New research published in the American Physical Society June 24 and led by Rice University physicist Christopher Tunnell and postdoctoral researcherDorian Amaral, the study’s first author and lead analyst, sees the first direct search for ultralight dark matter using a magnetically levitated particle. In collaboration with physicists from Leiden University, the team suspended a microscopic neodymium magnet inside a superconducting enclosure cooled to near absolute zero. The setup was designed to detect subtle oscillations believed to be caused by dark matter waves moving through Earth.

More pathways than previously thought can lead to optical topological insulators, materials with exciting properties that could have future applications in lasers, imaging devices and more, according to research from the University of Michigan.

A groundbreaking study in PLOS Biology from researchers at Harvard University, offers a fresh and compelling answer to the fundamental evolution mystery of how mammals went from sprawling like lizards to upright; revealing the path to upright posture wasn’t linear, but full of unexpected detours, evolutionary experimentation, and dramatic anatomical upheaval.

An ancient society near the southern shores of Lake Titicaca in modern-day Bolivia was once one of the continent’s most powerful civilizations. Known as Tiwanaku, the ancient society is widely considered by archaeologists to be one of the earliest examples of civilization in the Andes and a precursor of the Inca empire, but it mysteriously disappeared about a thousand years ago. Now, a team led by scientists at Penn State and in Bolivia have discovered a Tiwanaku temple, shedding new light on what the society looked like in its prime.

Now, researchers from USC Viterbi’s Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Keck School of Medicine, in collaboration with researchers at UCLA, have developed a revolutionary solution: a flexible ultrasound-induced wireless implantable (UIWI) stimulator secured to the spine and designed for personalized, self-adaptive chronic pain management.

Researchers have revealed the declining health of coastal marshes several years before visible signs of decline, providing an early warning and opportunity to protect an ecosystem that serves as the first line of defense against coastal flooding.   

In any given snooze, sleep cycles between non-REM and REM, but virtually always starts with non-REM. University of Michigan research shows how this order could be crucial for keeping our memories straight.