Physicists Found Something That Can Move Faster Than Light: The Darkness Inside It

03 April 2026, By M. Starr

https://www.sciencealert.com/physicists-found-something-that-can-move-faster-than-light-the-darkness-inside-it

(Aitor Diago/Moment/Getty Images)

For the first time, physicists have observed that 'holes' in light can move faster than the light itself.

They're known as phase singularities or optical vortices, and since the 1970s, scientists have predicted that, just as eddies in a river can move faster than the flowing water around them, so too can whirlpools in a wave of light outrun the light they're embedded within.

This does not break relativity, which states that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. That's because the vortices carry no mass, energy, or information, and their motion is based on the evolving geometry of the wave pattern rather than any physical motion through space.

However, capturing this phenomenon in action has been difficult to accomplish because it unfolds on extremely small scales of space and time. The achievement is a triumph of electron microscopy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZwQSvLv73s&t=1s

"Our discovery reveals universal laws of nature shared by all types of waves, from sound waves and fluid flows to complex systems such as superconductors," says Ido Kaminer, physicist at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology.

"This breakthrough provides us with a powerful technological tool: the ability to map the motion of delicate nanoscale phenomena in materials, revealed through a new method (electron interferometry) that enhances image sharpness."

Although to our eyes light appears uniform, it has a lot going on that we cannot easily discern. Light can be subject to disturbances similar to those seen in other systems dominated by flow dynamics, including a type of phase singularity scientists call optical vortices.

Light can behave both as a particle and a wave; an optical vortex forms when the wave twists as it travels, like a corkscrew. At the very center of that twist, the light cancels itself out, leaving a point of zero intensity – a kind of dark "hole" in the light.

It's mathematically understood that two singularities in a reference frame will be drawn together, gaining speed as they approach, reaching velocities that appear to exceed the speed of light in a vacuum.

"As opposite-charged singularities approach each other, their paths in spacetime must form a continuous curve at the annihilation point, forcing their acceleration to unbounded velocities right before the annihilation," the researchers explain in their paper.

It has been observed in other systems, but studying how this scenario might play out in a light field is somewhat trickier. Much work has been done in physics labs to study it, but observations of optical vortices have been limited by the technology's inability to keep up with the speed at which vortex formation, motion, and collision unfold.

To overcome these limitations, Kaminer and his colleagues recorded the behavior of optical vortices in a two-dimensional material called hexagonal boron nitride.

This material supports unusual light waves called phonon polaritons – hybrids of light and atomic vibrations – that move much more slowly than light alone and can be tightly confined. This creates intricate interference patterns filled with many vortices, allowing the researchers to track their motion in detail.

The apparatus used to generate and record the optical vortices. 

(Kaminer et al., Nature, 2026)

The second, crucial part was capturing those dynamics in real time. The team deployed a specialized high-speed electron microscope with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution, which recorded events unfolding over just 3 quadrillionths of a second.

They ran the experiment many times, each time recording at a slight delay compared to the previous run. By stacking together the hundreds of images generated this way, the researchers created a timelapse of the vortices as they hurtled towards and annihilated each other, their velocities very briefly reaching superluminal speeds in the process.

The experiment took place in a two-dimensional context. The next step, the researchers say, is to try to extend their work into higher dimensions to observe more complicated behavior. They also say the techniques they developed could help address some of the current limitations of electron microscopy.

"We believe these innovative microscopy techniques will enable the study of hidden processes in physics, chemistry, and biology," Kaminer says, "revealing for the first time how nature behaves in its fastest and most elusive moments."

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“We Were Truly Astonished”: New Discovery Rewrites Earth’s Origin Story

By ETH Zurich, April 2, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/we-were-truly-astonished-new-discovery-rewrites-earths-origin-story/

Scientists have uncovered evidence that Earth’s building blocks may come from a single region of the Solar System, overturning assumptions about widespread material mixing.

 Credit: Stock

A new analysis of meteorite isotopes challenges long-held ideas about Earth’s origins, suggesting our planet may have formed almost entirely from nearby material rather than distant sources.

Planetary scientists have long debated the origin of the material that formed Earth. Although our planet sits in the inner Solar System, many researchers have estimated that between 6 and 40 percent of its building material came from beyond Jupiter in the outer Solar System.

For years, scientists believed that outer Solar System material was needed to deliver volatile substances such as water. This idea implied that material must have moved between the outer and inner regions while Earth was forming. But new research is now questioning that assumption.

But is that really true?

“We were truly astonished”

Paolo Sossi and Dan Bower of ETH Zurich compared isotopic data from a wide range of meteorites, including samples linked to Mars and the asteroid Vesta, with Earth’s composition. Isotopes are atoms of the same element that share the same number of protons but differ in mass because they contain different numbers of neutrons.

Using a new analytical approach, the team reached an unexpected conclusion. Earth appears to have formed entirely from material that originated in the inner Solar System.

Material from beyond Jupiter likely makes up less than 2 percent of Earth’s mass, and may not have contributed at all. The findings were published in Nature Astronomy.

This is roughly what the formation of the Earth in our solar system might have looked like. The birth of two planets (light brown dots) in a protoplanetary disc around the young star WISPIT 2.

 Credit: ESO/C. Lawlor, R. F. van Capelleveen et al.



“Our calculations make it clear: the building material of the Earth originates from a single material reservoir,” says Sossi. His colleague Bower adds: “We were truly astonished to find that the Earth is composed entirely of material from the inner Solar System distinct from any combination of existing meteorites.”

To reach this result, the researchers analyzed data from ten different isotopic systems found in meteorites and applied a statistical method not commonly used in geochemistry. Earlier studies typically relied on only two isotopic systems.

“Our studies are actually data science experiments,” says Sossi. “We carried out statistical calculations that are rarely used in geochemistry, even though they are a powerful tool.”

