Catálogo de publicaciones - revistas

<jats:p> Highlights from the <jats:italic>Science</jats:italic> family of journals </jats:p>

<jats:p>Editors’ selections from the current scientific literature</jats:p>

<jats:title>Vortex beams of nonelementary particles</jats:title> <jats:p> The discovery of photon and electron vortex beams carrying orbital angular momentum (as a result of a twisting wave front) has led to appreciable advances in optical imaging, optical and electron microscopy, communications, quantum optics and micromanipulation, and more advances are expected. In an effort to extend this progress to other types of beams, Luski <jats:italic>et al</jats:italic> . demonstrate the production of vortex beams of helium atoms and dimers formed from supersonic beams with large coherence lengths diffracted off of specifically nanofabricated gratings with fork dislocations (see the Perspective by Kornilov). Vortex beams made of nonelementary particles with internal degrees of freedom represent a direct manifestation of quantum mechanics on macroscopic scale, and their production paves the way for many long-awaited applications. —YS </jats:p>

<jats:title>Targeting a range of betacoranaviruses</jats:title> <jats:p> In the past 20 years, three highly pathogenic β-coronaviruses have crossed from animals to humans, including the most recent: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). A spike protein that decorates these viruses has an S1 domain that binds host cell receptors and an S2 domain that fuses the viral and cell membranes to allow cell entry. The S1 domain is the target of many neutralizing antibodies but is more genetically variable than S2, and antibodies can exert selective pressure, leading to resistant variants. Pinto <jats:italic>et al</jats:italic> . identified five monoclonal antibodies that interact with a helix in the S2 domain. The most broadly neutralizing antibody inhibited all β-coronavirus subgenera and reduced viral burden in hamsters infected with SARS-CoV-2. —VV </jats:p>

<jats:title>Cold weather disruptions</jats:title> <jats:p> Despite the rapid warming that is the cardinal signature of global climate change, especially in the Arctic, where temperatures are rising much more than elsewhere in the world, the United States and other regions of the Northern Hemisphere have experienced a conspicuous and increasingly frequent number of episodes of extremely cold winter weather over the past four decades. Cohen <jats:italic>et al</jats:italic> . combined observations and models to demonstrate that Arctic change is likely an important cause of a chain of processes involving what they call a stratospheric polar vortex disruption, which ultimately results in periods of extreme cold in northern midlatitudes (see the Perspective by Coumou). —HJS </jats:p>

<jats:title>Patterned nematics</jats:title> <jats:p> Electrons in solids can break rotational symmetry, resulting in electronic nematicity. This phenomenon has been observed in both cuprate-based and iron-based high-temperature superconductors, and its relationship to superconductivity remains a subject of debate. Shimojima <jats:italic>et al</jats:italic> . used linear dichroism measurements to image nematicity in two iron-based superconductors. Unexpectedly, the researchers found periodic patterns with very long wavelengths. The findings could be described with a phenomenological model assuming a train of nematic domain walls. —JS </jats:p>

<jats:title>Radio evidence of a stellar merger</jats:title> <jats:p> Core collapse supernovae occur when a massive star exhausts its fuel and explodes. Theorists have predicted that a similar explosion could occur if an evolved massive star merges with a compact companion, such as a neutron star. Dong <jats:italic>et al</jats:italic> . have identified a radio source that was not present in earlier radio surveys. Follow-up radio and optical spectroscopy show that it is an expanding supernova remnant slamming into surrounding material, probably ejected from the star centuries before it exploded. An unidentified x-ray transient occurred at a consistent location in 2014, suggesting an explosion at that time that produced a jet. The authors suggest that the most likely explanation is a merger-triggered supernova. —KTS </jats:p>

<jats:title>Monitoring quantum dynamics</jats:title> <jats:p> Reducing the dimensionality of a quantum system of interacting particles can simplify its physics. Such reduction is possible in ultracold atomic gases, where a lattice of one-dimensional (1D) gases can be generated using optical potentials. Malvania <jats:italic>et al</jats:italic> . studied the dynamics of 1D rubidium-87 atomic gases after a sudden increase in the axial trapping potential. Normally, these dynamics would be difficult to describe theoretically, but the researchers found that a theory called generalized hydrodynamics captured the behavior of their 1D system over a long time evolution. —JS </jats:p>