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Scientists have engineered bacteria that can work like electronic transistors, opening the door to living circuits that could one day help plants detect drought, pests, and other environmental threats. Imagine a circuit board that is not made of silicon, wires, and metal, but from living bacteria. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are working to make this idea a reality. The team has engineered bacteria that can behave like transistors , the basic switching components used in electronic devices. In an electronic circuit, a transistor controls the flow of electrical current. In these biological circuits, bacterial transistors control the flow of chemical signals between living cells. This approach could allow scientists to build biological "circuit boards" by arranging bacterial colonies on a growth surface. Turning Bacteria Into Transistors The researchers used a bacterium called Pantoea agglomerans , which commonly grows on surfaces, including pl...

  A new optofluidic technique uses laser-generated heat and Marangoni flows to precisely guide micro- and nanoparticles, opening new possibilities for lab-on-a-chip technology and micro-robotics. Controlling tiny particles inside liquids is important for many areas of modern science and technology. Micro- and nanoparticles are used in biological research, medical diagnostics, chemical analysis, micro-robotics, and lab-on-a-chip devices. However, moving these extremely small objects with high precision remains challenging. Light offers an attractive way to control microscopic objects because laser beams can be focused and moved without physically touching the particles. Yet conventional light-driven fluid systems often have important limitations. Their flow patterns can become unstable, their direction of movement can be difficult to control, and changing the particle trajectory often requires complicated hardware. Now, Liu and his research team have demonstrated a new approach that...

Wearable health devices are becoming an important part of modern healthcare. Smartwatches, skin patches, and flexible sensors can continuously monitor signals such as heart activity, muscle movement, and other biological information. These devices can help doctors and researchers understand a person's health without requiring constant hospital visits. However, there is one major challenge: movement can create unwanted noise in the signals recorded by wearable devices . A new material developed by Zhou and a team of researchers could offer a promising solution. Their work focuses on creating a special supramolecular organohydrogel that can absorb mechanical disturbances over a much wider range than conventional materials. The technology could help wearable bioelectronics record cleaner and more reliable biological signals, even when the wearer is moving. Why Motion Is a Problem for Wearable Sensors Wearable sensors need to remain in close contact with the skin. This allows them to ...

Imagine a device that can make an object appear to vanish—not from the human eye, but from an infrared camera. Researchers have developed a new 3D-printed thermal “invisibility cloak” that can hide objects from infrared sensors by controlling the way heat moves around them. Unlike earlier designs that worked only from certain directions or under limited conditions, the new device is designed to work around complex three-dimensional objects and from virtually any viewing direction. The breakthrough could open new possibilities in thermal management, electronics, sensing technology, and even defense. How can an object disappear from an infrared camera? Infrared cameras do not see objects in the same way our eyes do. Instead, they detect infrared radiation associated with temperature. A warm person, vehicle, drone, or electronic device therefore produces a recognizable thermal signature . The researchers wanted to solve a difficult problem: instead of simply blocking this heat, could th...

Black holes are some of the most mysterious objects in the universe. They have such strong gravity that nothing, not even light, can escape once it crosses the event horizon. For decades, scientists have studied black holes to understand how gravity behaves under extreme conditions. Modern observations have made black holes even more important in physics. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has produced images of the supermassive black holes M87* and Sagittarius A*. At the same time, the detection of gravitational waves by LIGO has allowed scientists to study black-hole mergers directly. These discoveries have provided strong evidence for black holes and have also raised important questions about what happens deep inside them. One of the biggest questions concerns the singularity at the center of a classical black hole. The Problem with Classical Black Holes The first exact black-hole solution was developed by Karl Schwarzschild in 1916. Later, scientists found more complicated solution...

Astronomers have made a remarkable discovery that could change our understanding of how giant black holes grew in the early universe. For the first time, scientists have found three actively feeding supermassive black holes inside a single distant galaxy . The galaxy, known as J0148-4214 , is located more than 12.5 billion light-years from Earth . Because its light has taken so long to reach us, astronomers are seeing this galaxy as it existed when the universe was only about 1.2 billion years old . The discovery was made by an international team led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) . Using observations from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) , the researchers identified three black holes that are actively pulling in surrounding matter. The findings, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics , provide an important new clue about how supermassive black holes became so large so quickly in the young universe. Three Black Holes in On...

Astronomers have discovered an extraordinary object in the early universe that may represent a completely new type of cosmic phenomenon. Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers from MIT and other institutions have identified an incredibly bright red object that appears to have the size and appearance of a giant star—but produces an astonishing amount of energy. The object is so powerful that it shines about 100 billion times brighter than an ordinary star could produce through nuclear fusion . Yet its light also carries unusual features that make it look remarkably different from known galaxies, stars or black holes. The researchers believe they may have found something never observed before: a “black hole star.” A Star-Like Object With a Black Hole at Its Heart The newly identified object, officially named MoM-BH -1 *, was detected when astronomers were studying the universe as it existed only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. At first glance, it look...