Popular Mechanics
Scientists Just Discovered the Secret Magnetic Behaviors of Light
Darren Orf
Wed, December 3, 2025 at 9:30 AM EST
3 min read



Experts Found Secret Magnetic Behaviors of Light fotograzia - Getty Images


Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

*In 1845, Michael Faraday discovered what’s known today as the Faraday Effect—which describes how light and electromagnetism are related.

*A new study revealed that the magnetic component of light exerts a surprising influence on matter, affecting 17 percent of atomic spin in the visible spectrum and up to 75 percent in the infrared.

*This re-examination of the magnetic effect of light on matter could open up new possibilities for scientists to manipulate atomic spins, creating new forms of storage and sensor technologies.


In the scientific history of the exploration of electricity and light, some pretty big names come to mind: Newton, Franklin, Maxwell, Edison, and Tesla, among others. However, in the world of electromagnetism, few names are quite as influential as Michael Faraday. Born to a poor family, Faraday became a self-taught scientist and eventually the protégé of British chemist and inventor Humphrey Davy. His discoveries of electromagnetic induction (the basic principle behind all modern turbines) and the Faraday Effect (which describes how electromagnetism and light are related) eventually earned him a knighthood—which he promptly turned down, wanting to remain “plain Mr. Faraday to the end.”

Although electromagnetic induction is the foundation of industry, the Faraday Effect has an equally profound impact on physics. In 1845, Faraday designed an experiment with a light source, a system of polarizers, and electromagnets. When light traveled through the two polarizers, quite expectedly, Faraday saw no light emitted at the other side. However, under the influence of the electromagnets, Faraday saw a “minuscule but indistinguishable” flicker of light, confirming that electromagnetism exhibits some influence on the electric field of light.


Fast forward 180 years, and scientists are still discovering new properties of this interplay between light and magnetism. In a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports, physicists Benjamin Assouline and Amir Capua from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem announce the finding that light can exhibit a magnetic influence in addition to an electric one. Specifically, this magnetic influence interacts with atomic spins—a process once assumed to be too insignificant to be of any importance.

“The static magnetic field ‘twists’ the light, and the light, in turn, reveals the magnetic properties of the material,” Capua said in a press statement. “What we’ve found is that the magnetic part of light has a first-order effect, it’s surprisingly active in this process.”

Using the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation, which typically describes spin behavior in materials, Assouline and Capua demonstrated how light can create “magnetic torque” that is actually similar to a static magnetic field. When applying this theoretical model to Terbium Gallium Garnet (TGG)—a material commonly used to test the Faraday Effect—the magnetic component of light accounted for 17 percent of atomic rotation in the visible spectrum. In the infrared (with a wavelength up to 1,300 nanometers), that number jumped to a staggering 75 percent.

“Our results show that light ‘talks’ to matter not only through its electric field, but also through its magnetic field, a component that has been largely overlooked until now,’ Assouline said.

According to Igor Rozhansky, a physicist at the University of Manchester who spoke with New Scientist, a re-evaluation of the magnetic component of light could give scientists a new way to manipulate atomic spins, though it’s uncertain how strong this effect will be in certain materials. Such fine-tuned manipulation, according to New Scientist, could lead to a new generation of spin-based sensors and hard drives.

Faraday’s experimental foray into the world of electromagnetism eventually inspired James Clerk Maxwell’s famous equations that, effectively, laid the foundation of our modern technological society. But even 180 years after one of Faraday’s most famous observations, it turns out there’s still a lot more to learn.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/scientists-just-discovered-secret-magnetic-143000587.html

Live Science
'An extreme end of human genetic variation': Ancient humans were isolated in southern Africa for nearly 100,000 years, and their genetics are stunningly different
Kristina Killgrove
Wed, December 3, 2025 at 11:00 AM EST
4 min read



Mandible of Matjes River 1 woman, who lived 7,900 years ago in southern Africa. | Credit: Mattias Jakobsson


Humans were isolated in southern Africa for about 100,000 years, which caused them to "fall outside the range of genetic variation" seen in modern-day people, a new genetic study reveals.

The finding supports the idea that "modern" Homo sapiens can have many different combinations of genetic features, even those outside the norm.

In a study published Wednesday (Dec. 3) in the journal Nature, researchers sequenced the genomes of 28 ancient individuals, whose remains were between 225 and 10,275 years old, from southern Africa, south of the Limpopo River, which begins in South Africa and flows in an arc eastward through Mozambique to the ocean.

The team then compared the skeletons' genomes with published data from ancient and modern-day Africans, Europeans, Asians, Americans and Oceanians.

