Webb detects first methane atmosphere on planet orbiting a dead white dwarf

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have identified methane, aerosols, and tidal heat in the atmosphere of WD 1856 b, a Jupiter-size world orbiting a white dwarf 80 light-years away. This marks the first atmosphere detected on a planet around a dead star and reveals how the planet migrated inward after the star's death. In other breakthroughs, researchers demonstrated the first purely orbitronic device with 100x stronger signals than spintronics, a perfusion device that revives donor eyeballs for potential transplants, and a dendritic cell vaccine that extended progression-free survival in glioblastoma patients.

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Webb finds methane atmosphere on planet orbiting dead white dwarf The James Webb Space Telescope detected methane, aerosols, and a distinct heat signature in the atmosphere of WD 1856 b, a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting a white dwarf 80 light-years away. This first-ever atmospheric characterization of a planet circling a dead star confirms late migration driven by gravitational interactions with nearby red dwarfs. 1 2

First purely orbitronic device achieves 100x stronger signals than spintronics Physicists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz built the first device that directly uses electronic orbital currents without converting them to spin currents, achieving 100 times stronger signals than spintronic equivalents. Published in Science, the milestone lays the groundwork for ultra-low-power non-volatile memory. 3

Device revives eyeballs from dead donors, enabling transplant potential Researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona developed the Eye-in-a-Care-Box (ECaBox), which uses perfusion to keep donor eyes viable and responsive to light for over 24 hours. The breakthrough could make whole-eye transplantation a realistic possibility. 4

Personalized dendritic cell vaccine shows promise in glioblastoma trial A phase 1b trial of a personalized neoantigen-pulsed dendritic cell vaccine (ZSNeo-DC) in newly diagnosed glioblastoma reported a median progression-free survival of 16.2 months and a 100% 12-month overall survival rate. The treatment was well tolerated with only mild adverse events. 5

Germanium chip achieves topological quantum state at 0.25 tesla A germanium quantum well produced a fully spin-polarized quantum Hall state at just 0.25 tesla, ten times lower than conventional requirements, using a CMOS-compatible chip. The result, published in Communications Materials, could enable fault-tolerant quantum computing without high-field superconducting magnets. 6