A new subatomic particle known as the Ξcc⁺ has been discovered at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. This heavy proton-like particle contains two charm quarks and was detected using the upgraded LHCb experiment. Scientists observed it through its decay into lighter particles in high-energy collisions. The finding confirms predictions and settles a decades-long question about its existence.

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Kepler-51d is a giant, ultra-light “super-puff” planet wrapped in an unusually thick haze that’s blocking scientists from seeing what it’s made of. Observations from JWST revealed that this haze may be one of the largest ever detected, possibly stretching as wide as Earth itself. The planet’s low density and close orbit don’t match existing models of how gas giants form or survive. Now, researchers are left with more questions than answers about how such a strange world came to be.

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A new study put ChatGPT to the test by asking it to judge whether hundreds of scientific hypotheses were true or false—and the results were far from reassuring. While the AI got it right about 80% of the time on the surface, its performance dropped significantly when accounting for random guessing, revealing only modest reasoning ability. Even more concerning, it frequently contradicted itself when asked the exact same question multiple times, sometimes flipping answers back and forth.

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Astronomers may have found an exciting new clue about dark energy—the mysterious force driving the universe’s accelerating expansion. They discovered an extraordinarily bright supernova from more than 10 billion years ago whose light was bent and magnified by a foreground galaxy, creating multiple images through gravitational lensing. Because the light from each image traveled slightly different paths, it arrived at Earth at different times, letting scientists effectively watch different moments of the same cosmic explosion simultaneously.

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Scientists studying a mysterious effect called cosmic birefringence—a subtle twist in the polarization of the universe’s oldest light—have developed a new way to reduce uncertainty in how it’s measured. This faint rotation in the cosmic microwave background could point to entirely new physics, including hidden particles such as axions and clues about dark matter or dark energy.

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Physicists at UC Santa Barbara have uncovered a new way to manipulate unusual magnetic states by exploiting “frustration” inside a crystal’s atomic structure. The team discovered a rare system where two different kinds of frustration—magnetic and electronic bond frustration—coexist and interact. By coupling these competing effects, researchers may be able to control exotic quantum states, potentially unlocking new ways to manipulate entangled spins for future quantum technologies.

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Scientists have developed a powerful new computational method that could accelerate the search for next-generation materials capable of turning sunlight into useful chemical energy. The work focuses on polyheptazine imides, a promising class of carbon nitride materials that absorb visible light and can drive reactions such as hydrogen production, carbon dioxide conversion, and hydrogen peroxide synthesis. By analyzing how 53 different metal ions influence the structure and electronic behavior of these materials, researchers created a framework that predicts which combinations will perform best.

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