International Research Awards on New Science Inventions

Astronomers have discovered the smallest and most massive white dwarf ever seen. The smoldering cinder, which formed when two less massive white dwarfs merged, is about 4,300 kilometers across, or somewhat larger than Earth’s moon. Though the white dwarf is small, it is heavy, “packing a mass greater than that of our sun into a body about the size of our moon,” says Ilaria Caiazzo, the Sherman Fairchild Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate in Theoretical Astrophysics at Caltech and lead author of the new study appearing in the July 1 issue of the journal  Nature.  “It may seem counterintuitive, but smaller white dwarfs happen to be more massive. This is due to the fact that white dwarfs lack the nuclear burning that keep up normal stars against their own self gravity, and their size is instead regulated by quantum mechanics.” The discovery was made by the  Zwicky Transient Facility , or ZTF, which operates at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory; a host of other t...

In the months following the July 5, 2019 magnitude-7.1 earthquake in Ridgecrest, California, seismologists recorded thousands of aftershocks in the region. Surprisingly, none were seen in the Coso geothermal field, an area only about 10 kilometers from the surface ruptures caused by the main shock. Now, Caltech researchers have discovered that the operations related to geothermal energy production at Coso over the last 30 years have de-stressed the region, making the area less prone to earthquakes. These findings could indicate ways to systematically de-stress high-risk earthquake regions, while simultaneously building clean energy infrastructure. The research was conducted in the laboratory of  Jean-Philippe Avouac , Earle C. Anthony Professor of Geology and Mechanical and Civil Engineering. A paper describing the study appears in the journal  Nature  on July 1. Geothermal fields, like the Coso region, are areas where the subsurface temperatures are particularly ...

This diagram illustrates the cascade of changes occurring in the mouse body and brain in the absence of a gut microbiome. Lack of gut microbes leads the adrenal gland to produce more corticosterone, a stress hormone, which then influences a neural circuit controlling social behavior in the brain, making the mouse exhibit antisocial behaviors. Could the germs that live inside of our bodies be affecting our ability to socialize and make friends? Research conducted in recent decades suggests that the answer—for mice—is yes. Research has shown that the communities of bacteria that live in a mouse’s gut are essential for the animals to exhibit normal social behavior with other mice. Mice that have been bred to be germ-free, without a gut microbiome, display significant antisocial behaviors, such as avoiding a stranger mouse rather than interacting with it. How do microbes influence an animal’s behavior? In other words, what is the chain of events happening on the molecular and cell...

When extreme and dangerous air pollution events strike and blanket the air with hazardous levels of pollution, it causes a major threat to public health and safety. It’s also exceedingly challenging to monitor. The pollutants move quickly through the atmosphere, and can undergo chemical transformations from one form to another, leaving it difficult to predict the level of human exposure.  In the United States, the primary sources of outdoor air-quality data are from ground-based, government-regulated air-quality monitoring systems that measure pollutants such as ozone and particulate matter. Due to the high cost of these high-performing systems, the number of monitors measuring air quality across a geographic area is relatively sparse. As a result, these systems are not well-suited for monitoring extreme air-quality events, in which pollutant levels can be exceedingly high and variable over relatively short distances.   In a new study, researchers in MIT’s Department of ...

MIT engineers and researchers in South Korea have developed a sweat-proof “electronic skin” — a conformable, sensor-embedded sticky patch that monitors a person’s health without malfunctioning or peeling away, even when a wearer is perspiring. The patch is patterned with artificial sweat ducts, similar to pores in human skin, that the researchers etched through the material’s ultrathin layers. The pores perforate the patch in a kirigami-like pattern, similar to that of the Japanese paper-cutting art. The design ensures that sweat can escape through the patch, preventing skin irritation and damage to embedded sensors. The kirigami design also helps the patch conform to human skin as it stretches and bends. This flexibility, paired with the material’s ability to withstand sweat, enables it to monitor a person’s health over long periods of time, which has not been possible with previous “e-skin” designs. The results, published today in Science Advances, are a step toward long-lasti...

Adversaries have heavily invested in cyberspace operations and capabilities. As such, cyber operations, cybersecurity and information operations are increasingly important to the joint force, said the commander of U.S. Cyber Command, who’s also the director of the National Security Agency. “The scope of what we need to defend and protect has dramatically expanded,” Army Gen. Paul M. Nakasone said today during a virtual address to the U.S Naval Institute and Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association’s WEST Conference. The Defense Department’s information network is composed of 15,000 sub-networks, 3 million users, 4 million computers, 180,000 mobility devices and 605 million website requests a day, he said. “We used to think about cyberspace as merely the need to protect these computer networks. And while it’s a good place to start, the attack surface is much broader,” Nakasone said. For example, protecting weapons systems is a related but distinct challenge compared...

