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Like most stars, the sun consists almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, and only 1.5% of its mass consists of heavier elements such as carbon, iron or silver. Yet these trace elements are extremely important. They act as a fossil record of the cosmos.

Ph.D. student makes discovery

"The new knowledge about the sun's composition is important for the understanding of other stars, planets and cosmic material, because the sun is one of astronomy's key reference points," says Sema Caliskan, who conducted the work during her Ph.D. studies at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Uppsala University.

Heavy elements are formed in stars and during stellar explosions and become part of new generations of stars and planets. Mapping the abundance of these elements is key to understanding the chemical evolution of the Milky Way.

Spectroscopic analysis

To determine the amount of silver in the sun, the researchers analyzed sunlight using spectroscopy. When atoms in the solar atmosphere absorb light, they produce dark absorption features at specific wavelengths in the spectrum, known as spectral lines. These lines act as fingerprints, with each element producing a unique pattern.

The fingerprint is compared with calculated atmospheric models to quantify the abundance of silver in the sun. Previous estimates were based on simplified models. However, in this new study, the researchers developed a new model that predicts 55% more silver than before. They combined a dynamical model of the sun's outer layers with improved atomic physics calculations to capture how silver atoms interact with light and other particles. Unlike earlier methods, the new calculations include non-equilibrium effects, meaning that the light influences the same silver atoms that create the dark absorption lines.

The solar system's missing silver

"With our new model, we were able to interpret the spectral lines used to determine the solar silver abundance more accurately," says Caliskan, who started her Ph.D. studies working on the structure of atoms and later applied her expertise to problems in stellar astrophysics.

The new silver value resolves a long-standing problem of missing silver in the solar system. Until now, the silver abundance measured in the sun was significantly lower than that found in chemically primitive meteorites. The sun and meteorites both formed at the same time from the same cloud of gas and dust 4.6 billion years ago. The new silver value in the sun is now in much better agreement with these meteorites.

Method could be used on other stars

The new results also improve our understanding of how silver and other elements are produced in stars and stellar explosions and later incorporated into new generations of stars and planets. The same method will now be applied to other stars.

"By studying the light of stars of different types and ages, we hope to understand where silver is formed in the universe and how it has been distributed throughout the Milky Way over time," says Caliskan.

Publication details

Ag I model atom and the 3D non-LTE solar silver abundance, Astronomy and Astrophysics (2026). DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202659578

Who's behind this story?

Swati Mestri

Swati Mestri holds a bachelor's degree in Electronics Engineering and has worked as a content editor since 2019. She has experience editing research documents across technology, health care, and materials science, and has a particular interest in technology and space. Full profile →

Andrew Zinin

Master's in physics with research experience. Long-time science news enthusiast. Plays key role in Science X's editorial success. Full profile →

Citation: Sun holds 55% more silver than estimated, new model reveals (2026, July 17) retrieved 17 July 2026 from https://phys.org/news/2026-07-sun-silver-reveals.html

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Self-driving truck technology "has a very high potential to change the economic geography of the United States," said Taejun Mo, an Illinois graduate student and first author of the paper.

"We all know that there's already very good truck transportation infrastructure in the United States, with a lot of cargo crisscrossing the country," he said. "But autonomous truck transportation can make everything even more efficient. Human truck drivers cannot drive 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Autonomous trucks can, and their routes can be even more direct since they don't have to stop. Self-driving technology has great potential to rewrite the economic geography of the United States, which in and of itself will create new winners and losers."

The paper, published in the Journal of Regional Science, was co-written by Illinois agricultural and consumer economics professors Sandy Dall'Erba, William Ridley, Yilan Xu and Hyungsun Yim.

The researchers estimated that widespread implementation of driverless truck technology in the United States could reduce transportation costs by 35%, resulting in significant increases in total interstate trade value. But because transportation costs influence trade flows differently depending on each state's economic specialization, "the impact would vary across states," Mo said.

According to the paper, the researchers found distinct patterns of increases across specific areas of the country, with the south-central and Midwest regions of the United States—Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas, Kansas and Iowa, for example—exhibiting the highest percentage increases in exports. The largest absolute increases in exports were concentrated in economically significant states such as California, Texas, Illinois and Pennsylvania.

"Our results underscore the central role that those states play in the U.S. domestic trade network as well as their capacity to take advantage of advances in transportation technology and logistics," Mo said.

The researchers' model considered a wide range of goods, including agricultural products and commodities such as crude oil, chemicals, textiles, machinery and electronics.

"It's not just food or agricultural products that would benefit from autonomous trucking," Mo said. "The price of some goods is very sensitive to transportation costs, which autonomous trucking would bring down. And other goods are driven by local demand or regional supply chains, which would also be cheaper with self-driving trucks."

