New research reveals the importance of winter sea ice in the year-to-year variability of the amount of atmospheric CO₂ absorbed by a region of the Southern Ocean.

In years when sea ice lasts longer in winter, the ocean will overall absorb 20% more CO₂ from the atmosphere than in years when sea ice forms late or disappears early. This is because sea ice protects the ocean from strong winter winds that drive mixing between the surface of the ocean and its deeper, carbon-rich layers.

The findings, based on data collected in a coastal system along the west Antarctic Peninsula, show that what happens in winter is crucial in explaining this variability in CO₂ uptake.

 

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) are collaborating on a new project to bolster global capabilities in food safety risk assessment, in support of the WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety 2022–2030.

 

An international research team lead by GSI/FAIR, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM) has succeeded in the production of a new seaborgium isotope. In the experiment conducted at the GSI/FAIR accelerator facilities, 22 nuclei of seaborgium-257 could be detected. The results were published in the journal Physical Review Letters and highlighted as an “Editor’s Suggestion.”

Imagine a computer that does not rely only on electronics but uses light to perform tasks faster and more efficiently. Collaboration between two research teams from Tampere University in Finland and Université Marie et Louis Pasteur in France, have now demonstrated a novel way for processing information using light and optical fibers, opening up the possibility to build ultra-fast computers.

UCLA researchers have introduced a framework for synthesizing arbitrary, spatially varying 3D point spread functions (PSFs) using diffractive processors. This approach enables unique imaging capabilities—such as snapshot 3D multispectral imaging—without relying on spectral filters, axial scanning, or digital reconstruction methods. The proposed framework could open up transformative possibilities for computational imaging, optical sensing and spectroscopy, as well as 3D optical information processing.

The research group at the ISM-MCC Frontier Materials Design Laboratory (a joint research division of Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC) and the Institute of Statistical Mathematics (ISM)) has discovered a phenomenon known as the "scaling law^*a of Sim2Real transfer learning^*b" in the integrated analysis of large-scale computational materials property databases and experimental data, in collaboration with research groups from the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS).

Chemists in Nebraska are developing a new synthetic skin that could be used for next generation soft machines, robots and other devices. Like the skin of cephalopods such as squid, octopus and cuttlefish, the skin would have the ability to change color in response to changes in the environment. As an autonomous materials, the skin would have the ability to interact, sense and react with the environment without user input.  It could be used for environmental sensors and informational displays, perhaps replacing existing display technologies that  are electrically powered and require rigid, inflexible componenets like computer screens.