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11d7a4edb08f8457655238e4f30c6880b75a549cb62ad4114a3fd567c32f1e85
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2026-02-06T19:58:06+00:00
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Boreal Forests Are Shifting North
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The boreal forest—the world’s largest terrestrial biome—is warming faster than any other forest type. To understand the changing dynamics of boreal forests, Feng et al., 2026 analyzed the biome from 1985 to 2020, leveraging the longest and highest-resolution satellite record of calibrated tree cover to date. The study, published in February in Biogeosciences with four co-authors from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, confirms a northward shift in boreal forest cover over the past four decades. Landsat imagery played a central role in this study: the researchers applied machine learning to process 224,026 scenes collected by Landsats 4, 5, 7, and 8 to create annual, 30-meter resolution maps of tree cover across the entire boreal biome. They downscaled and extended calibrated MODIS Vegetation Continuous Fields data to 30-meter resolution, creating a 36-year time series (1984-2020) that provided unprecedented spatial detail for tracking forest changes. The analysis revealed that boreal forests both grew in size and moved northward. The forests expanded by 0.844 million km² (a 12% increase) and shifted northward by 0.29° mean latitude, with gains concentrated between 64-68°N. Their work also showcased the capacity of new growth to act as a carbon sink. Young boreal forests (up to 36 years) hold an estimated 1.1-5.9 petagrams of carbon (Pg C) with potential to sequester an additional 2.3-3.8 Pg C if allowed to mature. Landsat’s long time series of highly calibrated data allows researchers to study how ecosystems shift over decades, a crucial insight into our changing world. Explore More
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https://science.nasa.gov/missions/landsat/boreal-forests-are-shifting-north/
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Space & Physics
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e080decf316c8dae3100c80987eace643553952385f0356ee803a62e8839a1ab
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2026-02-06T05:00:00+00:00
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A Winter Blanket Covers North Carolina
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A potent winter storm in late January 2026 left much of North Carolina dealing with significant snow accumulations. Though the state is no stranger to snow, such widespread coverage is unusual. This image, acquired on February 2 with the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite, reveals a nearly continuous blanket of white stretching from mountain cities in the west to beachfront towns in the east. According to the North Carolina State Climate Office, measurable snow fell in all 100 counties for the first time in more than a decade. Snowfall in North Carolina typically requires cold air funneled in from the north to combine with moisture supplied by a low-pressure system. During the January 31 weekend event, Arctic air from earlier in the week lingered across the state as a storm approached along a near-shore track, setting the stage for widespread snow. Snow totals exceeded a foot in some of the state’s western, mountainous regions, following several years without significant snowfall events, though some locations such as Asheville saw smaller amounts. The storm even pushed south into Greenville, South Carolina, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where the downtown area saw about 5 inches (13 centimeters) by the evening of January 31, according to the National Weather Service. In the Piedmont region, the hilly central part of the state, Charlotte received nearly a foot of snow—the most since 2004—while Raleigh saw a lighter accumulation of 2.8 inches, according to the state climate center. Even coastal parts of the state traded brown sandy beaches for a blanket of white, with more than a foot reported in parts of Carteret County. Beaufort, a mainland town in the southern Outer Banks area, experienced heavy blowing snow. Slightly inland, Greenville received 14 inches, an amount not seen since a large storm in March 1980. Though appearing serene from space, the storm posed real hazards on the ground. Dangerous road conditions snarled traffic and caused collisions, according to local news reports, while coastal areas saw high winds and waves. Overwash on Highway 12 in the Outer Banks coated parts of the road in standing water and sand, while several homes along the shore of Hatteras Island collapsed into the sea. NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Story by Kathryn Hansen.
