Haydenettes Claim Silver Medal at World Synchronized Skating Championships - U.S. Figure Skating

A colourful pattern formed by vibrations in a liquid, illustrating how waves can create intricate, organized structures. (Xvision/Moment/Getty Images) To us mortals, the flow of time goes one way. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow is yet to come, and no matter how precisely and faithfully a clock marks the passing seconds, we can never return to a moment that has passed. But for a time crystal, things are very different. The constituent ranks of this mysterious state of matter – be they atoms, sound waves, or topological defects – are strictly regimented in time, a repeating pattern of beats that could be snipped from a recording at regular intervals and perfectly superimposed, one over another. Once thought impossible, time crystals have been observed in systems from physical atomic lattices to levitating styrofoam. Now, physicists have discovered a strange new way for a time crystal to emerge – not through the imposition of an external rhythm, but through a spontaneous process in which competing vibrations gradually fall into step – order gradually emerging from chaos.

A drone strike on a market in a border region disputed by Sudan and South Sudan killed at least 153 people on Monday, according to a local official, the latest in a wave of deadly attacks. The strike pushed the toll from attacks in recent days to more than 250, underscoring the lethality of airstrikes in Sudan’s war, which ⁠erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces ⁠and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Yohanna Akol Ngor, the Abyei administration’s caretaker information minister, blamed Sudan’s military, without providing evidence, for Monday’s attack on Amiet market, north of Abyei town. “We have recorded 153 deaths,” Akol said. Sudan’s military did not respond to a request for comment. A witness said he heard five large explosions that led to a fuel depot nearby catching fire. “People started evacuating the casualties. They ​had injuries from shrapnel on their stomach and legs … In one site, I saw 28 bodies that were burnt,” the witness said, asking not to be named for safety reasons.

Nigeria has confirmed an Ebola case in its capital, Abuja, after a woman who arrived from Uganda tested positive for the virus, the health ministry said. The woman began showing symptoms on 7 October and was admitted to a hospital in Abuja four days later, where she was later diagnosed with Ebola. It is unclear when she arrived in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. The health minister, Muhammad Pate, said authorities had begun tracing 44 people identified as contacts of the patient. “We are doing everything possible to contain this case by tracing all the contacts the individual may have had,” he said. Uganda’s ministry of health said the patient had only transited through Uganda and that she is a Nigerian woman who had been on a business trip to Congo’s eastern region. The Nigerian authorities have not disclosed her nationality. “Travel through Uganda does not establish that infection occurred here. The location of exposure remains under investigation,” the ministry said in a statement. The ministry insisted Uganda has “no confirmed active Ebola cases”. Nigeria is the latest country to report an Ebola case as the outbreak spreads across the region.

Site search3 hours agoBasillioh RukangaNairobiAnadolu via Getty ImagesNearly 5,000 healthcare workers have been trained to deal with EbolaKenya is grappling with its first ever outbreak of Ebola, a disease which neighbouring countries, such as Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo, are used to dealing with. Nine cases have now been confirmed including its first patient, who travelled from DR Congo and died two weeks ago. Four relatives of the first victim, three health workers and a hospital cleaner have now tested positive, meaning they are all linked to him. But concerns are rising that the virus could start spreading further, even as the government has sought to assure citizens. The US has warned it citizens against travelling to Kenya, while neighbouring countries such as Uganda, Ethiopia and Somalia are also on alert. Should Kenyans be concerned? Kenyans have been expressing their concerns that the disease could spread more widely. More than 4,000 people have died since Ebola was confirmed in DR Congo in May, making it the second most deadly outbreak of the disease.