An instrument built to study cosmic rays has turned out to be a powerful tool for investigating thunderstorms. Earlier observations with the GRAPES-3 muon telescope revealed that thunderclouds can develop electrical potential differences far greater than those ever measured directly. But they also uncovered a puzzle: the instrument detected many more thunderstorm events in the eastern part of its field of view than in the western part. A new study by the same team, published in JCAP, has now explained why. The asymmetry does not mean that thunderstorms are actually more common to the east. Instead, it arises from the way the geomagnetic field affects the cosmic rays travelling through Earth’s magnetosphere, making GRAPES-3 more sensitive to thunderstorms from some directions than others. The result strengthens the case for using these cosmic-ray particles as a natural probe of thunderstorm electricity.

A new review in LabMed Discovery examines antibody-oligonucleotide conjugates (AOCs), hybrid molecules that combine the targeting precision of antibodies with the programmability of oligonucleotides. It connects advances in conjugation chemistry with ultrasensitive protein analysis, single-cell and spatial profiling, and targeted delivery of therapeutic oligonucleotides.

- KAIST and IBS use ultrafast X-ray pulses to track the structural changes of azobenzene, a representative molecular switch, and reconstruct its motion as a molecular movie

- The central part of the molecule moves in a coordinated 'bicycle-pedal' motion, providing information that can be used in research on photopharmacology and molecular machines

Researchers from the University of Osaka and collaborating institutions accelerated protons to nearly half the speed of light using a long-pulse laser and ultrathin graphene. A moving electric field carried the protons to high energies, and artificial intelligence helped detect rare high-energy particles among millions of detector images. This technique could pave the way for future AI-driven autonomous laser experiment systems.

University of Maryland assistant professor Avik Dutt and colleagues harness ideas from topological photonics—a field that leverages concepts from topology, the mathematics of shapes and their properties, to design unusual and robust ways of controlling light. Their work, detailed in a paper published by Nature Communications, marks the first demonstration of these ideas on this emerging fiber-based platform.

Engineers can precisely control thread length and add segments with positive and negative electrical charges. This arrangement determines how the material interacts with living cells. In cell culture studies, the dynamic structures enhanced the growth and maturation of neurons, increased synapse formation and dramatically boosted neuronal activity.

What if the energy powering your home or office could be generated, stored, and used all in the same place? This is the hope for the next generation of buildings, powered by renewable sources storing the energy nearby — possibly even within the concrete used to construct the building itself. Reporting in ACS Nano, researchers have developed an efficient, energy-storing cement supercapacitor that holds up as well as commercial concrete in tests.

Associate Professor Like Li of the UCF Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering will develop novel experiments to characterize TCES particle mechanical and flow properties at temperatures of up to 1,500 degrees Celsius for the first time.