Light

In search of advanced medical devices that can be ingested by the human body and don’t need to be surgically removed after, scientists at MIT have developed a new technology that would instead break them down by exposure to certain kinds of light.

In 2018, researchers created the world’s fastest-spinning object that reached 60 billion rpm – now that seems like the teacup ride at Disneyland. The same team has broken its own record, creating a new nano-scale rotor that spins five times faster.

A new study from the University of Manchester is questioning common consensus, arguing perceived color can influence circadian clocks. Animal experiments suggest exposure to yellow light at night from screens could be confusing our body clocks.

Scientists generally agree that the universe is expanding, but how fast is up for debate. Now, astrophysicists have come up with a new figure for the Hubble Constant by studying how gamma rays interact with the background radiation of the universe.

New research from Tufts University may make it a little easier to manage diabetes. In mouse tests, the team implanted beta cells that produce more insulin on demand, when they’re activated by blue light.

Devices such as digital cameras electronically measure levels of high-energy light, and that's good enough for most of us. Now, however, scientists have developed a mechanical alternative that works with almost all types of light.

A new experiment shows that even massive molecules containing up to 2,000 atoms can exist in two places simultaneously.

Combining a light treatment with cognitive behavior therapy has resulted in a sample of teenagers increasing their total sleep time by 45 minutes a night.

Given their name, black holes aren’t the kind of places you’d expect to see much light. But sometimes flashes of light are seen as the black holes snack on gas and dust. Earlier this year though the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy flared up in an unprecedented light show, and astronomers don’t really know why.

A galaxy seems like a hard thing to miss – let alone 39 of them – but that’s exactly what a team of astronomers has just discovered. So where have these countless stars been hiding? About 11.5 billion light-years away, in a part of the light spectrum that’s invisible to many telescopes.

While we have some idea about what kinds of signs of life to look for on other planets, many of these can also be created under natural processes. Now NASA is about to launch a new mission that can help root out these false positives by studying the interactions between stars and their planets.

Statistically it’s pretty much a given that alien life is out there, whether that’s Martian microbes or intelligent life beaming comms through the cosmos. Now, a new telescope array has joined Breakthrough Listen, scanning for flashes of laser light that alien civilizations might be giving off.