Isotope signature reveals origin

Scientists have long used isotopes in meteorites to identify where celestial materials formed within the Solar System. In the past, this work focused mainly on oxygen isotopes.

In the early 2010s, researchers showed that isotopes of elements such as chromium and titanium could also reveal origins. This led to a classification system that separates meteorites into two groups. Non-carbonaceous meteorites formed in the inner Solar System, while carbonaceous meteorites, which contain more water and carbon, originated farther out.

The new study shows that Earth is made entirely of non-carbonaceous material. It also finds no evidence of the previously proposed mixing between inner and outer Solar System reservoirs.

This suggests that Earth formed in a relatively stable environment, gradually growing by accreting nearby planetary material. It also indicates that volatile elements such as water were likely already present in the inner Solar System.

Jupiter acts as a material barrier

But why are there two distinct material reservoirs in our Solar System?

Scientists think the Solar System split into two distinct regions early in its history because of Jupiter’s rapid formation. As the gas giant grew, its gravity carved a gap in the protoplanetary disc surrounding the young Sun. These discs are rings of gas and dust where planets form.

Jupiter likely blocked most material from the outer Solar System from moving inward, though how effective this barrier was has been uncertain.

The new analysis indicates that almost no material from beyond Jupiter reached Earth. “Our calculations are very robust and rely solely on the data itself, not on physical assumptions, as these are not yet fully understood,” Bower emphasizes. The results also show that Earth’s composition closely matches that of Mars and Vesta.

The team suggests that Venus and Mercury may share a similar composition. “Based on our analysis, we can theoretically predict the composition of these two planets,” says Sossi. However, this cannot yet be confirmed because no rock samples from these planets are available.
New light on the formation history

“Our results shed new light on the formation history of our Earth and the other rocky planets,” says Sossi.

The researchers plan to investigate how enough water existed in the hot inner Solar System to form Earth’s oceans. They also want to explore whether similar processes occur in planetary systems beyond our own.

“Until then, however, Dan and I will have to engage in many heated debates about the material composition of Earth and its neighboring planets, because the scientific discourse over the building blocks of Earth is far from over, despite the new findings,” says Sossi.

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This Molecule in Your Sweat Could Stop the Flu Before It Starts

By U. Miguel Hernandez de Elche, April 3, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/this-molecule-in-your-sweat-could-stop-the-flu-before-it-starts/

Researchers have identified an unexpected antiviral role for dermcidin, a naturally occurring human peptide, showing it can disrupt influenza infection through a previously unknown mechanism.

 Credit: Shutterstock

A naturally produced peptide may quietly interfere with influenza viruses at one of their most critical steps, limiting infection before it begins.

A team led by the Fisabio Foundation has discovered that dermcidin, a peptide the human body continuously produces, can do more than fight bacteria and fungi. It also shows antiviral activity against influenza. The researchers found that people who remain free of flu-like symptoms tend to have higher baseline levels of dermcidin, suggesting it may help reduce the risk of infection.

The study included contributions from CIBERESP, the Institute of Biomedicine of Valencia (IBV-CSIC), CIBERER, the Institute of Research, Development and Innovation in Healthcare Biotechnology of Elche (IDiBE) at Miguel Hernández University, the University of Valencia, and the Margarita Salas Biological Research Center (CIB-CSIC), along with other national and international institutions.

“Dermcidin, which is present in sweat and known for its antibacterial and antifungal activity, also exhibits antiviral activity against the influenza virus and can interfere with infection, as we have observed in in vitro and in vivo models,” explains Dr. María D. Ferrer, Miguel Servet researcher and head of the Antimicrobial Peptides and Glycobiology group at Fisabio, who led the study.

“These results show that our own bodies have natural mechanisms capable of curbing viral infection, which opens the door to the development of new, more effective antivirals,” adds Dr. Álex Mira, a Fisabio researcher and head of the Oral Microbiome group, who co-led the work.
A completely new mechanism of action

The researchers found that dermcidin targets hemagglutinin, a protein the influenza virus needs to enter cells, by attaching to a critical and highly conserved region involved in membrane fusion. This binding changes the protein’s structure, preventing the virus from fusing with the cell membrane and starting an infection. As a result, dermcidin can neutralize the virus before it gains entry, revealing a previously unknown way of blocking infection.

From left to right: Dr. Álex Mira, Dr. María D. Ferrer, and Dr. Paula Corell from Fisabio

 Credit: Fundación Fisabio



This approach differs from most current antivirals, which focus on neuraminidase, another viral protein that is increasingly showing resistance to treatment.

“By acting on regions of the virus that hardly change between subtypes known as highly conserved regions dermcidin could contribute to defense against different variants of the influenza virus,” explains Dr. Ferrer.

Dr. Mira adds that “this same principle could be extended to other respiratory viruses, such as the measles virus and coronaviruses associated with the common cold, suggesting a possible broad-spectrum effect.”

Present in the nose, saliva, and tears

In addition to sweat, dermcidin was detected in key entry points for respiratory viruses, including the nasopharynx, saliva, and tears.

“The results show that baseline levels of dermcidin are up to six times higher in people who do not develop flu-like symptoms, compared to susceptible individuals,” explains Dr. Paula Corell, the study’s first author and a member of the team. Furthermore, during a respiratory infection, its concentration increases significantly.

“Altogether, these findings reinforce the idea that dermcidin is part of the innate immune system’s first line of defense against this type of infection,” adds Dr. Corell.

Toward new antiviral treatments

The findings point to dermcidin as a promising candidate for future antiviral therapies. Beyond directly blocking viruses, researchers are also exploring whether it helps regulate immune responses during infection.

By focusing on stable regions of viruses that rarely change, dermcidin-based approaches could lower the risk of drug resistance and improve effectiveness against a wide range of respiratory viruses.