Many neurodevelopmental disorders share similar symptoms, such as learning disabilities or attention deficits. A new study from MIT has uncovered a common neural mechanism for a type of cognitive impairment seen in some people with autism and schizophrenia, even though the genetic variations that produce the impairments are different for each condition. In a study of mice, the researchers found that certain genes that are mutated or missing in some people with those disorders cause similar dysfunctions in a neural circuit in the thalamus. If scientists could develop drugs that target this circuit, they could be used to treat people who have different disorders with common behavioral symptoms, the researchers say. “This study reveals a new circuit mechanism for cognitive impairment and points to a future direction for developing new therapeutics, by dividing patients into specific groups not by their behavioral profile, but by the underlying neurobiological mechanisms,” says Guopi...

The technology demonstration was designed to improve navigation for robot explorers and operate GPS satellites. It reports on a significant milestone. To communicate with Earth stations, spacecraft that travel beyond the Moon’s surface rely on ground stations to find out where they are and where their destination is.   NASA’s Deep Space Atomic Clock aims to give far-flung explorers greater autonomy in navigation.   The mission published a  new  paper today in Nature. It reports on progress made in improving the accuracy of space-based atomic clocks in measuring time over long periods. This feature is also known as stability. It also affects the operation of GPS satellites that aid people to navigate on Earth. Therefore, it has the potential of increasing the autonomy of the next-generation GPS spacecraft. Engineers send signals from a distant spacecraft to Earth in order to calculate its trajectory.   To accurately measure the position of a spacecraft, engi...

Researchers have successfully demonstrated a new method to study how cells repair DNA damage in space.   Sarah Stahl-Rommel, Genes in Space, and her colleagues will present the new technique in the  PLOS One  journal on June 30, 2021. An organism’s DNA may be damaged by normal biological processes, or environmental causes such as ultraviolet light.   Damaged DNA can cause cancer in humans and other animals.   There are many natural ways cells can repair damaged DNA.   Space radiation can cause DNA damage to astronauts who travel outside the Earth’s protective atmosphere.   It may be crucial to know which DNA-repair strategies the body uses in space.   Research suggests that microgravity conditions could influence this decision, raising concern that repair may not be sufficient.   The issue has been largely ignored due to safety and technological obstacles. Stahl-Rommel, along with colleagues, have created a new way to study DNA repair in y...

A new CU Boulder study shows that a five-minute exercise per day, which is described as “strength training for your breathing muscles,” lowers blood pressure, improves vascular health, and can be done daily. The Journal of the American Heart Association published the strongest evidence yet to show that the time-efficient High-Resistance Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training, (IMST), could be a key component in protecting aging adults from the nation’s most deadly killer, cardiovascular disease. Only 65% of Americans over 50 have high blood pressure, which puts them at higher risk for heart attack and stroke.   However, less than 40% of Americans meet the recommended aerobic exercise guidelines. There are many lifestyle strategies that can be used to maintain good cardiovascular health, according to experts.   However, these strategies can be time-consuming and expensive, and may not be accessible to everyone, says Daniel Craighead, assistant researcher in the Department of ...

McGill University has found that climate change has had an impact on the size and composition of the Maya population of Itzan, a lowland city in present-day Guatemala.   These findings were published in  Quaternary Sciences Reviews . They show that both droughts as well as very wet periods lead to significant population declines. These results were based on a relatively new technique that involves looking at stanols, organic molecules found in human and animal waste. They are taken from the bottom a nearby lake.   To estimate population changes and examine the relationship between stanols and other information such as climate variability and changes to vegetation, measurements were made. The technique allowed the researchers to track major changes in Maya population over a time period that began 3,300 years ago (BP).   They also identified shifts in settlement patterns over hundreds of years, which are related to changes in land use. Furthermore, they discovered ...

This strip of metallic wood, about an inch long and one-third inch wide, is thinner than household aluminum foil but is supporting more than 50 times its own weight without buckling. If the weight were suspended from it, the same strip could support more than six pounds without breaking. Natural wood remains a ubiquitous building material because of its high strength-to-density ratio; trees are strong enough to grow hundreds of feet tall but remain light enough to float down a river after being logged. For the past three years, engineers at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science have been developing a type of material they’ve dubbed “metallic wood.” Their material gets its useful properties and name from a key structural feature of its natural counterpart: porosity. As a lattice of nanoscale nickel struts, metallic wood is full of regularly spaced cell-sized pores that radically decrease its density without sacrificing the material’s strength. ...