Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder's Soft Materials Research Center (SMRC) have discovered an elusive phase of matter, first proposed more than 100 years ago and sought after ever since.

The team describes the discovery of what scientists call a "ferroelectric nematic" phase of liquid crystal in a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The discovery "opens a door to a new universe of materials," said co-author Matt Glaser, a professor in the Department of Physics.

Nematic liquid crystals have been a hot topic in materials research since the 1970s. These materials exhibit a curious mix of fluid- and solid-like behaviors, which allow them to control light. Engineers have used them extensively to make the liquid crystal displays (LCDs) in many laptops, TVs and cellphones.

Think of nematic liquid crystals like dropping a handful of pins on a table. The pins in this case are rod-shaped molecules that are "polar" — with heads (the blunt ends) that carry a positive charge and tails (the pointy ends) that are negatively charged. In a traditional nematic liquid crystal, half of the pins point left and the other half point right, with the direction chosen at random.

A ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal phase, however, is much more disciplined. In such a liquid crystal, patches or "domains" form in the sample in which the molecules all point in the same direction, either right or left. In physics parlance, these materials have polar ordering.

Noel Clark, a professor of physics and director of the SMRC, said that his team's discovery of one such liquid crystal could open up a wealth of technological innovations — from new types of display screens to reimagined computer memory.

"There are 40,000 research papers on nematics, and in almost any one of them you see interesting new possibilities if the nematic had been ferroelectric," Clark said.

When stars explode as supernovas, they produce shock waves in the plasma surrounding them. So powerful are these shock waves, they can act as particle accelerators that blast streams of particles, called cosmic rays, out into the universe at nearly the speed of light. Yet how exactly they do that has remained something of a mystery.

Now, scientists have devised a new way to study the inner workings of astrophysical shock waves by creating a scaled-down version of the shock in the lab. They found that astrophysical shocks develop turbulence at very small scales - scales that can't be seen by astronomical observations - that helps kick electrons toward the shock wave before they're boosted up to their final, incredible speeds.

Scientists have discovered new evidence for active volcanism next door to some of the most densely populated areas of Europe. The study 'crowd-sourced' GPS monitoring data from antennae across western Europe to track subtle movements in the Earth's surface, thought to be caused by a rising subsurface mantle plume. The work is published in Geophysical Journal International.

The Eifel region lies roughly between the cities of Aachen, Trier, and Koblenz, in west-central Germany. It is home to many ancient volcanic features, including the circular lakes known as 'maars'.

These are the remnants of violent volcanic eruptions, such as the one which created Laacher See, the largest lake in the area. The explosion that created this is thought to have occurred around 13,000 years ago, with a similar explosive power to the cataclysmic Mount Pinatubo eruption in 1991.

The mantle plume that likely fed this ancient activity is thought to still be present, extending up to 400km down into the Earth. However, whether or not it is still active is unknown: "Most scientists had assumed that volcanic activity in the Eifel was a thing of the past," said Prof. Corné Kreemer, lead author of the new study. "But connecting the dots, it seems clear that something is brewing underneath the heart of northwest Europe."

By Earthly standards, Saturn's moon Titan is a strange place. Larger than the planet Mercury, Titan is swaddled in a thick atmosphere (it is the only moon in the solar system to have one) and covered in rivers and seas of liquid hydrocarbons like methane and ethane. Beneath these is a thick crust of water ice, and beneath that may be a liquid water ocean that could potentially harbor life.

Now, decades of measurements and calculations have revealed that Titan's orbit around Saturn is expanding — meaning, the moon is getting farther and farther away from the planet — at a rate about 100 times faster than expected. The research suggests that Titan was born much closer to Saturn and migrated out to its current distance of 1.2 million kilometers (about 746,000 miles) over 4.5 billion years.

The findings are described in a paper that appears in the journal Nature Astronomy on June 8.

"Most prior work had predicted that moons like Titan or Jupiter's moon Callisto were formed at an orbital distance similar to where we see them now," says Caltech's Jim Fuller, assistant professor of theoretical astrophysics and co-author on the new paper. "This implies that the Saturnian moon system, and potentially its rings, have formed and evolved more dynamically than previously believed."

A scramjet-powered missile developed under the joint DARPA/U.S. Air Force Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) program was destroyed in a recent test accident, Aerospace DAILY has learned.