The Life of Earth

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Scientists May Have Uncovered The World's Oldest Dice

02 April 2026, By M. Irving

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-may-have-uncovered-the-worlds-oldest-dice

Some of the dice-like artifacts studied. (Madden, Am. Antiq., 2026)

A new study may have identified the oldest known dice, dating back more than 12,000 years.

The record-breaking game pieces were used by Native American hunter-gatherers near the end of the last ice age, which makes them thousands of years older than previously known artifacts that could be considered dice.

They didn't look like the classic cubes decorated with dots that tell your thimble to go directly to jail – instead, they were two-sided objects with different markings on each face. The principle is the same though: They could be thrown to generate a randomized binary option in a game of chance, like flipping a coin.

"Historians have traditionally treated dice and probability as Old World innovations," says anthropologist Robert Madden, a PhD student at Colorado State University and author of the new study.

"What the archaeological record shows is that ancient Native American groups were deliberately making objects designed to produce random outcomes, and using those outcomes in structured games, thousands of years earlier than previously recognized."

These ancient objects weren't newly discovered, but their function as potential dice is. Madden developed a test: By analyzing Native American artifacts already known to be dice, he identified four features that they all had in common.

Then he compared other artifacts thought to potentially be game pieces to see whether they had any or all of these same features. Those that had all four features were deemed "diagnostic" prehistoric Native American dice, while those that only met some of the criteria were "probable" dice.

To be classed as dice, the objects needed to be two-sided objects made of wood or bone; each side had to be clearly different, usually with paints, pigments, or markings; they had flat or slightly curved surfaces; and they were the right size and shape for players to hold several of them in their hand at once and throw them down on a surface.

"In most cases, these objects had already been excavated and published," says Madden. "What was missing wasn't the evidence, it was a clear, continent-wide standard for recognizing what we were looking at."

Some of the dice-like artifacts studied. 

(Madden, Am. Antiq., 2026)

Of the artifacts Madden analyzed, he identified 565 that fit all four criteria for being dice. A further 94 objects were deemed probable dice, sporting some of the features. These artifacts came from 57 different archeological sites across North America, spanning thousands of years of history.

The oldest date back to the Folsom culture, between around 12,200 and 12,800 years ago, which yielded more than a dozen diagnostic dice. However, one probable die could go back to the Clovis people, and might be as old as 13,000 years.

Outside the Americas, the next-oldest examples of objects that functioned as dice are only about 5,500 years old, and were found in Asia and the Middle East. So if the North American collection is in fact an early form of dice as we know them, then it pushes back the time frame not just for this type of game, but for a certain kind of mathematical thinking.

"This finding is all the more significant because historians of mathematics frequently identify the invention of dice and games of chance as a crucial early step in humanity's evolving discovery and understanding of randomness and the probabilistic nature of the Universe," Madden writes in the published article.

Of course, there's always the chance that the artifacts aren't ancient dice – Madden admits that it's possible the objects may have been used for other purposes, such as divination. But the evidence for these other purposes isn't as strong as it is for gaming, the study suggests.

"The results of this effort suggest that dice, games of chance, and gambling have been a persistent feature of Native American culture – one that served a critical role in social integration – for at least the last 12,000 years and continues into the present," Madden writes.

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Study Finds ChatGPT May Help You Learn Faster, But There's a Catch

02 April 2026, By D. Nield

https://www.sciencealert.com/study-finds-chatgpt-may-help-you-learn-faster-but-theres-a-catch

(D3sign/Moment/Getty Images)

AI chatbots can act as a "cognitive crutch" that reduces our ability to retain information, a new study suggests.

The research was conducted by AI expert André Barcaui of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, who ran an experiment with 120 university students. Half were allowed to use ChatGPT to help them respond to an assignment on the topic of artificial intelligence, and half weren't.

In a surprise test sprung on the participants 45 days after the assignment was given, the students who used ChatGPT scored an average of 5.75 out of 10. For those who took the traditional study route, the average score was 6.85 out of 10.

That's a notable difference, and while this is a relatively small study in terms of participants and timescale, it chimes with other research showing that using AI to find information means we just don't take as much in.


"This suggests that unrestricted ChatGPT use impaired long-term retention, likely by reducing the cognitive effort that supports durable memory," writes Barcaui in his published paper.

Open up ChatGPT or an AI tool like it, and you can get a summary on just about any topic you like: DNA, 1950s movies, Roman history, or the best workouts for the over-50s, for example. The information the AI provides draws on a vast amount of training data scraped from the open web and other sources, and is often incorrect.

In this study, the students were given a couple of weeks to learn about AI, after which they had to give a 10-minute presentation on the topic. For half the group, ChatGPT could be used to search for information online, and to synthesize, explain, and structure information, as well as to provide examples. The other half had to stick to traditional, non-AI research methods.

A graph plotting the forgetting curve of both groups over 45 days. (Barcaui, SSHO, 2026)

The two groups were also split evenly based on how much prior experience they had with AI chatbots such as ChatGPT. While there were no novices or experts, over half of the participants described themselves as frequent AI users.


In addition to scoring higher on the test by an 11 percent margin, which could equate to a full grade level in a standard exam, the marks for those who had used a traditional learning method were clustered towards the higher end. For those who had used ChatGPT to learn, the results were more spread out.

Learning was certainly faster with AI, though – the ChatGPT group spent an average of 3.2 hours on the assignment, compared with 5.8 hours for the non-AI group.

The idea of cognitive offloading, or using external tools to help our brains out, isn't new. In the old days, this would've involved calculators and textbooks.

In 2011, a team led by psychologist Betsy Sparrow of Columbia University first described what would later be named "digital amnesia" – the effect of search engines like Google on our ability to retain information.

With AI assistants now able to take on much of the mental workload, studies suggest they could be changing how we think, perceive, focus, and remember – and not necessarily for the better.

