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Supermassive black holes at the hearts of active galaxies may be churning out a lot of the universe’s high-energy neutrinos. Two teams using data from IceCube, the world’s premier neutrino observatory located in Antarctica, have independently identified a common type of these active galaxies, called Seyfert galaxies, as likely neutrino producers. These findings, reported in … Read more

Imagine tiny fists punching their way through your body. For some cancer patients, this may be the reality. Melanoma cells can mechanically tunnel their way through tissue using fleshy membrane protrusions without the need for chemicals that chew up the environment, researchers report June 12 in Developmental Cell. Cells have various modes of movement (SN: … Read more

For the first time in nearly a century, physicists have identified a brand new type of magnetic material. Crack open a physics textbook and you may read that scientists classify magnetic materials into two main types: ferromagnets and antiferromagnets. Ferromagnets are what most people think of when magnets come to mind. These materials possess a … Read more

Somewhere in the not-too-distant universe, a galaxy named SDSS1335+0728 is waking up. Over the past four years, astronomers have been able to watch the supermassive black hole in SDSS1335+0728’s center go from dim and quiet to bright and active, the first time such a transition has been observed in real time, researchers report June 18 … Read more

A summer wave of COVID-19 is rising. “There’s clearly a bump,” says William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. The medical center has seen a steady increase of hospital admissions for COVID-19 over the past three weeks, Schaffner says. “That was entirely expected, I’m afraid.” Each year, peaks of … Read more

A mind-bending parasite may one day deliver drugs to the brain. Toxoplasma gondii is a single-celled parasite that famously makes mice lose their fear of cats, but also can cause deadly foodborne illnesses (SN: 1/14/20). Now, researchers have engineered the parasite to deliver large therapeutic proteins to the brains of mice and into human brain … Read more

In an unexpected twist, metal-rich nodules found on the seafloor are generating oxygen, new research suggests. This meager but steady supply of the vital gas may help support seafloor ecosystems in areas currently targeted for deep-sea mining, scientists say. Scientists have long presumed that much of the dissolved oxygen in the deep sea was transported … Read more

Menstruation can be messy and uncomfortable, often due to leaky pads, tampons and cups. A new alginate-based powder may solve that problem. The material, which solidifies menstrual blood by turning it into a gel mixture, could reduce leakage in period products without compromising capacity, researchers report July 10 in Matter. “Our paper is a proof … Read more

For the first time, astronomers have spotted a middleweight black hole in the nearby universe. The discovery could help solve the riddle of how even heftier black holes form and grow up with their host galaxies. The black hole, which sits about 16,000 light-years from Earth in the center of star cluster Omega Centauri, is … Read more

In the quest to build a quantum internet, scientists are putting their memories to the test. Quantum memories, that is. Quantum memories are devices that store fragile information in the realm of the very small. They’re an essential component for scientists’ vision of quantum networks that could allow new types of communication, from ultra-secure messaging to … Read more