Cooling atomic gases to the quantum regime often involves time-consuming steps. Electromagnetically induced transparency now achieves quantum degeneracy with high efficiency.

Too much of a good thing is no good at all. Living organisms enjoy sunlight—in fact, they need it to stay alive—but they tend to avoid light that is too bright. Animals go to their shelter, humans have a siesta, even plants have mechanisms to avoid an overdose of light. But how do non-moving single-celled organisms deal with light that is too intense? Researchers at the University of Amsterdam have discovered the surprising answer.

Citizen scientists in Japan enabled researchers to learn why May 2024's aurora appeared a magenta color over the country. This effort in extending research beyond academies and laboratories has greater consequences for humanity than explaining pretty lights.

Back in 1974, German researchers discovered peculiar chemical compounds, present as red pigments in soil bacteria from a volcanic crater. These biomolecules, which came to be known as naphthocyclinones, are representative of a family of antibiotics with potential medical or biological applications. Despite their promising properties, artificially synthesizing these naphthocyclinones has proven to be quite challenging.

Black holes are one of the most enigmatic stellar objects. While best known for swallowing up their surroundings into a gravity pit from which nothing can escape, they can also shoot off powerful jets of charged particles, leading to explosive bursts of gamma rays that can release more energy in mere seconds than our sun will emit in its entire lifetime.

X-ray free-electron lasers produce pulses of light that are exceptionally bright, making them powerful tools for studying ultrafast chemical reactions, biological processes, or probing the structure of materials at atomic scales.

An IBEC-led study has revealed how mesenchymal stem cells respond to the viscosity of their environment, a key aspect in their differentiation process.

Surfaces play a key role in numerous chemical reactions, including catalysis and corrosion. Understanding the atomic structure of the surface of a functional material is essential for both engineers and chemists. Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan used atomic-resolution secondary electron (SE) imaging to capture the atomic structure of the very top layer of materials to better understand the differences from its lower layers. The researchers published their findings in the journal Microscopy.

Few things are as fascinating to look at a flock of starlings performing their aerial bird dance that is commonly seen, for example, above the West Pier in Brighton, UK, or in Rome when exiting the main train station, or a school of fish escaping a predator.

Through the intricate study of lava tubes—caves formed following volcanic eruptions when lava cools down—an international team of researchers has uncovered clues about Earth's ancient environments that could be significant in the search for life on Mars.