"The findings align with cognitive offloading theory and the 'desirable difficulties' principle: while AI assistance may ease initial learning, it appears to undermine the effortful processes needed for robust learning," writes Barcaui.

Several studies now suggest that using apps like ChatGPT could be depriving our brains of the exercise they need – and that has consequences.

That's not even taking into consideration AI's demands in terms of natural resources, or the mistakes that it often makes.

Barcaui is actually positive about the potential of AI as a research and educational tool, but says it must be used with care. In this student experiment, ChatGPT was shown to negatively impact both the ability to properly take in information and the ability to recall it later.

"Future teaching strategies should aim to harness the benefits of AI without sacrificing the cognitive engagement and productive struggle required for durable learning," writes Barcaui.

"In the age of AI, the core principles of human learning are not outdated; in fact, they are more important than ever to uphold."

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AI Chatbots Are Bad at Diagnosing Symptoms For a Surprising Reason, Study Finds

01 April 2026, ByR. Payne, The Conversation

https://www.sciencealert.com/ai-chatbots-are-bad-at-diagnosing-symptoms-for-a-surprising-reason-study-finds

(iam hogir/Pexels)

Millions of people are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots for advice on everything from cooking to tax returns. Increasingly, they are also asking chatbots about their health.

But as the UK's chief medical officer recently warned, that may not be wise when it comes to medical decisions. In a recent study, colleagues and I tested how well large language model (LLM) chatbots help the public deal with common health problems. The results were striking.

The chatbots we tested were not ready to act as doctors. A common response to studies like this is that AI moves faster than academic publishing. By the time a paper appears, the models tested may already have been updated. But studies using newer versions of these systems for patient triage suggest the same problems remain.

We gave participants brief descriptions of common medical situations. They were randomly assigned either to use one of three widely available chatbots or to rely on whatever sources they would normally use at home.

After interacting with the chatbot, we asked two questions: what condition might explain the symptoms? And where should they seek help?

People who used chatbots were less likely to identify the correct condition than those who didn't. They were also no better at determining the right place to seek care than the control group. In other words, interacting with a chatbot did not help people make better health decisions.

Strong knowledge, weak outcomes

This does not mean the models lack medical knowledge because LLMs can pass medical licensing exams with ease. When we removed the human element and gave the same scenarios directly to the chatbots, their performance improved dramatically.

Without human involvement, the models identified relevant conditions in the vast majority of cases and often suggested appropriate levels of care.

Interacting with a chatbot did not help people make better health decisions.

 (Matheus Bertelli/Pexels)




So why did the results deteriorate when people actually used the systems? When we looked at the conversations, the problems emerged. Chatbots frequently mentioned the relevant diagnosis somewhere in the conversation, yet participants did not always notice or remember it when summarising their final answer.

In other cases, users provided incomplete information or the chatbot misinterpreted key details. The issue was not simply a failure of medical knowledge – it was a failure of communication between human and machine.

The study shows that policymakers need information about the real-world performance of technology before introducing it into high-stakes settings such as frontline healthcare.

Our findings highlight an important limitation of many current evaluations of AI in medicine. Language models often perform extremely well on structured exam questions or simulated "model-to-model" interactions.

But real-world use is much messier. Patients describe symptoms in a vague or incomplete way and can misunderstand explanations. They ask questions in unpredictable sequences. A system that performs impressively on benchmarks may behave very differently once real people begin interacting with it.

It also underscores a broader point about clinical care. As a GP, my job involves far more than recalling facts. Medicine is often described as an art rather than a science. A consultation isn't simply about identifying the correct diagnosis. It involves interpreting a patient's story, exploring uncertainty and negotiating decisions.

Medical educators have long recognised this complexity. For decades, future doctors were taught using the Calgary–Cambridge model. This meant building a rapport with the patient, gathering information through careful questioning, understanding the patient's concerns and expectations, explaining findings clearly, and agreeing a shared plan for management.

All these processes rely on human connection, tailored communication, clarification, gentle probing, judgement shaped by context, and trust. These qualities cannot easily be reduced to pattern recognition.

A different role for AI

Yet the lesson from our study is not that AI has no place in healthcare. Far from it. The key is understanding what these systems are currently good at and where their limitations lie.

One useful way to think about today's chatbots is that they function more like secretaries than physicians. They are remarkably effective at organising information, summarising text, and structuring complex documents.

These are the kinds of tasks where language models are already proving useful within healthcare systems, for example in drafting clinical notes, summarising patient records, or generating referral letters.

The promise of AI in medicine remains real, but its role is likely to be more supportive than revolutionary in the near term. Chatbots should not be expected to act as the front door to healthcare. They are not ready to diagnose conditions or direct patients to the right level of care.

Artificial intelligence may be able to pass medical exams. But just as passing a theory test doesn't make you a competent driver, practising medicine involves far more than answering questions correctly.

It requires judgement, empathy, and the ability to navigate the complexity that sits behind every clinical encounter. For now, at least, that requires people rather than bots.

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New Study Challenges the Idea That We Stop Psychologically Growing After 30

By Heidelberg U., March 31, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/new-study-challenges-the-idea-that-we-stop-psychologically-growing-after-30/

A new study challenges long-held assumptions about aging, showing that both younger and older adults can meaningfully improve their social and emotional skills through targeted training. 

Credit: Shutterstock



Personality intervention with social and emotional skills training benefits older adults just as much as younger adults.

The idea that personal change is limited to youth is being challenged by new research. Both younger and older adults are capable of developing new socio-emotional skills, including better ways of managing stress and navigating difficult social situations.

A study led by Prof. Dr Cornelia Wrzus (Heidelberg University) and Prof. Dr Corina Aguilar-Raab (University of Mannheim), involving researchers from Germany and Switzerland, examined how people of different ages respond to a structured personality intervention. The results show that social and emotional skills training is effective across the lifespan.
Socio-emotional skills remain changeable across age

In psychology, socio-emotional abilities refer to how people identify, express, and regulate emotions, as well as how they manage relationships with others. These abilities are closely tied to personality traits that shape how individuals think, feel, and behave in everyday situations.

