Chen Zhang

The Einstein Probe space telescope detected a celestial storm: after a short (0.4-second) gamma-ray burst — a cosmic lightning bolt — came a long roll of X-ray thunder. It lasted nearly 10 minutes. This is the first direct proof that such explosions leave a lingering X-ray afterglow.

The fruit fly Drosophila is a tiny creature with a brain the size of a poppy seed. It contains about one hundred thousand nerve cells, and scientists have already mapped all their connections, like a city subway map where stations are neurons and lines are the links between them. This map is called a connectome.

Tiny black holes, born right after the birth of the universe, are supposed to evaporate — shedding mass as invisible particles. This was predicted by Stephen Hawking, and this 'Hawking evaporation' contributed to the expansion of the young cosmos.

An ordinary magnet always carries two poles — north and south. Split it in half, and each piece immediately grows its own pair. But deep in particle theory lives a strange notion: the monopole — a particle carrying just one magnetic charge, a lone pole without a partner.

A massive star ends its life in a spectacular collapse: the core compresses into a neutron star or a black hole, while the outer layers fly off in a dazzling supernova.