Week in Science: Prime numbers found in fractal chaos

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October 10—This week, handheld quantum tunneling, chemical cages and immune system regulators win Nobel Prizes. Plus, prime numbers in fractal chaos and stunning cat photos that reveal feline science. All that and more below! —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

Top Stories

Prime Numbers Show Unexpected Patterns of Fractal Chaos Mathematicians have found a new way to predict how prime numbers behave Lyndie Chiou

Faster-Than-Light Galaxies Are a Fact of Life in Our Expanding Universe When space itself expands, weird things can happen—like galaxies breaking the universe's ultimate speed limit Phil Plait

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Math's Most Tangled Mysteries Start With a String Learn the fundamentals of the burgeoning field of knot theory while solving some puzzles along the way Emma R. Hasson

See Stunning Feline Photography Revealing the Science of Cats Tim Flach captures his fascination with the science of cats in stunning photographs from his new book Feline Liz Tormes, Meghan Bartels

Dark Energy Might Be Emerging from the Hearts of Black Holes A controversial prediction about black holes and the expansion force of the universe could explain a cosmology mystery Rebecca Boyle

Babies' Brains Recognize Foreign Languages They Heard before Birth Babies process foreign languages they heard in utero much like their mother tongue, researchers find Meghie Rodrigues

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics Goes to Researchers Who Showed Quantum Tunneling on a Chip John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis shared the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work showing how bizarre microscopic quantum effects can infiltrate our large-scale, everyday world Lee Billings

Annual COVID Vaccines Protect People against Severe Disease, Even with Prior Immunity A new study shows that receiving an updated COVID vaccine reduced people's risk of severe disease and death in all age groups, regardless of immunity from prior infection or vaccination Sara Novak

2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Awarded for Discoveries of How the Body Puts the Brakes on the Immune System Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi shared the Nobel prize for their work on peripheral immune tolerance, a process that is key to organ transplants and treatment of autoimmune diseases Lauren J. Young

Humans Have Crossed 7 of 9 'Planetary Boundaries' Earth has breached a critical boundary for ocean acidification, with potentially grim effects for ocean ecosystems and human livelihoods Andrea Thompson

Go Inside a Room That Lets You Hear Your Nervous System Step into a room so quiet you can hear your own heartbeat—and your nervous system. Rachel Feltman, Jeffery DelViscio, Kelso Harper, Fonda Mwangi, Naeem Amarsy

2025 Chemistry Nobel Goes to Molecular Sponges That Purify Water, Store Energy and Clean Up the Environment Three scientists, including one from the U.S., share the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing "metal-organic frameworks," versatile molecular cages that can trap contaminants, store energy and possibly deliver drugs to specific areas of the body Megha Satyanarayana

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