting’s colleague, Christina Tonauer, created ice V, along with a related, hydrogen-ordered version called ice XIII. The team performed near-infrared spectroscopy on both samples and identified several distinguishing features, including a structure-dependent “shoulder” around 1.6 µm, a wavelength associated with stretching modes. According to the team’s calculations, the features are strong enough that astronomical instruments, such as those on the JWST observatory and the Jupiter-visiting JUICE mission, could potentially observe them on a body like Ganymede. “The detection of high-pressure ice phases at or near the surface could point to internal processes such as tectonic activity, cryovolcanism, or convective transport from deeper layers,” Loerting says.

Scientists reprogram ant behavior using brain molecules

Leafcutter ants live in highly organized colonies where every ant has a job, and now researchers can flip those jobs like a switch. By manipulating just two neuropeptides, scientists can turn defenders into nurses or gardeners into leaf harvesters. These same molecular signals echo in naked mole-rats, revealing a deep evolutionary link in how complex societies function, even across species. The study also teases out a possible connection to insulin and longevity, hinting at new frontiers in understanding human behavior and lifespan.

Exploring late accretion’s role in terrestrial planet evolution

Southwest Research Institute has collaborated with Yale University to summarize the scientific community’s notable progress in advancing the understanding of the formation and evolution of the inner rocky planets, the so-called terrestrial planets. Their paper focuses on late accretion’s role in the long-term evolution of terrestrial planets, including their distinct geophysical and chemical properties as well as their potential habitability.

The Review paper is published in the journal Nature.

Solar systems form when clouds of gas and dust begin to coalesce. Gravity pulls these elements together, forming a central star, like our sun, surrounded by a flattened disk of consolidating materials. Our terrestrial planets—Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars—formed as smaller rocky objects accumulated, or accreted, into larger planetesimals and eventually protoplanets, when late impacts made critical contributions. Earth was probably the last terrestrial planet to form, reaching about 99% of its final mass within about 60–100 million years after the first solids began to consolidate.