The National Institute of Standards and Technology has set a new world record for the most accurate aluminum ion-based optical atomic clock

When we leave Earth, we have to bring everything with us, from the air we breathe to the food we eat. For example, a 6-person, 1000-day mission might require 108 tonnes of food. In a new paper, researchers suggest ways that synthetic biology could allow us to convert local resources, regenerate resources in closed-loop environments, protect explorers from radiation, and create custom medicine on demand to support long-term space exploration.

A team of scientists led by expert Raúl Jiménez, ICREA researcher at the University of Barcelona's Institute of Cosmos Sciences (ICCUB), in collaboration with the University of Padua (Italy), has presented a revolutionary theory about the origins of the universe. The study, published in the journal Physical Review Research, introduces a radical change in the understanding of the first moments after the Big Bang, without relying on the speculative assumptions that physicists have traditionally assumed.