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https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/a-winter-blanket-covers-north-carolina/
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Space & Physics
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8c8bc3e091934ce7af4e9845c7e43793109f5bae584206c68b6129b385824d1e
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2026-02-05T21:10:14+00:00
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NASA Selects Two Earth System Explorers Missions
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Two next-generation satellite missions announced Thursday will help NASA better understand Earth and improve capabilities to foresee environmental events and mitigate disasters. “NASA uses the unique vantage point of space to study our home planet to deliver life-saving data into the hands of disaster response and decision-makers every day for the benefit of all, while also informing future exploration across our solar system,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington. “By understanding Earth’s surface topography, ecosystems and atmosphere, while also enabling longer range weather forecasting, these missions will help us better study the extreme environments beyond our home planet to ensure the safety of astronauts and spacecraft as we return to the Moon with the Artemis campaign and journey onward to Mars and beyond.” These two missions were selected for continued development as part of NASA’s Earth System Explorers Program, which conducts principal investigator-led Earth science missions based on key priorities laid out by the science community and national needs. The program is designed to enable high-quality Earth system science investigations to focus on previously identified key targeted observables. The STRIVE (Stratosphere Troposphere Response using Infrared Vertically-resolved light Explorer) mission will provide daily, near-global, high-resolution measurements of temperature, a variety of Earth’s atmospheric elements, and aerosol properties from the upper troposphere to the mesosphere – at a much higher spatial density than any previous mission. It also will measure vertical profiles of ozone and trace gasses needed to understand the recovery of the ozone layer. The data collected from STRIVE would support longer-range weather forecasts, an important tool in protecting coastal communities, where nearly half the world’s population lives. The mission is led by Lyatt Jaeglé at the University of Washington in Seattle. The EDGE (Earth Dynamics Geodetic Explorer) mission will observe the three-dimensional structure of terrestrial ecosystems and the surface topography of glaciers, ice sheets, and sea ice. The mission will provide an advancement beyond the measurements currently recorded from space by NASA’s ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2) and GEDI (Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation). The data collected by EDGE will measure conditions affecting land and sea transportation corridors, terrain, and other areas of commercial interest. The mission is led by Helen Amanda Fricker at the University of California San Diego. The selected missions will advance to the next phase of development. Each mission will be subject to confirmation review in 2027, which will assess the progress of the missions and the availability of funds. If confirmed, the total estimated cost of each mission, not including launch, will not exceed $355 million with a mission launch date of no earlier than 2030. For more information about the Earth System Explorers Program, visit: Liz VlockHeadquarters, Washington202-358-1600elizabeth.a.vlock@nasa.gov
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https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-selects-two-earth-system-explorers-missions/
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Space & Physics
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svg
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8ac90386b40e3cc918e7a457c11f1cbb88e472b9daa5f5577150360d5035578f
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2026-02-05T19:35:15+00:00
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Career Spotlight: Welder (Ages 14-18)
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A welder uses tools that join two or more parts through forces such as heat or pressure. Metals are the materials most commonly used in welding, but it’s also possible to weld thermoplastics or wood. Welders use their hands, skills, and problem-solving abilities to create something new. At NASA, welders use different types of welding processes to assemble spacecraft and rocket components. Welders also put their expertise to work on equipment and facilities that make space exploration possible, such as launch pads, fuel tanks, propellant lines, and buildings where rockets are assembled. Welding can be done in many different ways. Here are some of the types of welding used at NASA: After graduating from high school, there are a couple of pathways to choose from. You can pursue an associate’s degree in welding, typically a two-year program available through community colleges and technical schools. Another option is to obtain a certificate from a vocational school or trade school. An apprenticeship during or after this training is often the next step toward a career as a professional welder. Taking a welding class at your high school or local college is a great way to find out whether it’s a skill you enjoy. Research welding degrees and programs at colleges and schools to determine which one(s) fit your needs and interest. It’s also a good idea to research job vacancies to learn what employers are looking for. Finally, seek out opportunities for hands-on experience to help you practice and improve your welding skills.