The findings point to significant policy implications for transportation infrastructure, trade regulation and economic development in the United States, the researchers said.

"If a certain geographic area were a major transportation hub in the days before autonomous trucking, it's possible that it would not be a major hub in the future," Mo said. "Certain places will benefit, while others will be left behind. There's inevitably going to be winners and losers in more than one dimension from this gradual transformation of truck transportation infrastructure."

Another potential trade-off is that some highly traveled routes will need increased infrastructure investment, while others will require less investment and could fall by the wayside.

"If there's a shift in trade flows, there's going to be more wear and tear on those roads," Mo said. "If all these trucks are taking the most efficient route, they're all going to go through this one route. They're not going to go through a route that's farther away. So not only will the most traveled infrastructure degrade faster and need more maintenance funds directed to it, the less-traveled routes will also degrade through reduced use and reduced improvement funding."

Certain workers will also bear the burden of this pivot to automation, Mo noted.

"Drivers and mechanics who previously relied on the truck transportation industry for a career will have to be upskilled and reskilled, otherwise they risk being downsized and displaced," he said. "The effects of autonomous truck technology will be beneficial to many, but certainly not to all."

More information

Taejun Mo et al, The Impact of Autonomous Truck Technology on US Interstate Trade, Journal of Regional Science (2026). DOI: 10.1111/jors.70067

Who's behind this story?

Swati Mestri

Swati Mestri holds a bachelor's degree in Electronics Engineering and has worked as a content editor since 2019. She has experience editing research documents across technology, health care, and materials science, and has a particular interest in technology and space. Full profile →

Andrew Zinin

Master's in physics with research experience. Long-time science news enthusiast. Plays key role in Science X's editorial success. Full profile →

Citation: Self-driving trucks will redraw US economic map (2026, July 17) retrieved 17 July 2026 from https://phys.org/news/2026-07-trucks-redraw-economic.html

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• Spain show teamwork may win out in 'World Cup of superstars'
• France 0-2 Spain - Match report and analysis
• As it happened | Teams | Stats | Knockout bracket
• World Cup day-by-day schedule | Latest: World Cup
• Follow our World Cup coverage in the Sky Sports App

L'Equipe ran with an image of a forlorn Kylian Mbappe and the headline of "fallen star" - adding the team were "powerless" to stop Spain.

The paper also published their brutal player ratings, with some big stars given low scores. No player was given above a 5/10.

Lucas Digne was given 2/10 for his role in giving away the Spain penalty, but Ousmane Dembele and Michael Olise also got the same score after ineffective displays in attack.

Kylian Mbappe was given a 3/10 - along with France head coach Didier Deschamps, who takes charge of his final match in charge of the national team in Saturday's third-place play-off.

Le Parisien went with the headline "rude awakening" - saying the team "never found the key to break down the Spanish Armada".

Corse Martin went for the Spanish word for "disappointment" on their front page - adding Didier Deschamps' side were "outclassed" by their opponents.

Le Figaro said Spain "taught France a lesson" while Ouest France described the loss as the "end of the American dream".

Every single French paper went with a disappointed looking Kylian Mbappe as their front-page image.

'We lost to ourselves' - how the team reacted

France midfielder Rayan Cherki:

"It's a huge disappointment, huge because today we lost to ourselves. We didn't lose to the referee, we didn't lose to Spain, we lost to ourselves.

"Here, you all know, we all know we were a force to be reckoned with. The only team capable of eliminating us was ourselves, and today that's exactly what happened."

France head coach Didier Deschamps:

"The Spanish team is a strong one. It is tough and proved their skills today. We were below our standard, we committed more technical flaws than before.

"And even though I believed the entire would recover, they did not. I have really skilled and top-notch players on the bench, but William Saliba got injured, Adrien Rabiot was at risk because of the yellow card.

"It is mainly due to that - and we know the skills of the Spanish team. And to hope for victory, we should have been at our maximum and given it all and we did not, unfortunately.

"Therefore, we are extremely disappointed tonight. And the first part is the important one - some decisions were questionable." %!s()

Researchers are now identifying materials that combine properties previously thought to be mutually exclusive. This could lead to new technological applications.

Antiferroelectric materials

Antiferroelectric materials are different. They exhibit an alternating up-down arrangement of tiny electric dipoles. These materials possess unique properties that can be exploited in applications such as energy storage and novel cooling technologies. Until recently, however, researchers believed that such materials could not also be polar.

"Unfortunately, these electric dipoles cancel each other out, making the antiferroelectric material nonpolar. This limits their potential applications in a broader context," says Dennis Meier.