Earlier studies have suggested that personality development slows after young adulthood, as Prof. Wrzus notes. However, the mechanisms behind this pattern are still not well understood, and most intervention research has focused on younger participants. “Investigations frequently focus on young adults between the ages of 18 and 30.”

To explore this further, participants in the study took part in weekly sessions designed to build practical skills for handling stress and challenging interactions. A total of 165 individuals joined the eight-week in-person program, including younger adults mostly in their twenties and older adults between 60 and 80 years old.

Researchers from Heidelberg, Mannheim, Hamburg, and Zurich (Switzerland) used multiple methods to track changes over time. They assessed emotional stability and extraversion before, during, and after the training, and continued monitoring participants for up to a year using questionnaires and a computer-based test.

Older adults show comparable improvement

The findings revealed that both age groups improved to a similar degree. Changes in socio-emotional behavior and personality traits were nearly identical between younger and older participants. Prof. Wrzus described this as a “striking and unexpected result, since it seems more difficult for older adults to learn something new, like a foreign language or a musical instrument.”

The study also explored why this might be the case. Participants reported how much effort they put into practicing the exercises, and older adults showed slightly higher levels of engagement, spending more time working through the training materials and assignments.

“Our study results somewhat contradict the adage that ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.’ That is good news for aging populations. When people are sufficiently motivated, they maintain the ability to change and learn new things,” stresses Cornelia Wrzus, who researches socio-emotional development and personality development in adulthood and old age at Heidelberg University.

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Physicists Discover Magnetic Mechanism That Challenges a 300-Year-Old Law of Friction

By U. of Konstanz, March 30, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/physicists-discover-magnetic-mechanism-that-challenges-a-300-year-old-law-of-friction/

Schematic of two magnetic layers composed of permanent magnets. The magnets in the upper layer are free to rotate, while those in the lower layer are fixed. When the layers move relative to each other, the upper magnets periodically reorient, dissipating energy and giving rise to contactless friction. By decreasing the distance between the layers, which controls the effective load, the friction does not increase monotonically, in contrast to the prediction of Amontons’ law. 

Credit: Hongri Gu

Researchers found friction can occur without contact, driven by magnetic dynamics, and does not always increase with load. The effect could enable controllable, wear-free technologies.

Researchers at the University of Konstanz have identified a new type of sliding friction that occurs without any physical contact. Instead of surfaces rubbing together, the resistance to motion comes entirely from collective magnetic behavior. Their results indicate that friction does not always rise steadily with increasing load, as predicted by Amontons’ law—one of the oldest and most widely used empirical laws in physics—but can reach a clear peak when magnetic order inside the system becomes frustrated.

For over 300 years, Amontons’ law has connected friction directly to load, reflecting the familiar idea that heavier objects are harder to move. For instance, pushing a heavy couch requires much more effort than sliding a lightweight chair.

This effect is usually explained by tiny surface deformations under load, which increase the number of microscopic contact points and therefore boost friction. In most everyday situations, these changes are minor and do not alter the internal structure of the materials. However, it remains uncertain whether the same law applies when motion causes major internal rearrangements, such as in magnetic materials, where sliding can change the magnetic order itself.

To investigate this question, the researchers designed a tabletop experiment with a two-dimensional array of freely rotating magnetic elements positioned above a second magnetic layer. The two layers never touch, yet their magnetic interaction still produces a measurable friction force. By adjusting the distance between them, the team was able to control the effective load while observing how the magnetic structure evolved during motion.

Magnetic Coupling and Dynamic Reconfiguration

“By changing the distance between the magnetic layers, we could drive the system into a regime of competing interactions where the rotors constantly reorganize as they slide,” says Hongri Gu, who carried out the experiments.

The results revealed that friction is lowest when the layers are either very close or far apart. At intermediate distances, however, competing magnetic forces become dominant. The upper layer favors an antiparallel alignment of magnetic moments (parallel, but pointing in opposite directions), while the lower layer prefers a parallel arrangement. This mismatch creates an unstable state.

As the layers move past each other, the magnets repeatedly switch between these opposing configurations in a hysteretic manner (that means the current state depends on its history). This repeated switching increases energy loss and leads to a strong peak in friction.

“From a theoretical perspective, this system is remarkable because friction does not originate from a physical surface contact but from the collective dynamics of magnetic moments,” explains Anton Lüders, who developed the theoretical description. The competing magnetic interactions naturally lead to hysteretic reorientations during motion and, as a result, to a friction force that varies non monotonically with load. In this sense, the breakdown of Amontons’ law is not an anomaly but a direct consequence of magnetization dynamics during sliding.

Friction Without Contact or Wear

“What is remarkable is that friction here arises entirely from internal reorganization,” adds Clemens Bechinger, who supervised the project. “There is no wear, no surface roughness, and no direct contact. Dissipation is generated solely by collective magnetic rearrangements.”

Because the physics behind this effect does not depend on scale, the findings extend beyond the large experimental setup. Similar behavior could appear in atomically thin magnetic materials, where even small movements can alter magnetic order. This opens new possibilities for studying and controlling magnetism through friction measurements.

Over time, this research could lead to frictional systems that can be tuned without causing wear. By using magnetic hysteresis, friction might be adjusted remotely and reversibly, supporting ideas such as friction-based metamaterials, adaptive damping systems, and contactless control devices.

Potential uses include micro and nanoelectromechanical systems, where wear limits performance, as well as magnetic bearings, vibration control technologies, and ultrathin magnetic materials. More broadly, magnetic friction provides a new way to study collective spin behavior through mechanical measurements, linking the fields of tribology and magnetism in a novel way.

