New research co-led by the University at Buffalo proposes thinking both big and small to confirm the existence of primordial black holes, suggesting that their signatures could range from very large — hollow planetoids in space — to minute — microscopic tunnels in everyday materials found on Earth, like rocks, metal and glass. 

Researchers have demonstrated a new technique for self-assembling electronic devices. The proof-of-concept work was used to create diodes and transistors, and paves the way for self-assembling more complex electronic devices without relying on existing computer chip manufacturing techniques.

Since the first fiber optic cables rolled out in the 1970s, they’ve become a major part of everything from medical devices to high-speed internet and cable TV. But as it turns out, one group of marine mollusks was way ahead of us. A new study reveals that clams called heart cockles have unique structures in their shells that act like fiber optic cables to convey specific wavelengths of light into the bivalves’ tissues.

More than a million years ago, on a hot savannah teeming with wildlife near the shore of what would someday become Lake Turkana in Kenya, two completely different species of hominins may have passed each other as they scavenged for food.

Scientists know this because they have examined 1.5-million-year-old fossils they unearthed and have concluded they represent the first example of two sets of hominin footprints made about the same time on an ancient lake shore. The discovery will provide more insight into human evolution and how species cooperated and competed with one another, the scientists said.