The researchers discovered that all of the people who lived in southern Africa more than 1,400 years ago had dramatically different genetic makeups than modern-day humans, pointing to the relative isolation of the southern part of the continent until relatively recently.

The researchers still aren't sure exactly why humans remained isolated in the region for so long.

"We can speculate that the vast geographic distance has played a role in the isolation, but that is not a very satisfactory speculation, as humans have and often do transcend large geographic areas," study co-author Mattias Jakobsson, a human evolutionary biologist at Uppsala University in Sweden, told Live Science in an email. However, the geographic area around the Zambezi River, which is just north of this isolated group, may not have been particularly suitable for ancient human habitation. "The combination of distance and unfavorable conditions might have isolated the south," Jakobsson said.

Many of the ancient southern Africans, including those who lived between about 10,200 and 1,400 years ago, "fall outside the range of genetic variation among modern-day individuals," the researchers wrote in the study, "and form an extreme end of human genetic variation."

The researchers labeled this previously unknown suite of genetic variation the "ancient southern African ancestry component" and found that there was no clear indication of admixture — or outsiders sharing their genes with the group — until about A.D. 550.

"Our findings therefore contrast with linguistic, archaeological and some early genetic studies pointing to a shared ancestry or long-term interaction between eastern, western and southern Africa," the researchers wrote.

The population living in southern Africa was likely quite large until at least 200,000 years ago, the researchers determined using statistical modeling. Some people may have left the south during favorable climatic conditions, spreading their genes as they moved north. Then, around 50,000 years ago, the population of southern Africans began to decline, and by about 1,300 years ago, farmers arriving from further north met and reproduced with the foragers of southern Africa.



Study co-author Helena Malmström samples a skull at the Florisbad research station using the mobile clean lab. | Credit: Alexandra Coutinho


"Really important" genetic variants

The unique genetics of ancient southern Africans gave the researchers further clues to human evolution and variation.

The prehistoric population of southern Africa contains half of all human genetic variation, while people spread throughout the rest of the world contain the other half, Jakobsson said in a statement. "Consequently, these genomes help us to see which genetic variants were really important for human evolution," he said.

When they investigated dozens of DNA variants that are unique to H. sapiens, including in the ancient southern African population, the researchers discovered several linked to kidney function and several related to the growth of neurons in the brain. The kidney variants may have evolved to help humans retain or control water in their bodies, while the neuron variants may be linked to attention spans, suggesting humans had better mental capabilities than Neanderthals or Denisovans.

The new analysis reveals that there is "vast genetic variation still unassessed in ancient genomes from Indigenous peoples globally," the researchers wrote, which is important for understanding the evolution of H. sapiens.

In particular, the presence of human-specific variants in ancient southern Africans lends support to a "combinatorial" genetic model of human evolution, the researchers noted, in which many possible combinations of genetic variants eventually led to "genetically modern" H. sapiens.

"I think that it is certainly possible that humans evolved, at least partly, in multiple places," Jakobsson said. "How — and if — such a process would have happened, and how it combined genetic variation into genetically modern humans, is an open question."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/extreme-end-human-genetic-variation-160000295.html

Popular Mechanics
Archaeologists Found 6,000-Year-Old Artifacts Under One of England’s Most Hallowed Buildings
Tim Newcomb
Wed, December 3, 2025 at 9:00 AM EST
3 min read



Ancient Artifacts Found Under an English Landmark Jordi Salas - Getty Images


Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

*Archaeologists exploring the estate at the Palace of Westminster have found artifacts stretching 6,000 years into history.

*The team uncovered stone tools likely from around 4300 B.C.E.

*A stash of over 60 flint tools were likely part of a hunting and fishing community.


Tucked under London’s Palace of Westminster— one of the most famous structures in the city and home to the Houses of Parliament—archaeologists uncovered artifacts dating back 6,000 years, including stone tools from around 4300 B.C.E. that mark the historic area as home to a community of fishers and hunters.

As part of a three-year archaeological investigation program led by the Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal Delivery Authority, the team drilled 14 trial pits and 10 geoarchaeological boreholes on the site, including some in spots known to historically house industrial activity.

The key finds feature more than 60 struck flint flakes, a Stone Age style of tool shaped by smashing rock together, including one tool worked carefully that could be from the late Mesolithic period. The team also found artifacts stretching through time, including a medieval leather boot, shoe soles, and straps roughly 800 years old; fragments of intricately decorated clay tobacco pipes likely used by stonemasons working on the site after an 1834 fire; a Roman alter fragment over 2,000 years old; an ornate lead badge shaped like a flowering heart, common for wedding rings and seals in the 14th and 15th centuries; a 19th-century five-pint beer jug; a medieval floor tile used at Westminster; and a stone crucible used for heating up lead that may have been instrumental in helping create the window frames of the medieval palace.