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Scientists Discover Plants Can “Count” – and May Be Smarter Than We Thought

By C. Tyson, William & Mary, March 31, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-discover-plants-can-count-and-may-be-smarter-than-we-thought/

Plants may be able to count events and learn patterns without a brain, indicating non-neuronal intelligence and expanding our understanding of cognition. 

Credit: Shutterstock

New research challenges the long-held assumption that brains are required for learning, suggesting plants may process information in unexpected ways.

For decades, scientists have assumed that learning, memory, and decision-making require a brain. However, growing evidence, including a recent study published in Cognitive Science, challenges that idea and suggests that complex information processing may not depend on neurons.

The study, led by William & Mary psychology professor Peter Vishton and his former student Paige Bartosh, suggests that plants may be able to count. Not in the human sense, but Mimosa pudica appear to be able to “keep track of the number of events in their environment,” said Vishton.

According to the researchers, this is the first evidence that plants can enumerate, meaning they can distinguish and track separate events.

Mimosa pudica, often called the shy plant or touch-me-not, has delicate, frond-like leaves that fold inward when touched or shaken. The leaves also close at night and reopen with daylight, a movement known as nyctinasty.

Vishton’s work contributes to growing evidence that plants may be “smarter” than people may think. 

Credit: Stephen Salpukas



Experimental Setup and Plant Behavior Observations

In a humid tent inside a windowless room at William & Mary’s Integrated Science Center, the researchers exposed the plants to repeating cycles of light and darkness and monitored their responses.

“In the first phase of our experiment, we used a 24-hour cycle. On days one and two, the plants were exposed to 12 hours of darkness and 12 hours of light. On day three, the lights remained off,” Vishton explained.

After about five repetitions, the plants began showing increased movement during the “pre-dawn” period on days when light was expected, but not on the third day when darkness continued.

Evidence of Learning and Pattern Recognition

“This seems to suggest that the plants were able to ‘learn,’ for lack of a better word, this three-day cycle and shift their movement in response,” said Vishton.

Modeling this shift yielded a logarithmic curve, meaning the plants’ movement changed rapidly at first before gradually stabilizing into a consistent pattern.

Vishton explaining the change in plant movement outside the 12 to 24-hour days. 

Credit: Stephen Salpukas



“This is the same pattern we see all the time in animal learning,” said Vishton. “For example, if you are teaching a rat to perform a series of actions in a certain order, you would expect to see a period of time when they’re figuring out the sequence and then a gradual increase in their ability to predict the pattern.”

Time Tracking vs Event Counting Hypothesis

To rule out another explanation, the team tested whether the plants were tracking time instead of counting events.

“It’s well established that many plants move in alignment with a 24-hour circadian rhythm, opening up in anticipation of the sun,” said Vishton. “While no evidence suggests plants can track a 72-hour cycle — the duration of the three-day pattern in our study — we wanted to test that possibility.”

When the researchers shortened the daily cycle from 24 hours to 20 hours, the plants quickly adjusted their movement to match the new pattern. To further test their hypothesis, they ran a final experiment in which each three-day cycle varied randomly, ranging from 10 hours (five hours of light and five of dark) to 32 hours.

Testing Limits of Plant Memory and Patterns

They found that the pattern broke down when the cycles were shorter than 12 hours or longer than 24 hours. This suggests there may be both a minimum time needed for plants to process light and dark signals and a limit to how long they can retain that information.

Vishton points to a Mimosa pudica plant inside his research tent. 

Credit: Stephen Salpukas



Within the 12-24 hour range, however, the plants consistently showed more movement on days when light was expected compared to days of continued darkness.

“The simplest explanation for this result is that these plants are tracking the number of events that take place,” said Vishton. “Not simply responding to time.”

Implications for Non-Neuronal Intelligence

If confirmed by future studies, these findings point to a form of information processing that does not rely on neurons.

“Every theory I’ve ever read on memory and decision making always involves neurons,” said Vishton. “Big surprise, plants don’t have those. And yet it looks like they can perform cognitive-like functions. Just not cognitively, per se.”

The results raise the possibility that other non-neuronal cells may also be capable of learning.

“There are lots of cells in animals and humans that aren’t neurons. And we just assume they’re not involved in learning,” said Vishton. “But maybe they could be. Maybe learning is present in every cell. We’ve just never really studied it before.”

A developmental psychologist, Peter Vishton started his current project on Mimosa pudica plants during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Credit: Stephen Salpukas



Future Research and Broader Impact

How this type of intelligence works at a biological level remains unclear and will require further research.

“As a developmental psychologist, I’m interested in characterizing behavior,” said Vishton. “I’m hoping the chemists and biologists of this world can ask more mechanistic questions to understand how this is actually happening. With more research on both fronts, I’m very excited to see where this field of study is headed.”

Potential applications could include biological computing systems, plant-based sensors, and even approaches to help people “unlearn” addictive behaviors at the cellular level.

Blurring the Line Between Plant and Animal Intelligence

By pointing to a new kind of intelligence, the findings add to growing evidence that the boundary between plants and animals may not be as clear as once believed.

“Typically, we don’t conceptualize plants as thinking, behaving creatures, right? We think of them as reflexive objects that are responding to stimuli in a simple way,” said Vishton. “But, at least to me, our results suggest that there might not be this boundary between the animal and the plant kingdom — or it might be a lot more porous than we think.”

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Mysterious Ancient Culture Forged a Weapon From a Fallen Star

30 March 2026, By, M. Starr

https://www.sciencealert.com/mysterious-ancient-culture-forged-a-weapon-from-a-fallen-star

(Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library/Getty Images)

A strange chunk of metal that lay hidden in the soil for thousands of years may shed new light on one of the most mysterious cultures in ancient China.

The approximately 3,000-year-old Sanxingdui artifact appears to be an axe-like object made of iron – which likely came to Earth from space in the form of a meteorite.

