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July 29, 2026 – Exoplanets and the 4-minute bell with Linda.

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Machine learning LDL-C equation comparable to original Martin-Hopkins

A simplified machine learning-based low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) equation provides results that are comparable to the original Martin-Hopkins equation, according to a study published online July 15 in JAMA Cardiology.

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Strain turns non-chiral crystals left- or right-handed on demand

Mechanical strain is one of the most common tools used to tailor the properties of materials. In piezoelectric materials, stretching or compressing a crystal generates an electrical polarization. In piezomagnetic materials, it induces magnetization. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) and the University of Oxford have now discovered that mechanical strain also induces chirality in non-chiral crystals, opening a new direction to control this property on demand and potentially imprint chiral electronic properties. This work has just been published in Nature.

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BWC: Man raises handgun, points it at Calif. officers before fatal OIS

Fresno police said the suspect ignored repeated commands to drop his handgun, told officers he did not want to return to jail and later fired two shots during the confrontation

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Little red dots may mark temporary black hole phase

Since their discovery by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in 2022, little red dots (LRDs) have been the subject of great interest to astronomers. Understanding the nature of these extremely distant, compact red sources has been a puzzling scientific endeavor.

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First electrically pumped perovskite polariton laser diode solves a decades-long challenge

Resolving a long-standing problem in semiconductor physics and optoelectronics, a team of researchers from Skoltech—a VEB.RF group institution—and their colleagues from ITMO University and HSE University have for the first time demonstrated direct electrical pumping of a polariton laser based on a solution-processed halide perovskite microcrystal. Published in Nature, this solution to a decades-long technological challenge ushers in inexpensive nonepitaxial laser diodes operating under continuous electric current. These could be used in optical sensing and spectroscopy, high-speed computing and energy-efficient neuromorphic computing.

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2D quantum memory device reaches single-electron limit of information storage

Most electronic memory storage devices require the ability to trap large numbers of electrons for each bit of memory. In an ideal world, however, it would take only one electron. This would reduce space requirements and power consumption for devices. Now, a team in China has realized this goal with an ultrathin device capable of minimizing the stray capacitance that plagued earlier attempts. The new study, published in Science, describes how this novel device has overcome challenges in implementing the single-electron design.

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Curiosity Mars rover discovers field of honeycomb textures

As NASA’s Curiosity rover recently began climbing a Martian valley nicknamed “Valle Grande,” it sent back images that were a familiar sight to mission scientists: honeycomb-like textures called polygonal fractures, each about 1.5–3 inches (4–8 centimeters) across. The mission has spotted small patches of these geometric shapes several times before, but nothing at the scale discovered in Valle Grande.

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Beyond wrinkles: New rule explains why growing shapes suddenly crumple

Scientists have discovered a previously unknown law of geometry that explains why some growing surfaces, whether in nature or in engineered materials, suddenly stop being able to stay smooth and instead form dimples and folds. Until now, researchers believed they understood the geometric rules behind these shape changes, but this study reveals a new kind of “geometric frustration” that arises even when all the known rules are satisfied.

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Video shows officers responding in seconds to take down Ariz. shooter who wounded 9

Security camera video shows Tucson Police officers shooting a man eight seconds after he stopped firing shots

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Fla. officer fired after TASER incident caught on bodycam

The Tampa Police Department found that Dukagjin Maxhuni did not give a man enough time to comply with his instruction to “turn around” before deploying a TASER

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Bringing complex field physics to the tabletop: A photonic stage for non-Abelian gauge fields

For most theories in physics, the order of operations has little impact on the result. When setting a dial to a certain position, for example, it doesn’t matter whether it’s turned clockwise or counterclockwise—the result will always be the same. Yet for non-Abelian gauge theories, order does matter. These theories underpin the Standard Model, but to test their more subtle predictions, researchers have so far relied on enormous particle accelerators.

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ESCAPADE’s cameras capture Earth and moon

In November 2025, NASA’s Mars-bound ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral with special cargo on board: two camera systems designed and built by faculty and students at NAU, with support from the University of California, Berkeley, and Rocket Lab.

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Black hole ‘blast’ reaches 300,000 light-years

A team of researchers has discovered that winds generated by supermassive black holes are 100 times more powerful than previously thought, carrying energy across distances of approximately 300,000 light-years. The discovery demonstrates that these explosive winds affect the vast expanse of space beyond the galaxies they inhabit.

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Two attosecond flashes capture electrons in motion

Electronic motion sets the stage for virtually every light-induced process in nature, from the first step of a chemical reaction to the flow of charge in a solid. Yet these processes unfold so rapidly that they can be observed only with flashes of light lasting a few hundred attoseconds—billionths of a billionth of a second.

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