Black holes are usually born in violent cosmic events — but theory also allows for microscopic versions emerging from delicate “critical states” of spacetime itself. Researchers from TU Wien and Goethe University Frankfurt have now derived exact mathematical formulas describing these strange spacetime structures, sometimes dubbed “spacetime crystals,” using a surprising trick involving infinitely many dimensions.

A planet that is about the size of Saturn, but with a temperature more like Earth’s, has an atmosphere rich in methane, according to a new study using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

A new study published in Big Earth Data systematically evaluates popular Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) methods and metrics for AI/ML-based geospatial applications, addressing challenges of predictive uncertainty, trustworthiness, and real-time integration in complex Earth system modelling. Using a PM2.5 calibration case study, it demonstrates that Deep Ensembles and Bayesian Neural Networks implemented in TensorFlow achieved the best reliability and calibration performance, while also highlighting framework-specific differences between TensorFlow and PyTorch in geospatial UQ applications.

A team of South Korean scientists has uncovered new evidence that could help explain how Earth’s atmosphere became rich in oxygen, one of the most transformative events in the planet’s history.

Researchers from the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) report the finding stromatolites, layered structures formed by microbial communities, within the Hapcheon impact crater, the only confirmed impact crater on the Korean Peninsula. The study was published in Communications Earth & Environment (DOI: 10.1038/s43247-026-03206-7), a Nature Portfolio journal.

Researchers have achieved the first real-space imaging of altermagnetic domains in RuO₂ using a novel thermal imaging technique. By combining lock-in thermography with the spin-dependent Peltier effect, the team visualized micrometer-scale magnetic domains and demonstrated controlled domain manipulation through magnetic field cooling. This breakthrough provides robust experimental evidence for altermagnetism in RuO₂ and establishes a new approach for characterizing this emerging class of magnetic materials, with significant implications for future spintronic devices.

In a new study, researchers observed red auroras over Japan that stretched to unexpectedly high altitudes, about 500 to 800 kilometers above Earth.

Ultrafast all-optical modulators are central to the advancement of next-generation photonic computing and signal-processing systems. However, the intrinsic electron–phonon relaxation bottleneck in plasmonic materials has long constrained modulation speeds to the picosecond regime, hindering the realization of sub-100 fs modulation. Here, we report a metastructured silver–single-crystal silicon nanodisk antenna that delivers experimentally resolved sub-100 fs all-optical modulation. Distinct from conventional planar metal–semiconductor junctions, the nanodisk architecture spatially co-localizes plasmonic energy deposition with the metal–semiconductor transfer boundary within a nanoscale-confined volume. This configuration markedly shortens hot-carrier transport pathways and preferentially activates interfacial carrier extraction during the earliest relaxation stage, thereby establishing an interface-dominated modulation pathway that precedes electron–phonon thermalization. By enabling modulation on timescales comparable to intrinsic electronic response limits, this work establishes a physical foundation for ultrafast photonic modulation, including femtosecond free-space photonic computing architectures, temporal optical gating, and other ultrafast systems constrained by carrier or cavity lifetimes.

Today’s computers store information using only two values: 0 and 1. But as electronic devices become smaller and reach their limits, scientists are searching for new ways to pack more information into the same space.

One idea is to use magnetism. In some materials, atoms behave like tiny magnets that can arrange themselves in different patterns. If each pattern represents a different value, one memory element could store more than just two possibilities.

In this study, researchers found a material in which these atomic magnets can form four different magnetic states. They showed that these states can be controlled using electric and magnetic fields and remain stable once created. Using neutron experiments at the Institut Laue-Langevin, the scientists were able to observe each of the four magnetic states that were created by applying electric and magnetic fields. This discovery hints at a future where computers might store significantly more information than today’s binary technologies.