It's an extraordinary discovery that sheds light both on the Sanxingdui culture and the use of iron for crafting precious objects long before iron smelting became widespread.

"As the earliest Bronze Age meteoritic iron artefact found in Southwest China," writes a team led by archaeologist Haichao Li of Sichuan University in China, "it fills a critical gap in the region's metallurgical records and provides new insights into early iron use both regionally and globally."

Three fragments that crumbled off the dilapidated artifact. 

(Li et al., Archaeol. Res. Asia, 2026)



Sanxingdui is a major archaeological site in Southwest China, dating back to 2800 to 600 BCE. It reached its peak during the Shang Dynasty between around 1600 and 1050 BCE, and left in its wake iconic, eerie art and evidence of a strong emphasis on ritual.

One type of deposit made by the Sanxingdui people is what archaeologists refer to as "sacrificial pits" in the ritual precinct of the walled city. These are eight pits from which archaeologists excavated some 17,000 extraordinary ritual objects, including bronze masks, figurines, ivory, and jade tools.

The precise purpose of these pits is unknown, but the presence of ash, charcoal, and evidence of burning on some objects suggests the sites may have been used for ritual offerings.

Whatever their purpose, they have provided an invaluable source of artifacts that help us understand the aesthetic and material principles prized by the people of Sanxingdui.

One sacrificial pit, however, yielded a treasure of a kind unlike anything else in the assemblage.

"Among the many artifacts recovered in Sanxingdui, an unusual iron artifact (K7QW-TIE-1) was unearthed from Pit No. 7," the researchers write.

"This artifact was found vertically embedded at the bottom of the eastern wall's southern section. It is elongated in the form of an axe-like tool or weapon."

The object measures about 20 centimeters (8 inches) in length and 5 to 8 centimeters (2 to 3 inches) in width. It was in poor condition, so the researchers carefully extracted the part of the pit wall in which it was embedded and took the whole block back to the laboratory for testing.

A metallographic micrograph of a sample of the artifact. 

(Li et al., Archaeol. Res. Asia, 2026)



The chronology of the surrounding artifacts dates the object to the Shang Dynasty, before iron smelting spread across China. However, X-ray fluorescence revealed that the object is at least 90 percent iron by weight, with 7.41 percent nickel, and the rest trace elements.

That composition, the researchers say, would have been difficult to achieve with the metal-processing techniques of the Late Shang period,

Bronze was the metal of choice for tools, weapons, and jewellery during the Bronze Age – hence the era's name – which in China began around 2000 BCE. The alloy was durable and easily available, made by smelting copper and mixing it with tin and other metals.

Cast iron smelting only took off in China around 800 BCE, when the technology to smelt iron from its ore became widespread, after people discovered how to reach the very high temperatures required for the process.

So the use of iron is unusual for the Bronze Age – but not without precedent. In other places around the world, including other parts of China, some rare and precious artifacts appear to have been made from iron not dug from beneath our feet, but that fell blazing from the sky.

However, the Sanxingdui find suggests this rare material may have been used differently here. Unlike objects from China's Central Plains, which often combined meteoritic iron with bronze, the Sanxingdui artifact appears to have been made entirely from iron.

"The presence of meteoritic iron at Sanxingdui further highlights the distinctive metallurgical practice in Southwest China, in contrast to contemporaneous practices in the Central Plains," the researchers write.

Combined with its discovery in a ritual pit, the find raises the intriguing possibility that the meteoritic iron wasn't just a run-of-the-mill material to the Sanxingdui people, but was precious enough to be included in whatever activity involved accumulating treasure in a pit and setting it ablaze.

"The artifact's fragile state poses significant conservation challenges for further cleaning," the researchers write.

"Future work needs to be undertaken focusing on high-resolution characterization to refine the artifact classification and clarify the relevant functional and ritual roles."

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Scientists Track Bees in 3D and Discover Remarkable Secret Navigation Skills

By U. of Freiburg, March 29, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-track-bees-in-3d-and-discover-remarkable-secret-navigation-skills/

Researchers tracked honey bees in a natural agricultural landscape using a high-speed drone-based system, revealing remarkably precise and individualized flight paths between hive and food source. The findings suggest that bees rely heavily on visual landmarks to navigate, maintaining consistent routes with minimal deviation even across repeated trips. 

Credit: Shutterstock

Honeybees fly consistent, landmark-guided routes with remarkable precision, revealing better navigation than their waggle dance suggests.

A research team at the University of Freiburg, led by neurobiologist and behavioral biologist Prof. Dr. Andrew Straw, investigated how honey bees fly between their hive and a nearby food source. Using a drone, the scientists tracked bees traveling through an agricultural landscape over a distance of about 120 meters (394 feet).

To follow each bee’s route, the team used the “Fast Lock-On (FLO) Tracking” method developed in Straw’s lab. This technique involves placing a tiny reflective marker on the insect. A computer mounted on the drone then analyzes reflected light to detect the bee within milliseconds and continuously monitor its position.

Colored flight paths show the individual routes taken by honeybees in an agricultural landscape: The insects orient themselves using landmarks such as groups of trees and fly to familiar destinations with great precision. 

Credit: Andrew Straw

The findings reveal that every honeybee follows its own distinct path and repeats it with remarkable precision on both outbound and return trips. The bees rely on visual features in the environment to guide their navigation.

“Our tracking system makes it possible for the first time to record high-resolution 3D flight paths of honey bees in natural landscapes,” explains Straw. “Our recordings show that each bee has its own preferred route and flies it very precisely. You could almost say that each bee has its own personality.”

A team from the University of Freiburg shows that honeybees fly individually chosen routes with high precision. 

Credit: Andrew Straw
Precision Navigation and the Role of Landmarks



The researchers analyzed 255 flight paths near the Kaiserstuhl region in Germany. This agricultural area includes hedges, a cornfield, and a tree that blocks the direct line between the hive and the food source. “We found a high degree of precision in the flight paths. Individual bees repeated their individual flight paths nearly exactly on several flights. They often fly just a few centimeters away from their previous paths,” Straw emphasizes.

