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Time crystal emerges in acoustic tweezers

From the article:

‘The researchers have filed a patent application for the use of the system to measure particle masses with microgram-scale precision from the oscillation frequency. Beyond this, they hope the phenomenon will offer insights into emergent periodic phenomena across timescales in nature: “Your neurons fire at kilohertz, but the pacemaker in your heart hopefully goes about once per second,” explains Grier.’

System could shed light on emergent periodic phenomena in biological systems.

Project Silica’s advances in glass storage technology

As a research initiative, Project Silica has demonstrated these advances through several proofs of concept, including storing Warner Bros.’ “Superman” movie on quartz glass (opens in new tab), partnering with Global Music Vault (opens in new tab) to preserve music under ice for 10,000 years (opens in new tab), and working with students on a “Golden Record 2.0” project (opens in new tab), a digitally curated archive of images, sounds, music, and spoken language, crowdsourced to represent and preserve humanity’s diversity for millennia.

The research phase is now complete, and we are continuing to consider learnings from Project Silica as we explore the ongoing need for sustainable, long-term preservation of digital information. We have added this paper to our published works so that others can build on them.

Project Silica has made scientific advances across multiple areas beyond laser direct writing (LDW) in glass, including archival storage systems design, archival workload analysis, datacenter robotics, erasure coding, free-space optical components, and machine learning-based methods for symbol decoding in storage systems. Many of these innovations were described in our ACM Transactions on Storage publication (opens in new tab) in 2025.

METTL3/CD98-mediated glutamate efflux in CAFs drives CD8+ T cell exhaustion and impedes neoadjuvant immunochemotherapy

Feng et al. demonstrate that high levels of glutamate are a characteristic of cancer. The METTL3/m6A/CD98 axis in cancer-associated fibroblasts promotes glutamate secretion, which in turn promotes the exhaustion of CD8+ T cells and inhibits the formation of immune memory. Targeting glutamate can sensitize neoadjuvant immunochemotherapy.

Scientists manage to read information stored in Majorana qubits

Researchers have managed to read information stored in Majorana qubits, which are a form of topological qubit.

Researchers from Spanish National Research Council demonstrated that they can access the information stored in Majorana qubits using a new technique called quantum capacitance.

“This is a crucial advance,” explained Ramón Aguado, a CSIC researcher at the Madrid Institute of Materials Science (ICMM) and one of the study’s authors.

Some Brain Cells Resist Dementia, And Scientists Finally Know Why

Some brain cells can resist the toxic processes associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Scientists have now identified the “cellular hazmat team” that keeps neurons healthy.

Neurodegenerative diseases like dementia are characterized by proteins that aggregate in the brain and kill neurons. Tau proteins are one of the main culprits, but they’re not always villains.

In their functional state, they help to stabilize brain structures and facilitate nutrient transport. But misfolded tau proteins clump together, and a higher degree of clumping indicates more advanced neurodegenerative diseases.

One of the astronauts stuck in space after Starliner malfunction to be on Cape Cod Feb. 20

She is an inspiration!

NASA astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams, a Needham native with Falmouth ties, will speak about her experiences during a recent space mission at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 20 at the Marine Biological Laboratory’s Falmouth Forum, according to a community announcement.

The lecture, titled “So Much Space… So Much Time!,” will take place in the Cornelia Clapp Auditorium in Lillie Laboratory, 7 MBL St., Woods Hole. It is free and open to the public.

Williams and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore remained aboard the International Space Station after thruster failures on their spacecraft. They returned to Earth on an alternate vehicle. Williams will share videos and personal accounts to highlight the rapid commercialization of space and the challenges it presents.

Quantum States Stay Frozen in First Experimental Test of Statistical Localization

PRESS RELEASE — In the everyday world, governed by classical physics, the concept of equilibrium reigns. If you put a drop of ink into water, it will eventually evenly mix. If you put a glass of ice water on the kitchen table, it will eventually melt and become room temperature.

That concept rooted in energy transport is known as thermalization, and it is easy to comprehend because we see it happen every day. But this is not always how things behave at the smallest scales of the universe.

In the quantum realm—at the atomic and sub-atomic scales—there can be a phenomenon called localization, in which equilibrium spreading does not occur, even with nothing obviously preventing it. Researchers at Duke University have observed this intriguing behavior using a quantum simulator for the first time. Also known as statistical localization, the research could help probe questions about unusual material properties or quantum memory.

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