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https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/career-spotlight-welder-ages-14-18/
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Space & Physics
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b3f0e387712ca5bcf2dc7a68e22e3299d6a0943161bb0f951445064d408d4ff7
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2026-02-05T18:38:08+00:00
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NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 to Study Adaptation to Altered Gravity
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NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission is preparing to launch for a long-duration science mission aboard the International Space Station. During the mission, select crew members will participate in human health studies focused on understanding how astronauts’ bodies adapt to the low-gravity environment of space, including a new study examining subtle changes in blood flow. The experiments, led by NASA’s Human Research Program, include astronauts performing ultrasounds of their blood vessels to study altered circulation and completing simulated lunar landings to assess disorientation during gravitational transitions, among other tasks. The results will help NASA plan for extended stays in space and future exploration missions. The new study, called Venous Flow, will examine whether time aboard the space station increases the chance of crew members developing blood clots. In weightlessness, blood and other bodily fluids can move toward the head, potentially altering circulation. Any resulting blood clots could pose serious health risks, including strokes. “Our goal is to use this information to better understand how fluid shifts affect clotting risk, so that when astronauts go on long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars, we can build the best strategies to keep them safe,” said Dr. Jason Lytle, a physiologist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston who is leading the study. To learn more, crew members in this study will undergo preflight and postflight MRIs, ultrasound scans, blood draws, and blood pressure checks. During the flight, crew members also will capture their own jugular vein ultrasounds, take blood pressure readings, and draw blood samples for scientists to analyze after their return to Earth. In another study, called Manual Piloting, select crew members will perform multiple simulated Moon landings before, during, and after the mission. Designed to assess their piloting and decision-making skills, participants attempt to fly a virtual spacecraft toward the lunar South Pole region — the same area future Artemis crews plan to explore. “Astronauts may experience disorientation during gravitational transitions, which can make tasks like landing a spacecraft challenging,” said Dr. Scott Wood, a neuroscientist at NASA Johnson who is coordinating the investigation. While spacecraft landings on the Moon and Mars are expected to be automated, crews must be prepared to take over and pilot the vehicle if necessary. “This study will help us examine astronauts’ ability to operate a spacecraft after adapting from one gravity environment to another, and whether training near the end of their spaceflight can help prepare crews for landing,” said Wood. “We’ll monitor their ability to manually override, redirect, and control a vehicle, which will guide our strategy for training Artemis crews for future Moon missions.” The risk of astronauts experiencing disorientation from gravitational transitions increases the longer they’re in space. For this study, which debuted during the agency’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission, researchers plan to recruit seven astronauts for short-term private missions lasting up to 30 days and 14 astronauts for long-duration missions lasting at least 106 days. A control group performing the same tasks as the astronauts will provide a basis of comparison. A different study will investigate potential treatments for spaceflight associated neuro-ocular syndrome, or SANS, which causes vision and eye changes. Researchers will examine whether taking a daily B vitamin supplement can help relieve SANS symptoms. After returning to Earth, select crew members will participate in a study that documents any injuries, such as scrapes or bruises that may occur during landing. Transitioning from weightlessness to Earth’s gravity can increase the injury risk without proper safeguards. The data will help researchers improve spacecraft design to better protect crews from landing forces. NASA’s Human Research Program pursues methods and technologies to support safe, productive human space travel. Through science conducted in laboratories, ground-based analogs, commercial missions, the International Space Station and Artemis missions, the program scrutinizes how spaceflight affects human bodies and behaviors. Such research drives the program’s quest to innovate ways that keep astronauts healthy and mission ready as human space exploration expands to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
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https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/nasas-spacex-crew-12-to-study-adaptation-to-altered-gravity/
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Space & Physics
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svg
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159b503a381f8c3ff605e0f12d3dfe3f2ddd0bdf6571b12dca80632554ee2526
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2026-02-05T16:39:36+00:00
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Hubble Spots Lens-Shaped Galaxy
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This new Hubble image, released on Jan. 30, 2026, is the sharpest taken of NGC 7722, a lenticular galaxy located about 187 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. A lenticular, meaning “lens-shaped,” galaxy is a type whose classification sits between more familiar spiral galaxies and elliptical galaxies. It is also less common than spirals and ellipticals — partly because these galaxies have a somewhat ambiguous appearance, making it hard to determine if it is a spiral, an elliptical, or something in between. Learn more about this observation. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz), Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA; Acknowledgment: Mehmet Yüksek
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https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/hubble-spots-lens-shaped-galaxy/
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Space & Physics
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svg
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3d890cdaf303209296115c1d210ca29b749181934607c5ef56ccb9e1a1ceada4
