For each year during the past quarter century, the world’s oceans have absorbed an amount of heat energy that is 150 times the energy humans produce as electricity annually, according to a study led by researchers at Princeton and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California-San Diego. The strong ocean warming the…

Quantum particles can be difficult to characterize, and almost impossible to control if they strongly interact with each other—until now. An international team of researchers led by Princeton physicist Zahid Hasan has discovered a quantum state of matter that can be “tuned” at will—and it’s 10 times more tuneable than existing theories can explain. This…

Genes produce proteins that keep your body functioning and healthy. But genes that code for protein make up less than 2 percent of your DNA. The rest of the DNA might appear to be dormant at first glance, but scientists now appreciate that this region plays a key role in turning genes on and off.…

Replacing a cluster installed in 2012, Princeton’s new flagship computer, TIGER, arrived quietly on campus in March and was put through months of routine testing and debugging before being officially unveiled in late May. Several tours and a reception were held at the High-Performance Computing Research Center (HPCRC) on the Forrestal Campus during Reunions. At…

Using high-powered laser beams, researchers have simulated conditions inside a planet three times as large as Earth. Scientists have identified more than 2,000 of these “super-Earths,” exoplanets that are larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, the next-largest planet in our solar system. By studying how iron and silicon alloys respond to extraordinary pressures, scientists…

Targeted geoengineering to preserve continental ice sheets deserves serious research and investment, argues an international team of researchers in a Comment published March 14 in the journal Nature. Without intervention, by 2100 most large coastal cities will face sea levels that are more than three feet higher than they are currently. Previous discussions of geoengineering…

Women have been told for years that if they don’t have children before their mid-30s, they may not be able to. But a new study from Princeton University’s Coleen Murphyhas identified a drug that extends egg viability in worms, even when taken midway through the fertile window, which could theoretically extend women’s fertility by three to…

In a major step toward making a quantum computer using everyday materials, a team led by researchers at Princeton University has constructed a key piece of silicon hardware capable of controlling quantum behavior between two electrons with extremely high precision. The study was published Dec. 7 in the journal Science. The team constructed a gate that…

Radioactivity may have a bad rap, but it plays a critical role in medical research. A revolutionary new technique to create radioactive molecules, pioneered in the lab of Princeton chemistry professor David MacMillan, has the potential to bring new medicines to patients much faster than before. “Your average drug takes 12 to 14 years to…

Using atoms cooled to just billionths of a degree above absolute zero, a team led by researchers at Princeton University has discovered an intriguing magnetic behavior that could help explain how high-temperature superconductivity works. The researchers found that applying a strong magnetic field to these ultracold atoms caused them to line up in an alternating…

Scientists have developed a new method to forecast the extent of sea ice in some regions of the Arctic up to 11 months in advance. The method, which incorporates information about ocean temperatures and focuses on regions rather than the entire Arctic Sea, could help in the planning of activities ranging from shipping to oil…

Researchers from Princeton University’s Department of Molecular Biology have developed a new method that can precisely track the replication of yellow fever virus in individual host immune cells. The technique, which is described in a paper published March 14 in the journal Nature Communications, could aid the development of new vaccines against a range of viruses,…

In a step that brings silicon-based quantum computers closer to reality, researchers at Princeton University have built a device in which a single electron can pass its quantum information to a particle of light. The particle of light, or photon, can then act as a messenger to carry the information to other electrons, creating connections…

For the first time, an experiment has directly imaged electron orbits in a high-magnetic field, illuminating an unusual collective behavior in electrons and suggesting new ways of manipulating the charged particles. The study, conducted by researchers at Princeton University and the University of Texas-Austin was published Oct. 21, in the journal Science. The study demonstrates that…