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Portable low-field scanners could revolutionize medical imaging in nations rich and poor—if doctors embrace them

The United States and Japan are embarking on ambitious efforts to wring a key secret of the universe from the subatomic phantoms known as neutrinos

By harnessing the strange rules of the subatomic realm, quantum sensors could solve one of the universe’s biggest mysteries

Energy department opens new competition to run struggling Fermilab

Fantastical though it may seem, scientists can now study black holes as real objects, exploiting techniques that have come to fruition in just the past 5 years. But are they really seeing the mysterious, featureless pits in space and time predicted by Albert Einstein9s theory of gravity, general relativity? Could these objects be something else, instead, perhaps some ultradense dark material orbs? Scientists hope to find out by studying ripples in space set off when pairs of the objects spiral together and merge, further imaging the shadow of the supermassive black hole in a nearby galaxy, and by tracing stars whizzing around the center of our own Galaxy. Any sign that general relativity is wrong, and that these things are not the knots of pure gravity predicted by the theory, would revolutionize physics.

From a monarch mystery unlocked with the help of Indigenous people to an environmental disaster averted by a chemist who was not afraid of a fight, this year's finalists for the AAAS/Subaru (SB&F) Prize for Excellence in Science Books highlight how diverse perspectives, grit, and a healthy dose of hope are essential to the effective practice of science. Read on for reviews of the finalists written by the staff of the Science family of journals, with help from a few friends.

A quantum computer employs quantum bits, or qubits, that can be both 0 and 1 at the same time, the equivalent of sitting at both ends of your couch at once. Embodied in ions, photons, or tiny superconducting circuits, such two-way states give a quantum computer its power. But they9re also fragile, and the slightest interaction with their surroundings can distort them. So scientists must learn to correct such errors, and the leaders in the field of quantum computation—Google, IBM, and Rigetti Computing—are all gearing up to take a first step toward such error correction: spreading the information encoded in a single jittery qubit among many of them in a way that maintains the information even as noise rattles the underlying qubits. It9s the obvious next step for the field, researchers say, and the one that will determine whether a quantum computer with thousands of qubits in merely a noise maker or the most powerful computer ever.

Use of highly enriched fuel in civilian reactor would contravene decades-old nonproliferation policy

The hunt for sources resumes this month with just the twin LIGO detectors and a limited science reach

Google’s error-correction scheme works better as it gets bigger

High-profile claim of “quantum supremacy” fades

Ten years ago, physicists found what they predicted. Little new has followed

Triple whammy of pandemic lockdowns, supply chain issues, and inflation hits many

In 2016, physicists at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) suffered a major setback. Their one remaining large fusion reactor, the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX), suffered a crippling breakdown after a 5-year, $94 million upgrade. It was a body blow to a lab that was already staggering. In the 1980s, PPPL ran multiple machines, employed nearly 1300 people, and led the worldwide quest to harness fusion, the energy source of the Sun. Today, PPPL employs 560 people, and NSTX sits idle 3 years after breaking down. Yet things may be looking up for the lab. After years of reviews, PPPL researchers expect to start to rebuild NSTX in April. And 1 year ago, a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine urged the United States to prepare to build a prototype power plant, smaller and cheaper than ITER, the $25 billion international fusion reactor under construction in France. PPPL would likely play a leading role in building that power plant. Perhaps most important, in 2018 PPPL hired a new lab director. Steven Cowley, a strapping 60-year-old Englishman with a shock of silver hair and a knighthood, already has a plan to diversify the lab9s work, grow its staff, and start to build things again.

Decision to build troubled megaproject in two phases will add to ballooning cost

Science has named nine scientific advances as runners-up for the 2019 Breakthrough of the Year.

From cryptic ciphers and wall-climbing robots to dinosaur digs and visits to the planetarium, this year's finalists for the Science Books and Films (SB&F) Prizes for Excellence in Science Books are packed with fun facts, easy-to-do experiments, and plenty of creepy-crawly creatures. Sponsored by Subaru and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, the publisher of Science ), the SB&F competition celebrates high-quality science books for young readers. Read on for reviews of the finalists, written by the staff of the Science family of journals, with help from a few friends.

Having struck out once, a storied particle detector gets a second chance at glory: hunting the sterile neutrino.

Trio helped launch new quantum revolution

Major physics projects and national lab infrastructure will get $1.5 billion over 5 years

Three huge detectors are racing to detect WIMPs, long the favored candidate for universe's missing matter

NIST’s research reactor suffered little damage, but will be offline for months

Department of Energy says it has no plan to downsize $3 billion neutrino experiment

Scheme that harkens back to ordinary lasers could open new research avenues

At one time, many physicists resisted the notion of a black hole, a ghostly, self-sustaining gravitational field so intense that not even light can escape. Now, theorists have few alternatives to these creepy holes in the universe. Any alternative to a black hole must be some dark, dense material orb that9s bigger than a black hole of the same mass. One hypothetical possibility is a gravastar: a thin material shell filled with dark energy, the mysterious space-stretching stuff that appears to be accelerating the expansion of the universe. Another possibility would be a boson star, which would consist of exotic, massive Higgs bosons or nearly massless hypothetical particles called axions. Theorists say the study of black hole alternatives would expand if observers saw evidence that the current description of black holes isn9t correct.

COVID-19 has made this a cruel year for us all. As Science went to press, the global toll of the pandemic already exceeded 1.6 million, a tragic number that includes scientists of all specialties, ages, nations, and backgrounds. Behind the mind-numbing total are individuals, each a spark of ingenuity, imagination, and creative spirit. Because we can9t do justice to every life lost, we9ve chosen to honor 11 who embody the best of what our profession has to offer, to society and to each other. In remembering them, we mourn the much larger losses for the scientific community—and the world.