GoKawiil
Tech News
Scientists reported a new optical approach using light and mirrors to help build larger, more practical quantum computers, according to a Nature news item. The report describes the technique as a step toward overcoming scaling challenges that have limited quantum computing systems.
Researchers from Columbia University, publishing in Nature, found that common consumer-grade microplastics are not chemically inert but instead generate reactive, high-energy radicals when exposed to water-rich environments like the human body. Study co-author Wei Min said this activity stems from the massive surface area created as plastic breaks into smaller fragments, and likely contributes to biological damage seen in animals and potentially humans.
Researchers from Columbia University and UC Berkeley found that microplastics, unlike larger plastic objects, become chemically reactive when exposed to water, spontaneously generating reactive oxygen species such as hydroxyl radicals. The study, published in Nature, shows this reaction occurs under ordinary environmental conditions without sunlight or other degradation triggers, and is attributed to the much larger surface area of smaller particles.
Researchers at Seoul National University, publishing in Nature Medicine, analyzed health data from over 4.5 million Korean adults divided into smokers and short- or long-term quitters. Former smokers who switched to daily vaping developed lung cancer at a rate 56 percent higher than those who quit all nicotine products, and had a 91 percent higher lung cancer death rate.
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital found that a phospholipase enzyme called Pla2g2f rises with age in mouse hippocampal cells and is associated with lower brain inflammation and healthier neuron connections. Mice engineered to lack the gene showed increased inflammation and neuron degradation with age, while mice with excess amounts had less inflammation and performed better on spatial memory tests. The findings, published October 15 in Nature Neuroscience, also drew on human and cell-based data.
Scientists have created a tattoo ink that remains invisible under normal light but becomes visible when exposed to ultraviolet light, and gradually disappears over time. The development was discussed in a Nature briefing chat covering recent scientific advances.
Nature's Futures section has published a short science-fiction story about an android pianist who is replaced before ever performing, after a shipping delay leads her owner to buy a newer model. Left in a storage shed, she is given books by the household butler and discovers reading as an alternative to the music she was built to play. The story explores themes of obsolescence, purpose and self-discovery through the android's shift from music to literature.
A Nature study led by Columbia chemist Wei Min found that polystyrene microplastics are not chemically inert when placed in water, instead generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) at their water-contact surface. In lab tests, polystyrene powder stirred into a water-based dye solution broke down nearly 90 percent of the dye over 10 days, an effect that did not occur in non-water solvents like ethanol.
Nature's careers team hosted a 60-minute webinar last month examining whether graduate students' growing use of AI tools for literature searches, presentations, coding and paper summaries is weakening core doctoral skills. The session, moderated by science journalist Julie Gould, featured three panellists and a live audience Q&A, and a recording is now publicly available.
An image showing a bird resting atop a rhino has been named among the standout photographs honored in the 2026 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. The photo captures an everyday moment of symbiosis between the two animals in the wild.
Microsoft researchers published a study in Nature describing a machine learning system that corrects bias in existing physics-based and AI weather models, improving forecast accuracy two to six weeks ahead. The tool, now available as open-source software, can run on standard CPUs rather than requiring supercomputers or powerful GPUs.
Nature has issued an Author Correction to a previously published paper describing wafer-scale epitaxial growth of high-mobility p-type boron carbon nitride. The notice provided no substantive details on the content of the correction beyond acknowledging it was necessary.