A Michigan State University researcher co-led a joint analysis between two major neutrino experiments, bringing scientists closer to understanding the mystery of how the universe evolved.

A pair of distant cosmic black hole mergers, measured just one month apart in late 2024, is improving how scientists understand the nature and evolution of the most violent deep-space collisions in our universe. Data collected from the mergers also validates, with unprecedented accuracy, fundamental laws of physics that were predicted more than 100 years ago by Albert Einstein and furthers the search for new and still unknown elementary particles with the potential to extract energy from black holes. 

In a new paper published Oct. 28 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the international LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration reports on the detection of two gravitational wave events in October and November of last year with unusual black hole spins. 

In Biointerphases, researchers take inspiration from a common houseplant to develop a better, safer copper IUD. The researchers noticed that pothos leaves are hydrophobic — a distinctive microstructure on the leaf’s surface causes water droplets to ball up and slide off. The team realized that mimicking this pattern on the surface of a copper IUD might repel uterine fluid. Less contact between the surface and fluid would decrease corrosion, releasing fewer copper ions and mitigating side effects.