Astronomers have found the first clear evidence of a binary quasar within a pair of actively merging galaxies. Binary quasars, like other quasars, are thought to be the product of galaxy mergers. Until now, however, binary quasars have not been seen in galaxies that are unambiguously in the act of merging.  But images of a new binary quasar from the Carnegie Institution’s Magellan telescope in Chile show two distinct galaxies with “tails” produced by tidal forces from their mutual gravitational attraction.  Watch movie

Scientists, including Plant Biology's Sue Rhee, have created a new computational model that can be used to predict gene function of uncharacterized plant genes with unprecedented speed and accuracy. The network, dubbed AraNet, has over 19,600 genes associated to each other by over 1 million links and can increase the discovery rate of new genes affiliated with a given trait tenfold. It is a huge boost to fundamental plant biology and agricultural research.

Physicists have long wondered whether hydrogen could be transformed into a metal or a superconductor and they have speculated that certain pressure and temperature conditions could  achieve these goals. Now high-pressure researchers, including Carnegie’s Ho-kwang (Dave) Mao, have modeled three hydrogen-dense metal alloys and found pressure and temperature trends associated with the superconducting state—a huge boost in understanding how this abundant material could be harnessed.