The missile is believed to have inadvertently separated from a B-52 carrier aircraft during a captive-carry flight test, according to sources familiar with the evaluation. The cause of the mishap, which is thought to have involved an aircraft from the 419th Flight Test Squadron at Edwards AFB, California, is under investigation.

The Air Force referred questions about the incident to DARPA, but the agency declined to provide any details. "Details of those flight demonstrations are classified," a DARPA spokesman said.

Aerospace DAILY understands pieces of the instrumented test article were recovered after the accident. The description could suggest the payload inadvertently detached from the B-52 in flight, rather than during ground tests or on the runway. It also suggests the mishap potentially occurred over land — possibly over a designated test range such as the Edwards Precision Impact Range Area or the nearby Naval Air Weapons Station test range at China Lake — rather than during transit for a wet dress rehearsal or live fire test over the Pacific range.

A new study on urban foxes could shed light on how widely-domesticated animals began their relationship with humans

Just as dogs descended from a wolf-like ancestor to become man's best friend, so it would seem wild foxes are doing the same.

Indeed, a new study reveals that foxes in London appear to be inadvertently developing signs of domestication. The reason is that living in such close proximity to human beings has altered their evolutionary path.

The new journal article is another entry in a long, and sometimes thorny, body of scientific literature regarding the evolution of foxes in the anthropocene. Notably, at least one past study on fox domestication later proved controversial among the scientific community.

Ligands are protein molecules that transmit signals in between or within the cells. They exert their effects by binding to cellular proteins called receptors. After binding to the ligand, the receptor can then send additional signals to other parts of the cell to regulate our biological processes. However, if those messages get garbled, it can make us ill with a set of different diseases.

Now a team led by Jennifer Cochran, PhD, professor of bioengineering and Shriram chair of the department of bioengineering at Stanford University, has altered one ligand that produced two dramatically different results. One set of alterations regenerated neuron cells, while the other alteration to the same protein inhibited lung tumor growth.

Their results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and performed in mice that model actual diseases. These results give hope to eventually treating neurodegenerative diseases as well as cancers.

Norwegian and British vaccine scientists have published unequivocal evidence that SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, is man-made.

The authors state two conclusions: (1) the mutations that would normally be seen in the course of animal to human transmission have not occurred in SARS-CoV-2, indicating that it was fully "pre-adapted" for human infection and (2) SARS-CoV-2 has insertions in its protein sequence that have never been detected in nature and contribute to its infectivity and pathogenicity.

That is, SARS-CoV-2 has a receptor binding domain specifically designed for the human angiotensin converting enzyme-2 receptor (ACE2) found in lungs, kidneys, intestines and blood vessels.

In addition, SARS-CoV-2 has a furin polybasic cleavage site not found in any closely-related bat coronaviruses as well as other artificially inserted charged amino acids that enhance the virus' ability to bind to and enter human cells by forming "salt bridges" between the virus and the cell surface.

A radio signal from deep space appears to be repeating on a 157-day cycle, scientists have said. By finding a pattern to the fast radio burst, (FRB) researchers may be better able to find out what is producing it.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are radio signals that last just a few milliseconds. Most appear to be coming from deep space. What causes them is unknown, but whatever their source it must be highly energetic — producing as much energy in a millisecond as the sun does in 80 years.

The first FRB was discovered over 20 years ago, and since then dozens have been discovered, with concentrated efforts to understand what has been causing them to occur over recent years. Initially, it was thought that a one-off, cataclysmic event, such as the collision of two neutron stars, may be behind them. But this was thrown into doubt when scientists identified a FRB that appeared to repeat: FRB 121102. These bursts had previously been traced back to a dwarf galaxy three billion light-years away.

NASA's planetary defense network is warning of yet another barrage of five asteroids due to enter Earth's backyard this week, in the latest test of our early-warning systems and preparedness in the face of space-based threats.

The opening salvo will consist of two asteroids, 2013 XA22 and 2020 KZ3, measuring 310 feet and 64 feet, which will pass Earth at a distance of 1.8 million miles and 761,000 miles respectively.

The average distance between Earth and the Moon is about 239,000 miles, so despite the relatively close call with 2020KZ3, we will be spared any danger.