An international team of researchers led by Kavli IPMU have used the JWST to uncover growing black holes that existed approximately 12.5 to 12.8 billion years ago, which are heading toward a merger.

Humans have been observing the sky for thousands of years. Our ancestors were undoubtedly fascinated by it, but observing the heavens also had practical uses: it helped people measure time, both over the course of the day and through the changing seasons, and became especially important with the spread of agriculture. What we now see as scientific frontiers, such as cosmology and astrophysics, are in fact only the latest chapter in an evolving history of observing and interpreting the sky. This is one of the points to emerge from a recent practice insight published in the Journal of Science Communication (JCOM). In the study, South African researcher Anton Binneman reflects on around ten years of meetings with elders and knowledge holders from Indigenous communities descended from the San. The work developed in the context of the construction of MeerKAT and the development of SKA-Mid, two telescopes in the South African Karoo, and as part of the environmental and social impact assessment required for these projects. The research highlights that Indigenous and traditional knowledge is not frozen in time, as is sometimes wrongly assumed, but continuously incorporates elements of the contemporary world, including scientific research.

Hyperbolic phonon polaritons (HPhPs) are hybrid light–matter waves that can confine infrared electromagnetic fields to spatial scales far below the corresponding free-space wavelength. Controlling HPhPs on femtosecond timescales could provide a foundation for future ultrafast and ultracompact nanophotonic devices. However, directly imaging such ultrafast dynamics has remained challenging because HPhPs are strongly dispersive and their wavelength changes markedly with frequency. Broadband femtosecond laser pulses therefore excite HPhPs over a range of wavelengths, causing their interference patterns to overlap and wash out in real-space images. In this study, researchers developed an ultrafast infrared near-field optical microscopy technique that combines nanoscale spatial resolution and an approximately 150-femtosecond temporal resolution with a spectral resolution of about 10 cm⁻¹. By using a diffraction grating to spectrally resolve the light scattered from the microscope tip before detection, the technique enables frequency-selective imaging without sacrificing ultrafast time resolution. Applying the new technique to a van der Waals heterostructure composed of tungsten disulfide (WS₂) and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), the researchers revealed how photoexcited charge carriers generated in WS₂ transiently modulate HPhPs propagating in the adjacent hBN. The researchers observed changes in the HPhP electric-field amplitude and, in structures containing a relatively thick WS₂ layer, a change in the HPhP wavelength. The researchers say, “The results establish a new platform for observing and controlling nanoscale light propagation on femtosecond timescales, opening new opportunities for ultrafast nanophotonics”.

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have created a new system to test magnetohydrodynamic aerobraking for spacecraft reentering the atmosphere. Their platform generates intense magnetic fields with a powerful electromagnet as a miniature vessel is hit with a shockwave traveling at over seven kilometers per second. Their magnets reached far higher fields than previous work with permanent magnets and are a crucial stepping stone toward tests with real vessels in the atmosphere.

Researchers have developed fluorescent molecules that permit imaging how DNA is packaged inside living cells at unprecedented resolution, and in preserved cells, close to the width of the double helix itself. The advance raises the possibility that one day they could train an AI to look at how DNA occupies three-dimensional space inside cells for diagnosing and treating cancer and other types of conditions.

Mercury’s crust likely formed from volcanic material that was more thoroughly melted than previously assumed. New laboratory experiments and analyses of observational data reveal a surprisingly low proportion of silicon dioxide on Mercury’s surface. More precise findings will be provided by the ESA/JAXA spacecraft BepiColombo, which will enter orbit around the planet in November of this year. Already next week, BepiColombo will be separated from the transport module. The new study lays the groundwork for reliably determining the silicon dioxide content of Mercury’s surface based on infrared data from the probe.

With funding from the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), the new project SIBAF (Supraleitender Ionenbeschleuniger als BAsistechnologie für die Fusionsforschung) will establish a unique accelerator-based infrastructure for the rapid qualification of advanced materials for future fusion power plants. As part of the funding program “Basistechnologien für die Fusion – auf dem Weg zu einem Fusionskraftwerk” (Basic technologies for fusion – on the path to a fusion power plant), SIBAF will receive €9.7 million over three years, of which €8.1 million will support activities at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung and the international accelerator center FAIR, currently under construction. Alongside GSI, which coordinates the project, Goethe University Frankfurt is the project partner.