What We're Reading

On 6 February, NASA plans to launch a new satellite tasked with monitoring microbes in the ocean and aerosols in the atmosphere. The mission, called PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem), will improve scientists’ understanding of the carbon cycle.

An uncanny resemblance to the Death Star might not be the only intriguing thing about Saturn’s moon Mimas. It could also harbor a vast ocean of liquid water beneath its pockmarked exterior.

Researchers have used quantum computers to solve difficult physics problems. But claims of a quantum “advantage” must wait as ever-improving algorithms boost the performance of classical computers.

A state-of-the-art technique helps scientists map out tissue at the single cell level after a demyelinating brain injury.

Microsoft announced Tuesday that a team of scientists used artificial intelligence and high-performance computing to plow through 32.6 million possible battery materials ― many not found in nature ― in 80 hours, a task the team estimates previously would have taken 20 years. The results kick off an ambitious effort to create a new generation of batteries less dependent on toxic and environmentally damaging lithium.

New research suggests that two iron-bearing sulphate materials called rhomboclase and acid ferric sulphate could help explain patches and streaks in the clouds around Venus visible in ultraviolet (UV) light. The research has been published in Science Advances.

In 2020, the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 visited the asteroid Ryugu and managed to bring precious samples of the space rock back to Earth. And sure enough, years later, we are still gaining insights about this small asteroid and the environment in which it formed thanks to those samples. Today, scientists released the latest findings from Ryugu — that certain organic compounds called PAHs may be able to form in cold areas in space.

A ghostly quasiparticle rooted in a century-old Italian mystery could unlock quantum computing’s potential—if only it could be pinned down.

For atmospheric scientists, snowflake morphology helps determine how the flakes descend through the turbulent atmosphere. Now, using a custom-made snowflake-tracking apparatus installed at a ski resort, Tim Garrett, Eric Pardyjak, and Dhiraj Singh at the University of Utah have amassed a unique data set of the shapes, masses, and accelerations of a half-million flakes. Their analysis hints at an unexpected simplicity in the physics that underlies the motion of solid precipitation.

A fundamental trade-off between the resolution of a clock and its accuracy could have important implications for quantum computers, which must measure short timescales accurately.