Prof Heidi Newberg is an astrophysicist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Her research focuses primarily on understanding the structure of our own galaxy through using stars. In a newly published Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences article, she and her co-authors lay out the case that a telescope with a rectangular mirror, rather than a roughly circular one as is used in traditional telescopes, could provide a clearer path to discovering habitable worlds. In the following guest editorial, she highlights the feasibility and advantages of this design.

A new study by an SUTD researcher and his collaborators introduces a pooled mining attack that overturns a long-standing assumption about Bitcoin’s security economics.

Gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃) is a semiconductor material that could make electronic devices much more energy-efficient than current silicon-based technology. Electronic diodes require two types of semiconductor layers to function properly, negative-type (n-type) and positive-type (p-type) layers. Scientists could reliably produce n-type gallium oxide layers but struggled to create stable p-type layers because gallium oxide's crystal structure naturally resists the atoms needed for these layers. This limitation resulted in gallium oxide semiconductors with poor performance and reliability issues. Now, researchers at Nagoya University in Japan have solved this manufacturing challenge and created the first functional pn diodes using gallium oxide. Their method, published in the Journal of Applied Physics, enables the use of gallium oxide for improved semiconductors and energy efficient devices. In addition, these new pn diodes can carry twice as much electrical current as previous gallium oxide diodes. 

A research team has demonstrated that three-dimensional (3D) imaging can provide accurate, high-throughput measurements of phyllotaxy—the arrangement of leaves on a plant—across diverse sorghum genotypes.

A research team has developed a novel weakly supervised deep learning method that reconstructs spectral data from inexpensive RGB images, eliminating the need for manual labeling.

Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts reports a sodium-alginate aerogel doped with 30% phosphorylated chitosan that records LOI 33.7%, PHRR 44 % drop and 0.035 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ conductivity, promising halogen-free insulation.

Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts reports an amino-functionalised cellulose hydrogel that harvests motion energy at 732 mW m⁻², retains 97 % output after 24 000 bends, and drives wireless handwriting and fatigue-alert systems without external power.