Yu Rong

Searching for a new material is like looking for a needle in a haystack, but here the haystack is millions of possible atomic combinations. In the past, scientists spent years trying out options in the lab, relying on intuition and luck. Now, artificial intelligence is stepping in, learning to 'understand' the language of crystals.

An old city gains new suburbs. In the center, narrow streets where life has nearly stopped, while on the outskirts construction is booming. That is what a spiral galaxy looks like when its core stars have long aged and new stars are still being born in the outer disk.

Two astronomical surveys look at the same galaxy through different windows. DESI's window is narrow, just 1.5 arcseconds across, and it catches only the bright core. SDSS's window is twice as wide, 3 arcseconds, and it also includes the outer spiral arms.