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A bizarre new state of matter may be hiding inside Uranus and Neptune

Deep inside planets like Uranus and Neptune, scientists may have uncovered a bizarre new state of matter where atoms behave in unexpected ways. Advanced simulations suggest that carbon and hydrogen, under crushing pressures and scorching temperatures, can form a strange hybrid phase—part solid, part fluid—where hydrogen atoms spiral through a rigid carbon framework. This unusual “superionic” structure could reshape how heat and electricity flow inside these distant worlds, potentially helping explain their mysterious magnetic fields.

The deep interiors of ice giant planets such as Uranus and Neptune may contain a previously unknown form of matter. This possibility comes from new computer simulations conducted by Carnegie scientists Cong Liu and Ronald Cohen.

Their study, published in Nature Communications, suggests that carbon hydride could take on an unusual quasi-one-dimensional superionic state under the intense pressures and temperatures found far beneath the surfaces of these distant planets.

Tumor-Infiltrating Clonal Hematopoiesis and Pan-Cancer Prognosis in Patients With Solid Tumors

Tumor-infiltrating clonal hematopoiesis was detected in 18% of patients with solid tumors and associated with older age, prior cytotoxic chemotherapy, and reduced overall survival, especially in breast cancer.

This retrospective cohort study investigated the association of TI-CH with clinical factors and its impact on OS in patients with solid tumors. The prevalence of TI-CH in this patient cohort was higher than in treatment-naive cohorts but lower than that in cohorts with higher rates of cytotoxic chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In addition, the prevalence of TI-CH was higher in patients with MSI-high colorectal tumors than in those with MSS colorectal tumors. Analysis of clinical factors revealed that each decade of increasing age and a history of cytotoxic chemotherapy were significantly associated with higher odds of TI-CH. Although TI-CH was associated with worse OS in the whole cohort (pan-cancer analysis), this outcome was most pronounced in patients with breast tumors. Furthermore, TI-CH of GATA2 in the whole cohort and TI-CH of TET2 in patients with breast tumors had the most prominent associations with worse OS.

The accumulation of somatic variants in hematopoietic stem cells with age provides a competitive advantage, leading to CHIP.2 Additionally, cytotoxic chemotherapy induces gene-specific clonal expansion by allowing clones with variants in DNA damage response genes (eg, TP53, PPM1D) to outcompete other clones because such variants are associated with chemoresistance.25 The TI-CH prevalence in our study was intermediate between treatment-naive and treatment-experienced cohorts. It was higher than in the former due to prior therapy and lower than in the latter owing to reduced exposure to cytotoxic chemotherapy and radiotherapy. This finding is notable given this study cohort’s older age, a known factor for increasing CHIP prevalence.6, 7 Furthermore, we found that TI-CH prevalence was higher in patients with MSI-high colorectal tumors than in those with MSS colorectal tumors. To our knowledge, this finding has not been previously reported.

The first direct observation of laser-created isolated hopfions

Over the past few decades, some physicists worldwide have been investigating unusual particle-like magnetic structures known as topological solitons. These structures could potentially be leveraged to develop new cutting-edge technologies, such as new magnetic memory devices and computing systems.

A type of topological solitons that has proven to be difficult to realize experimentally is the hopfion. This is a three-dimensional (3D) structure comprised of closed loops of continuously swirling spin textures, which can resemble linked or knotted vortex strings.

Researchers at South China University of Technology, Nankai University, Forschungszentrum Jülich, South China Normal University, University of Luxembourg, and Uppsala University recently reported the first direct observation of isolated hopfions in a magnetic material, which were created using laser pulses.

New Linux ‘Dirty Frag’ zero-day gives root on all major distros

A new Linux zero-day exploit, named Dirty Frag, allows local attackers to gain root privileges on most major Linux distributions with a single command.

Security researcher Hyunwoo Kim, who disclosed it earlier today and published a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit, says this local privilege escalation was introduced roughly nine years ago in the Linux kernel’s algif_aead cryptographic algorithm interface.

Dirty Frag works by chaining two separate kernel flaws, the xfrm-ESP Page-Cache Write vulnerability and the RxRPC Page-Cache Write vulnerability, to modify protected system files in memory without authorization and achieve privilege escalation.

Quantum Metallurgy Might Be A New Frontier For Superconducting Materials And Artificial Neurons

“The key emphasis here is that disorder is a really important parameter. It’s this tunable thing when we’re playing with quantum phases.”

Modifying the structure of electron crystals is extremely exciting. In superconductors, materials that transport electricity without resistance, the superconducting state can coincide with changes to charge-density waves.

“When we’re doing basic science in these really exotic materials and exotic phases, dramatically new innovations happen,” Hovden told IFLScience. “Technological revolutions like the semiconductor, transistor, and computer happened because we did basic science on atomic structures, on atoms, on matter.”

Quantum metallurgy: Electron crystals deform and melt

In a process analogous to how solids melt into liquids, the electrons in many different metals form crystal-like patterns that can deform and melt, opening new pathways for neuromorphic computing and superconductors, University of Michigan Engineering researchers have found.

“Our work shows that these quantum structures, which are often thought to have a highly ordered structure, actually span a continuum of disorder that could be leveraged to engineer and control these materials,” said Robert Hovden, associate professor of materials science and engineering and corresponding author of the study published in Matter.

“Metallurgists often control defects, or disorder, in metals to produce specific properties,” Hovden said. “A similar approach might help us harness the potential of quantum materials in future devices. Quantum metallurgy could be the future.”

Focused helium ions create ferroelectric regions in aluminum nitride for lower-power chips

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have shown for the first time that ferroelectricity can be directly written into aluminum nitride using a tightly focused helium ion beam at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), a DOE Office of Science user facility at ORNL. Ferroelectric devices don’t need constant power to store data, which allows for devices that are more reliable and less power consuming than what’s currently available.

The study, published in Advanced Materials, represents a new processing approach for wurtzite III-V nitrides, a class of semiconductors already widely used in microelectronics but whose ferroelectric potential has only been recognized since 2019.

“Today, both the material and the processing method are already employed in chip manufacturing: aluminum nitride is widely used in many 5G and Wi-Fi devices, and helium ion beams are common tools to make tiny changes to circuits,” said Bogdan Dryzhakov, an ORNL postdoctoral research associate at CNMS.

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