“The initial finds from archaeological investigations confirm the richness of Westminster as a site,” David Brock, head of the Government Historic Estates Unit at Historic England, said in a statement. “They testify to the variety of human experience on this site.”

The effort is happening as the government prepares for the restoration and renewal of the palace. “A huge amount of work is going on to understand more about the building and the thousands of years of history underneath the home of parliament as we know it today,” Judith Cummins, deputy speaker of the Commons and R&R Program Board Chair, said in a statement.

Simon Thurley, archaeologist and chair of the Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal Delivery Authority Board, said in a statement that the first trial excavations have already revealed things the expert didn’t know, while confirming things they suspected. “It is the start of a fascinating and important journey of discovery,” he said.

Along with the smaller artifacts, the team located the substantial remains of the medieval Lesser Hall, also known as White Hall. Dating to 1167, the two-story hall was a royal dining space that was instrumental in parliamentary events. Historians had believed that the hall was damaged in the Great Fire of 1834, but now they understand the hall’s stone walls survived the blaze. It was restored, re-roofed, and used until demolition in 1851.

“The locating of the Lesser Hall walls is particularly exciting,” Brock said. “As this work continues, we hope it will further expand our understanding of the surviving medieval buildings, especially Westminster Hall, and that the discoveries will enrich our knowledge of this World Heritage site.”

The archaeological investigations continue across the state, specifically targeting places where future work is expected.

“These exciting discoveries and finds are all contributing to the national story and historical knowledge of the Palace of Westminster site and the World Heritage Site,” Diane Abrams, archaeology lead with the authority, said in a statement. “To see rare evidence for prehistoric flint tool making on undisturbed sand deposits in this part of Thorney Island, where parliament now stands, is fantastic. Uncovering the surviving remains of the medieval Lesser Hall wall along with foundations of former parliamentary structures is also very special.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/archaeologists-found-6-000-old-140000567.html

ExplorersWeb
Chernobyl Mold Has Learned To Eat Radiation
Lou Bodenhemier
Wed, December 3, 2025 at 7:57 AM EST
3 min read


With humans largely out of the picture, wildlife has returned to the once-settled Chernobyl area. Last year, researchers found that the region's grey wolves have become largely immune to the cancer-causing effect of radiation. But resisting radiation is a far cry from actively feeding off it. But a type of black fungus seems to be doing just that.

Since the 1990s, researchers have found fungus growing and apparently thriving even in the most dangerously radioactive areas of the former power plant. Recent studies have shown that the black fungus growing in Chernobyl has developed an incredible ability to convert radiation into energy.



The scorched and molding walls of the old reactor. Photo: Wikimedia Commons


Meet the mold in Reactor Four

In 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant's fourth reactor exploded in a catastrophic meltdown. Four years later, a Ukrainian research team led by Nelli N. Zhdanova discovered black mold growing in and around the former plant, including within the ruins of the fourth reactor. There were 37 species of fungus in all, growing in different ranges of radioactivity.

A 2000 study found that particular molds containing melanin, the same pigment-producing molecule that exists in human skin, grew densely in highly irradiated areas. The star of this particular show was Cladosporium sphaerospermum.

Zhdanova's team took samples of this mold and exposed it to radiation, measuring its growth  against various controls. Weirdly, the Chernobyl samples actually grew better when exposed to dangerous ionizing radiation. Researchers now theorize that fungi like C. sphaerospermum are performing "radiosynthesis," capturing and living off of ionizing radiation, like how photosynthetic organisms use electromagnetic radiation from sunlight.



Cladosporium sphaerospermum, the fungus that loves radiation and extreme environments. Photo: Medmyco


Radiotrophic fungus (in space?)

The secret weapon of C. Sphaerospernum likely lies in melanin. Melanin is a type of biomolecule, which serves a number of functions across the animal and fungal kingdoms.

When our skin is exposed to UV radiation in sunlight, our melanin-producing cells start, well, doing that. The dark melanin gives you a tan and, more importantly, absorbs that UV radiation and prevents it from damaging the cell nucleus.

Since we, however, would not thrive inside Reactor Four, it must be assumed that the melanized fungi have more going on. The current theory is that melanin acts like chlorophyll. Like melanin, chlorophyll is a pigment -- it's what makes plants green -- and it is a key part of photosynthesis.

The exact mechanism of C. Sphaerospernum's radioactive success may not be confirmed yet, but that didn't stop scientists from sending it to space in 2022. As the resulting study explains, mold that was grown on the outside of the International Space Station actually did better than the control.

