Scientists just made vibrations so precise they can spot a single molecule - Science Daily

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.

Scientists have proposed what they believe is the first way to detect "mirror life," a hypothetical form of life built from molecules that are reversed versions of those found in living organisms on Earth. Researchers from the University of Strathclyde and Durham University have developed a proposed detection technique that uses molecules capable of emitting light with distinct left and right-handed properties. By analyzing these light signals, scientists may eventually be able to distinguish conventional organisms from their mirror-image counterparts.

When we think of rivers, we imagine water flowing freely from source to sea. But for some of the world's great waterways, their natural state is to be blocked or dammed by fallen trees – on a massive scale. Today, the world's largest tree-blockages or logjams can be found in the delta of Canada's mighty Mackenzie River. . While the word 'logjam' is a byword for life's annoying obstacles, recent studies have shown that river logjams are vital for wildlife and human communities, and are crucial stores of carbon.

An artist's illustration of the new theropod dinosaur, Invictibellatrix amberina (center of the image), in its ecosystem on the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom, in the Early Cretaceous (around 120 million years ago). It lived in what was likely a seasonally wet-to-dry floodplain environment and is surrounded by other dinosaurs including large long-necked rebbachisaurid sauropods (directly behind Invictibellatrix, center) and relatives of Iguanodon (right). A spinosaurid theropod, potentially the apex predator of the time, fishes (left). Invictibellatrix has just caught and is consuming two small mammals. Gymnosperms dominate the environment as flowering plants (angiosperms) were not common at this time. Other reptiles including relatives of modern lizards, crocodiles and turtles enjoy the warm Early Cretaceous weather of the U. K. Credit: Sergey Krasovskiy and Pedro Salas The fossilized skull of a new species of mysterious meat-eating dinosaur from the Isle of Wight has been rediscovered in the collections of the Natural History Museum after over 100 years in storage.