Meier is an adjunct professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at NTNU. He is involved in two research projects, one paper published in Nature Nanotechnology and a Perspective published in Nature Materials.

Materials that break the rules

But does a material really need to have this strict up-down arrangement to retain its antiferroelectric properties? "For many years, researchers assumed this was the case, although several scientists discussed more complex patterns," says researcher Ivan Ushakov of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He is the lead author of the first paper.

These more complex patterns can range from simple tilts and irregularities in the up-down arrangement to waves and spirals. Combinations of several patterns are also possible.

"Our findings show that this cancellation is not always necessary after all. This means that antiferroelectric materials represent a much broader and richer class of materials than previously assumed. It requires a redefinition of the entire concept," says Meier.

Forming complex patterns

One example is the compound K₃[Nb₃O₆|(BO₃)₂], which has long been known to exhibit indications of both polar and antiferroelectric properties.

"In this material, the up-down pattern is not completely canceled out because of a slight tilt. By examining the structure in detail, we have identified the exact mechanisms that make it possible for both ferroelectricity and antiferroelectricity to coexist in a single material," says Ushakov.

Surprisingly, the compound not only combines properties of ferroelectric and antiferroelectric materials. By taking a closer look at the electrically controllable regions, known as domains, the researchers found that the material also exhibits unique "hybrid" properties.

"Using advanced microscopy, we observe that the domains are separated by highly extended and extremely thin boundaries with properties that are very unusual compared with similar boundaries in both classical ferroelectric and antiferroelectric materials," says Meier.

The work points toward a new class of materials whose electrical properties no longer fit into a single category.

Such hybrid systems could open up new opportunities in energy storage, sensors and other electronic technologies, while at the same time forcing a reconsideration of what antiferroelectricity actually is.

Publication details

Ivan N. Ushakov et al, Hybrid antiferroelectric–ferroelectric domain walls in noncollinear antipolar oxides, Nature Nanotechnology (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41565-026-02139-8

Gustau Catalan et al, A modern perspective on antiferroelectrics, Nature Materials (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-026-02483-z

Who's behind this story?

Lisa Lock

BA art history, MA material culture. Former museum editor, paramedic, and transplant coordinator. Editing for Science X since 2021. Full profile →

Andrew Zinin

Master's in physics with research experience. Long-time science news enthusiast. Plays key role in Science X's editorial success. Full profile →

Citation: Hybrid material confirms antiferroelectricity can coexist with switchable polarization (2026, July 16) retrieved 16 July 2026 from https://phys.org/news/2026-07-hybrid-material-antiferroelectricity-coexist-switchable.html

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Iván stars as Joseph Santiago, a former felon who uncovers a corporate cover-up while investigating a car accident on behalf of a victim’s family. Howard plays Benjamin Drake, a revered attorney looking to serve justice to the uber-rich elite. Bosworth appears as Kathleen Sloane, a corporate defense attorney whose morals are called into question when her clients ask for the unthinkable.

In a statement dissecting the themes surrounding “Broken Ones,” Howard said, “What are we doing all of this for? At the end of the day, are we turning stone into bread to feed ourselves or are we turning stone into bread to feed others? This film explores those questions in a deeply human way. Benjamin Drake’s journey became a personal one for me, even though the story reaches far beyond my own perspective.”

A companion film, “Real Ones,” which likewise pulls from Zavala’s memoir, is also in the works.

Howard is best known for his film roles in “Iron Man” and “Hustle & Flow.” He earned a best actor Oscar nomination for the latter. Howard also led the cast of Fox’s Emmy-nominated drama series “Empire” from 2015 to 2020. His latest credits include films like “Alicia in Wonderland,” “Miami Nights” and “BFFs.”

Bosworth, who played Lois Lane in 2006’s “Superman Returns,” recently appeared in the psychological thriller “The Immaculate Room.” Iván can be seen in the upcoming films “Exorcist Archives” and “As Good as Dead 2.”

“Broken Ones” is produced by Zavala, Justin Nesbitt, Micah Brandt for UFO Pictures and Michael Pizzimenti for Al Bravo Films. Executive producers include Zavala, Drake of Drake Law Firm, Paul Hughes, Vanessa Hughes and David Block of Block and Company Inc.

Howard is represented by Paul Santana of Independent Artist Group and Universal Bridges Management. Iván is repped by BRS, Gage Talent, Ellen O’Farrell Personal Management and Gabriel Blanco Iglesias. Bosworth is repped by Independent Artist Group (IAG) and Yorn, Levine, Barnes, Krintzman, Rubenstein, Kohner, Endlich and Goodell & Gellman.

The release date and further casting for “Broken Ones” will be announced in the near future. %!s()