This is good news for mold and even better for human astronauts. One of the many health risks of space travel is exposure to radiation. While we are still in the early stages of research, scientists are already looking at radiotrophic fungi as a potential way to shield us from radiation in space

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/chernobyl-mold-learned-eat-radiation-125712322.html

Space
NASA discovers 'space gum' and sugars 'crucial to life' in asteroid Bennu samples brought to Earth (video)
Sharmila Kuthunur
Wed, December 3, 2025 at 6:00 AM EST



A close up of asteroid Bennu in space. | Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona


Scientists have detected several sugars essential for life in the samples brought back from asteroid Bennu, NASA announced on Tuesday (Dec. 2).

Analyzing pristine fragments of the asteroid delivered to Earth by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in 2023, a team led by Yoshihiro Furukawa of Tohoku University in Japan found ribose, a crucial building block of RNA, and glucose, an energy-rich sugar used by nearly all life on Earth.

Although the researchers stress that these sugars are not evidence of life itself, their presence suggests that the basic chemical ingredients needed for biology were common throughout the early solar system.



A mosaic image of the asteroid Bennu created by observations made by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. | Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona


"They were everywhere," Danny Glavin, an astrobiologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and a co-investigator on the OSIRIS-REx mission, said in a NASA video announcing the finding.

If materials like these were widespread, he added, then places such as Mars or Jupiter's icy moon Europa may also have been seeded with the same raw ingredients. "I'm becoming much more optimistic that we may be able to find life beyond Earth, even in our own solar system."


Pristine extraterrestrial chemistry

Because the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft scooped and sealed the Bennu samples directly in space, the grains never touched Earth's environment. Scientists say that allowed them to study pristine extraterrestrial chemistry, something not possible with meteorites that crash to Earth and quickly become contaminated.

For the new study, published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Geoscience, Furukawa's team analyzed about 600 milligrams of powdered Bennu material. After soaking the grains in water and acid to extract any sugars, the scientists used highly sensitive lab instruments to detect chemical "fingerprints" matching ribose, glucose and several other sugars, according to the paper.

The researchers say the most exciting of these is ribose, a sugar that forms the backbone of RNA — a molecule that stores genetic information, helps build proteins, and carries out many of life's essential chemical reactions. The prevailing scientific consensus is that RNA arose before DNA in early life, making ribose a key piece in theories about how life began.

Furukawa's team also discovered glucose, the primary fuel source for modern life, marking the first time this sugar has been identified in an extraterrestrial sample.

"These sugars complete the inventory of ingredients crucial to life," Furukawa and his team wrote in the new paper.

The results suggest the sugars formed inside Bennu's long-lost parent asteroid more than 4.5 billion years ago, when pockets of salty water reacted with simple organic molecules inside the rock. That parent body later drifted into the inner solar system, broke apart in the asteroid belt, and eventually reassembled into the rubble-pile asteroid now known as Bennu.

The researchers also note that they did not detect a type of sugar used to build DNA, called 2-deoxyribose, whose absence supports the long-standing "RNA world" hypothesis that early life relied on RNA first, with DNA and proteins evolving later.

Scientists say they're now checking whether similar sugars appear in samples from Ryugu, a nearby asteroid sampled by Japan's Hayabusa2 mission. "I wouldn't be surprised if we found them there as well," Glavin said in the video.


More to come

The sugar detections were one of three major Bennu findings announced on Tuesday.

A second team, co-led by Zack Gainsforth of the University of California, reported discovering a type of "space gum" in the Bennu samples — an unusual, polymer-like material never before seen in space rocks.

"It was like nothing we had ever seen," Gainsforth said in a NASA statement. "For months we were consumed by data and theories as we attempted to understand just what it was and how it could have come into existence."

Once soft and flexible but now hardened, the substance forms tangled molecular chains rich in nitrogen and oxygen, according to the study, which was published in Nature Astronomy. Because it appears to have formed very early in the asteroid's history, scientists say it may be an early chemical precursor that helped set the stage for life on Earth, and perhaps one of the first alterations preserved inside Bennu.

A third study, led by Ann Nguyen of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas and also published in Nature Astronomy, found that Bennu contains six times more dust from ancient exploding stars than any other known space material. These fragile grains indicate that Bennu's parent body formed in a region of the early solar nebula enriched in dust of dying stars, scientists say.

"On this primitive asteroid that formed in the early days of the solar system, we're looking at events near the beginning of the beginning," Scott Sandford, an astrophysicist at the Ames Research Center in California, who co-led the analysis with Gainsforth, said in the NASA statement.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/nasa-discovers-space-gum-sugars-110000351.html