Prof. Dr. Andrew Straw. Credit: University of Freiburg



The smallest deviations occurred near prominent features such as the tree. In contrast, the greatest variation appeared over the cornfield, where the scenery is visually uniform.

“Our results suggest that visual landmarks aid the bees’ navigation and increase the precision of their flight paths,” explains Straw. In contrast, the bees’ uncertainty increases in visually monotonous environments.

The study also sheds new light on the waggle dance, the behavior bees use to communicate the location of food sources. “It was previously known that the directional information in the waggle dance is not entirely accurate,” explains Straw. For food sources approximately 100 metres away, the directional information in the waggle dance can deviate by around 30 degrees.

Honeybees equipped with small reflector markers enable precise tracking of their flight paths—the results show that individual bees navigate to known destinations much more accurately than the directional information provided by the waggle dance would suggest.

 Credit: Andrew Straw



Rethinking the Accuracy of the Waggle Dance

“Our research has shown that individual bees navigate much more accurately to destinations they are familiar with. Even where their flight paths vary most, they deviate from their individual route by only a few degrees,” says Straw.

“Our results allow us to conclude that the inaccuracy of the waggle dance is not due to the bees’ limited navigational abilities. Rather, individual animals are spatially much more accurately oriented than their dance communication would suggest,” he concludes.

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This Spice Combo Could Slash Inflammation Hundreds of Times More Effectively

By Tokyo U. of Science, March 31, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/this-spice-combo-could-slash-inflammation-hundreds-of-times-more-effectively/

Chronic inflammation quietly contributes to serious diseases, but new research suggests that specific combinations of plant compounds, such as those found in mint, eucalyptus, and chili peppers, may work together to suppress it far more effectively than single ingredients.

 Credit: Shutterstock

Researchers have found that common food ingredients can interact inside immune cells in ways that significantly enhance each other’s anti-inflammatory effects.

Chronic inflammation often develops quietly, without obvious symptoms in its early stages. Over time, however, this persistent immune activity can contribute to serious health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, arthritis, and certain cancers. At its core, inflammation is driven by immune cells that release signaling molecules to respond to injury or infection.

Diet plays an important role in shaping this process. Common foods and seasonings such as herbs, spices, and aromatic plants contain natural compounds known as phytochemicals that can influence inflammatory pathways. These ingredients have been combined in traditional diets and remedies for centuries, long before their biological effects were understood.

Despite this long history, scientists have struggled to explain exactly how plant-based ingredients reduce inflammation. Individual compounds often show anti-inflammatory activity in laboratory experiments, but typically only at concentrations far higher than what people consume through everyday diets.

This gap has led to uncertainty about whether “anti-inflammatory foods” can meaningfully affect the body. Another unresolved question is how different compounds might interact inside cells. It has been hypothesized that combinations of ingredients could produce stronger effects together than individually, but these interactions have rarely been tested or explained at the molecular level.

Testing plant compound synergy in immune cells

To investigate this, a research team led by Professor Gen-ichiro Arimura from the Department of Biological Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, Japan, examined how combinations of plant-derived compounds influence inflammation in immune cells. Their study, published in the journal Nutrients, focused on compounds commonly found in mint, eucalyptus, and chili peppers, testing whether pairing them could suppress inflammatory responses more effectively than using each one alone.

This plot shows the measured TNF-α protein concentration released by macrophages as an indicator of inflammation. 

Combining capsaicin (CA) with either menthol (ME) or 1,8-cineole (CI) drastically reduced inflammation levels induced by bacterial lipopolysaccharide protein.

 Credit: Gen-ichiro Arimura/Tokyo University of Science

The team studied macrophages, immune cells that play a central role in inflammation by producing signaling proteins called cytokines. To simulate an inflammatory response, murine macrophages were exposed to lipopolysaccharide, a bacterial component frequently used in laboratory models. The researchers then treated the cells with menthol (from mint), 1,8-cineole (from eucalyptus), capsaicin (from chili peppers), and β-eudesmol (from hops and gingers), both individually and in specific combinations.

They evaluated the effects using gene expression analysis, protein measurements, and calcium imaging. The team also investigated whether these compounds acted through transient receptor potential (TRP) channels, which are proteins in the cell membrane that respond to chemical and physical signals and regulate calcium activity, a key factor in immune cell behavior.

Synergistic effects amplify anti-inflammatory response

On its own, capsaicin showed the strongest anti-inflammatory effect among the compounds tested. However, the most notable results emerged when compounds were combined. “When capsaicin and menthol or 1,8-cineole were used together, their anti-inflammatory effect increased several hundred-fold compared to when each compound was used alone,” highlights Prof. Arimura.

Further analysis helped clarify why this happens. Menthol and 1,8-cineole influenced inflammation through TRP channels and calcium signaling, while capsaicin appeared to act through a separate pathway that does not depend on TRP. “We demonstrated that this synergistic effect is not a coincidence, but is based on a novel mode of action resulting from the simultaneous activation of different intracellular signaling pathways,” says Prof. Arimura. “This provides clear molecular-level evidence for the empirically known effects of combining food ingredients.”

Implications for diet and functional foods

These findings offer insight into how combinations of plant compounds may produce measurable biological effects even at the relatively low levels typically found in food. They also point to new possibilities for developing functional foods, supplements, seasonings, or fragrances designed to deliver stronger effects using smaller amounts of active ingredients.

More broadly, the results support the idea that the benefits of plant-rich diets may arise from interactions among many compounds working together, rather than from any single “super” ingredient. Although further research in animal models and humans is needed, this study provides a clearer framework for understanding how everyday foods and natural compounds may help regulate chronic inflammation and support long-term health.

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