Gravitational waves shake the very fabric of the universe when black holes collide. Today we measure these events and use them to understand the cosmos. Now University of Copenhagen researchers and their international collaborators have published a treasure trove of new gravitational waves that may challenge our fundamental understanding of black holes, gravity, and the universe itself. Among them the strongest signal and the largest collision ever recorded.

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Tiny solid particles – like pollutants, cloud droplets and medicine powders – form highly concentrated clusters in turbulent environments like smokestacks, clouds and pharmaceutical mixers. What causes these extreme clusters – which make it more difficult to predict everything from the spread of wildfire smoke to finding the right combination of ingredients for more effective drugs – has puzzled scientists. A new University at Buffalo study, published Sept. 19 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests the answer lies within the electric forces between particles.

Could a local anesthetic that doesn’t impair motor function be within reach? The lab of Daniel Kohane at Boston Children's Hospital finds that PPX, a metabolite of many conventionally used local anesthetics, has a unique chemistry that makes it pain-specific, with lower toxicity than its parent drugs. Kohane envisions such uses as epidural anesthesia and — when given slow-release form — postoperative and chronic pain, avoiding the need for opioids.