Strontium titanate’s impressive performance at extremely low temperatures positions it as a key material for advanced cryogenic devices in quantum computing and space exploration.

The SETI Institute announced today that the California Academy of Sciences has awarded its highest honor, the Fellows Medal, to Dr. Jill Tarter, SETI Institute co-founder and Bernard M. Oliver Chair Emerita for SETI at the SETI Institute, recognizing her pioneering contributions to the scientific search for life beyond Earth. Medalists are nominated by Academy Fellows and confirmed by the Board of Trustees.

“The Cal Academy Fellows Medal is a great honor that I am now fortunate to share with a group of extraordinary previous Medalists,” said Tarter. “Over the years it has been extremely rewarding for the SETI Institute to work with a number of Academy teams to improve public understanding and engagement in the enterprise of science for all.”

A novel study on the natural coordination of tooth development in time and space, led by Dr. Han-Sung Jung at the Yonsei University College of Dentistry, Korea, has discovered that “lingual” cells on the side of the tongue form the tooth, whereas those toward the cheek, called “buccal cells,” form the bones and gums, guided by signaling molecules like WNT and BMP. These insights could shape future modalities for tooth regeneration, replacement, and repair.

Dynamic manipulation of optical signals between on-chip and free-space optical fields are highly pursued in various applications. Towards this goal, scientists in China proposed an addressable on-chip metasurface network on lithium niobate platform to present dynamic waveguide-based holographic display with improved multiplexing capability. Such scalable platform will advance holographic displays, high-capacity optical communication, and integrated photonic information processing, leveraging the potential of thin-film lithium niobate technology with high integration, fast response and high scalability.

New research from Rice University suggests that the giant planet Jupiter reshaped the early solar system in dramatic ways, carving out rings and gaps that ultimately explain one of the longest-standing puzzles in planetary science: why many primitive meteorites formed millions of years after the first solid bodies. The study, which combined hydrodynamic models of Jupiter’s growth with simulations of dust evolution and planet formation, was recently published in Science Advances.

Researchers discovered a previously unknown solar radio pattern — periodic beaded stripes — using the Chashan Broadband Solar Radio Spectrometer during a 2024 flare. These narrow, drifting radio bands, dotted with rhythmic “beads”, reveal rapid plasma processes in the Sun’s corona. The team attributes their formation to the double plasma resonance effect, modulated by magnetohydrodynamic waves. Observations suggest a weak magnetic field (~1 G) above the flaring loops in an active solar region.