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A layered approach sharpens brain signals in optical imaging

Near-infrared spectroscopy, or fNIRS, offers a way to monitor brain activity without surgery or radiation by tracking changes in blood flow and oxygenation. Light sources placed on the scalp send near-infrared light into the head, and detectors measure the light that scatters back. Because this light must pass through the scalp and skull before reaching the brain, the measured signal always includes a mix of superficial and cerebral contributions. Separating those signals has long been a central challenge for fNIRS researchers.

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Okla. officers on leave over April Fools’ Day 911 call falsely reporting baby thrown from car window

Oklahoma City dispatchers reportedly sent officers to the location of the call before learning it was a hoax

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Quantum computing without interruptions

Mid-circuit measurements are one of the biggest practical hurdles in quantum error correction on encoded qubits. Researchers in Innsbruck and Aachen have now proposed and experimentally demonstrated that a universal fault-tolerant quantum algorithm can be executed without such measurements. Using a trapped-ion quantum processor, the team successfully ran Grover’s quantum search algorithm on three logical qubits.

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Astronomers discover Andromeda XXXVI, an ultra-faint dwarf satellite galaxy

By analyzing the data from the Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey (PandAS), European astronomers have discovered a new satellite of the Andromeda galaxy. The newfound object, which received the designation Andromeda XXXVI, appears to be an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy. The finding is reported in a paper published March 30 on the arXiv preprint server .

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Water on the moon? New study narrows down the mostly likely locations

Water likely accumulated on the moon slowly over billions of years, rather than during one big event, according to a new study by an international team of scientists. The researchers, including Paul Hayne, a planetary scientist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder, have published their findings in Nature Astronomy.

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Artemis astronauts survey lunar surface on flyby, solar eclipse up next

The four astronauts carrying out NASA’s first lunar flyby in more than half-a-century were sending back detailed observations of the moon after traveling farther from Earth than any human before.

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After milestone-rich lunar flyby, astronauts start trip home

The Artemis II astronauts wrapped up their lunar flyby as they continue their journey back to Earth on Tuesday, bringing with them rich celestial observations including little-known lunar craters, a solar eclipse and meteor strikes that scientists hope will open doors.

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Lunar crater named after Artemis commander’s deceased wife

Artemis astronauts at the outer edge of human space travel had an emotional moment Monday as they proposed to name a crater in honor of the deceased wife of mission commander Reid Wiseman.

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Artemis astronauts pass behind moon, expected communications cut starts

The four Artemis astronauts on a lunar flyby are now unreachable by NASA scientists on Earth, an expected communications blackout anticipated to last some 40 minutes as their spacecraft passes behind the moon.

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If life exists in Venus’s atmosphere, it could have come from Earth

The theory of panspermia holds that life is spread through the cosmos via asteroids, comets, and other objects. When the building blocks of life emerge on one planet, impacts can eject surface material into space, which then carries these seeds to other worlds. For decades, scientists have debated whether this could have occurred between Earth and Mars (in both directions). However, the recent controversy over the possible existence of microbial life in Venus’s dense clouds has sparked discussions of interplanetary transfers between Venus, Earth, and Mars.

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Water-repelling surfaces reveal surprising charging effects

Materials that repel water are used in countless applications, including industrial separation processes, routine laboratory pipetting, and medical devices. When water touches these surfaces, the interface where they meet tends to acquire a small electrical charge—an effect that is ubiquitous, yet poorly understood. KAUST researchers have now studied this in detail and their findings could have broad implications. The findings are published in the journal Langmuir.

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Experiments refute dark matter claim

The doctoral thesis of Sophia Hollick, Ph.D. ’25, a recent graduate of Yale’s Wright Lab in professor Reina Maruyama’s group, has significantly contributed to answering a decades-long question in her field about whether or not a signal observed in an experiment that has taken data since 1997 was indicative of a direct detection of dark matter. The results of her analysis, which have excluded the dark matter explanation with greater confidence, were published in Physics Review Letters in the article “Combined Annual Modulation Dark Matter Search with COSINE-100 and ANAIS-112.”

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BWC: Suspect in stolen beer truck plows into Ind. cruiser during pursuit

The Vanderburgh County deputy was standing outside his cruiser and working to deploy spike strips when the truck hit the vehicle at high speed

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Mechanical inputs boost diamond quantum sensor states as Q factor tops one million

Most people think of diamonds as high-end adornments. Not Ania Bleszynski Jayich. The UC Santa Barbara physicist sees diamonds, which she grows in the UC Quantum Foundry, as a potentially powerful foundation for quantum sensors. Sensors are currently much farther along in their development than other potential quantum applications. Diamond sensors are particularly promising because diamonds require relatively few quantum bits (qubits) to operate, whereas a quantum computer, for instance, requires more than 100,000, perhaps as many as a million, qubits to handle error correction, one of the main hurdles for quantum computing.

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Mass. PD to add body cameras after Kelsey Fitzsimmons’s acquittal

Ex-North Andover officer Kelsey Fitzsimmons was acquitted of pointing a gun at Officer Patrick Noonan after a judge ruled that the prosecution had not met the burden of proof

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