New research by MIT scientists raises the possibility that a so-called ionic liquid could support life in worlds without water. Lab experiments show that ionic liquids can form from chemical ingredients that likely exist on the surface of some rocky planets and moons. 

For decades, astrochemists have been looking for sulfur atoms in space and finding surprisingly little of the element that is a key ingredient to life. A new study could point to where it has been hiding.

Folding structures are widely used in robot design as an intuitive and efficient shape-morphing mechanism, with applications explored in space and aerospace robots, soft robots, and foldable grippers (hands). However, existing folding mechanisms have fixed hinges and folding directions, requiring redesign and reconstruction every time the environment or task changes. A Korean research team has now developed a “field-programmable robotic folding sheet” that can be programmed in real time according to its surroundings, significantly enhancing robots’ shape-morphing capabilities and opening new possibilities in robotics.

KAIST (President Kwang Hyung Lee) announced on the 6th that Professors Jung Kim and Inkyu Park of the Department of Mechanical Engineering have developed the foundational technology for a “field-programmable robotic folding sheet” that enables real-time shape programming.

To a hawk an airport can look like the perfect place to settle down. The layout provides ample open space, perches, and nice habitat for a variety of prey species. However, congregations of birds, especially big birds, poses a safety issue for aircraft. A new study focused on Cooper’s Hawks (Accipiter cooperii), published in the Journal of Raptor Research, found that removing a hawk from an airfield and taking it somewhere else, called translocation, can serve as a method for reducing this risk. Researchers also showed that the age and sex of individual hawks as well as the distance moved were all factors that impacted hawk return rates to the airport of origin. Management teams have a higher chance of reducing incidence of raptor-aircraft collisions, without needing to resort to lethal methods, if they incorporate species-specific research like this into their programs. Regarding the safety of the flying public and raptor conservation both, this matters.

While studying layered two-dimensional materials, ICFO researchers observed an anomaly—an unexpected transition in the system’s state triggered by light. That anomaly turned out to be single-photon sensitivity with extraordinary properties which were previously inaccessible: the ability to detect long-wavelength photons (up to the mid-infrared) at relatively high temperatures.

The results of this study, published in Science, open the door to a wide range of applications, from bioimaging to observational astronomy and quantum technologies. 

It sounds like science fiction: a spacecraft, no heavier than a paperclip, propelled by a laser beam and hurtling through space at the speed of light toward a black hole, on a mission to probe the very fabric of space and time and test the laws of physics. But to astrophysicist and black hole expert Cosimo Bambi, the idea is not so far-fetched.   

Reporting in the Cell Press journal iScience, Bambi outlines the blueprint for turning this interstellar voyage to a black hole into a reality. If successful, this century-long mission could return data from nearby black holes that completely alter our understanding of general relativity and the rules of physics.