Fla. county votes to take fire department back from sheriff’s office

Broward County commissioners voted unanimously not to renew the Sheriff’s Office fire-rescue agreement after 2028, returning roughly 900 employees and oversight of the department to the county

Go to Source

Silicon solar cells could cut satellite power costs by up to 90%

Switching to modern silicon solar cells could cut the cost of powering satellites by as much as 90% based on beginning-of-life (BOL) performance, according to a review led by the University of Surrey. The switch to silicon cells could also halve the weight of the solar cells needed on a spacecraft, freeing mass for fuel or instruments or cutting launch costs.

Go to Source

Quantum device simulates matter popping into existence

A research team led by faculty at the Duke Quantum Center (DQC) has observed string-breaking dynamics related to particle-antiparticle formation on a quantum simulator, among the first such observations in quantum physics.

Go to Source

Could negative mass exist and be observed?

Unlike electric charge, as far as we know all mass is positive, and positive masses attract one another. Could negative mass exist, and if so, what would be the ramifications?

Go to Source

Sept 23, 2026 – Are UFO glowing orbs NOT benevolent?

Go to Source

UK to launch new military space squadron to protect satellites

Britain announced Wednesday that it will launch a new military space squadron to defend the country’s satellites, the latest move as countries race to develop military space capabilities.

Go to Source

Pigeons’ proposed inner-ear compass runs into a noise problem

A pigeon turning its head might seem an unlikely electricity generator. Yet one proposed explanation for the bird’s magnetic sense depends on exactly that: Turning through Earth’s magnetic field would produce tiny electrical signals inside its ears. However, a theoretical study suggests that this miniature generator cannot supply directional information fast enough to work as a compass. The problem is electrical noise produced within the proposed sensor itself.

Go to Source

The secret to a perfect crystal may be a precisely calibrated extra turn

Creating a perfect crystal sounds straightforward: Arrange identical building blocks into a repeating, orderly structure. At the microscopic scale, though, even subtle biases in how particles interact can push them in preferred directions, making it harder to form uniform crystalline materials.

Go to Source

Physicists crack the math connecting ultraslow quantum magnetism to ultrafast black-hole physics

A team led by University at Buffalo physicists has found a mathematical solution that shows how a frustrated quantum magnet can transition from ultraslow behavior to ultrafast, highly entangled behavior resembling that of a black hole.

Go to Source

From swarming bacteria to tissue cells, living matter defies classic physical models of motion

A new study led by researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) reveals that living matter violates previously known physical principles of symmetry when cellular flows form and break down collective patterns. The research, published in Nature Physics, challenges conventional liquid-crystal physics by showing that moving single-celled bacteria and human respiratory cells spontaneously break mirror symmetry, moving in curved, irreversible spiral paths.

Go to Source

RHIC data reveal intriguing dip in momentum fluctuations in high-density nuclear matter

Scientists using the STAR detector to study particle collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) have found an intriguing dip in their data in a relatively unexplored region of the nuclear phase diagram—a map of how nuclear matter behaves under various conditions of temperature and density. The dip appears in data tracking collision-by-collision variations in the momenta of particles emerging from collisions between gold nuclei at RHIC, near RHIC’s lowest collision energies. These collisions create the highest-density nuclear matter and may indicate that something interesting is happening in that dense region of the phase diagram. The findings are described in a paper just published in Physical Review Letters.

Go to Source

Light beam ‘swims’ upstream through a quantum fluid by violating Newton’s third law

Just as a leaf drifts along with a stream, objects in other moving fluids normally drift along with the flow. That is, unless they exert energy to move against it. Although it may be less intuitive, light waves or photons work similarly. To move against a stream of light, an object or particle, like a photon, must either have an external force acting on it or actively use energy to move upstream.

Go to Source

Is a nearby advanced alien civilization out there waiting to pounce on Earth? Unlikely, says new study

Science fiction suggests that life on other planets, if it exists, is likely far more advanced than life on Earth. A recent study suggests otherwise.

Go to Source

Earth’s chorus waves show limited link to rapid electron loss from radiation belts

The Van Allen radiation belts are huge, doughnut-shaped regions of highly energetic charged particles trapped by Earth’s magnetosphere. These charged particles play a major role in space weather, so studying them is important for predicting and managing risks to satellites, astronauts, power grids and other infrastructure.

Go to Source

Largest dataset of its kind could clarify how massive stars shaped early galaxies

The more astronomers learn about the universe’s earliest galaxies, the stranger they seem. Many of their surprising properties may be explained by differences between their massive stars and those in galaxies like our own Milky Way. A new University of Utah-led survey with the Hubble Space Telescope is shedding light on the stellar astrophysics operating in early galaxies.

Go to Source