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2026-02-05T05:01:00+00:00
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Milano Cortina 2026
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No Olympic competitions covers more ground than the 50-kilometer cross-country ski races. The grueling event takes more than 2 hours to complete, requiring competitors to ski a distance longer than a marathon. That’s still, however, less than an eighth of the distance between the two official host cities of the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics—Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. With events spread across more than 22,000 square kilometers (8,500 square miles) and eight cities or towns in northern Italy, these are the most geographically dispersed Games in Olympic history. The decentralized design was intentional, allowing planners to control costs and make the event more sustainable by using existing venues rather than constructing several expensive new facilities. More than 90 percent of the venues are existing or temporary facilities, including some refurbished facilities that were used in the 1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo Games. About 2,900 athletes will compete across 116 events over 19 days in 13 venues in what will be the third time Italy has hosted the Games. Several of the key event venues are visible in these satellite images of the two largest host cities—Milan and Verona. The OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 and 9 captured the images on December 8 and 9, 2025, respectively. Olympic festivities will kick off officially on February 6 at San Siro Stadium with performances by pop star Mariah Carey, classical singer Andrea Bocelli, classical instrumentalist Lang Lang, and Italian singer-songwriter Laura Pausini. Built in 1925, San Siro is Italy’s largest stadium and the longtime home of renowned football clubs AC Milan and Inter Milan. Milan will mostly host indoor ice events in several other venues around the city. Ice hockey will be spread across two venues, the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena and the temporary Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena. The former, located east of the city in the green and residential Santa Giulia district, is the only new permanent venue constructed for the Games. The latter, in Milano Ice Park, is a temporary transformation of the Fiera Milano Rho exhibition center, a complex of pavilions and a convention center northwest of the city center. Speed skating and figure skating will be in the Milano Ice Skating Arena, an 11,500-person stadium in Assago, a small town just outside of Milan. Outside of the Olympics, the multisport facility is used by a skating school and basketball team and as a venue for tennis, squash, swimming, and several other sports. The February 22 closing ceremonies will take place in Verona, a city of about 250,000 people 150 kilometers east of Milan, in Verona Arena, an ancient Roman amphitheater that was built between the 1st and 3rd centuries. What was once used for animal hunts and gladiator battles will serve as the backdrop for musicians, dancers, and artists in a ceremony that organizers say will honor the spirit of athletics and Italy’s rich cultural heritage. The arena, with a seating capacity of about 22,000, is the third-largest surviving amphitheater in Europe and unusually well-preserved. New events this year will include men’s and women’s ski mountaineering, skeleton mixed team relay, women’s doubles luge, freestyle skiing dual moguls, and women’s large hill ski jumping. The 2026 Olympic mascots are Tina and Milo, a brother-and-sister pair of cheerful, scarf-wearing animated stoats with names inspired by Milan and Cortina. Stoats, also called ermine, are fierce predators in the weasel family known for reportedly mesmerizing prey with energetic dances and for having fur that changes from dark brown in the summer to white in the winter. In Italy, stoats typically live in the mountains above 3,500 meters (11,500 feet). NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Adam Voiland.
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https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/milano-cortina-2026/
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Space & Physics
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svg
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805548b45d329e72d1a4b955011e0f00e8a12ba7a8789ad4dbd7fa10e92cee06
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2026-02-06T15:00:07
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Researchers demonstrate organic crystal emitting red light from UV and green from near-infrared
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Invisible light beyond the range of human vision plays a vital role in communication technologies, medical diagnostics, and optical sensing. Ultraviolet and near-infrared wavelengths are routinely used in these fields, yet detecting them directly often requires complex instrumentation.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-crystal-emitting-red-uv-green.html
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Space & Physics
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e172b22a02848cdff41e2ee2fbf0acfbb64770d6e7427fde387a600617ebc9ce
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2026-02-06T15:00:01
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Broken inversion symmetry lets 3D crystals mimic 2D Ising superconductivity
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Two-dimensional (2D) materials, in general, allow the realization of unique quantum phenomena unattainable in the common three-dimensional (3D) world. A prime example is graphene. Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have a similar structure. Both can be stacked to form van der Waals heterostructures or can be exfoliated into single layers. But TMDs have an extra variety of excellent properties, including strong spin-orbit coupling and superconductivity.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-broken-inversion-symmetry-3d-crystals.html
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Space & Physics
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74a04a431c3608034212b84b40c3c31c21616c8746aa333dc7f42a97a7fd60c2
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2026-02-06T14:40:02
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Quantum encryption method demonstrated at city-sized distances for the first time
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Concerns that quantum computers may start easily hacking into previously secure communications has motivated researchers to work on innovative new ways to encrypt information. One such method is quantum key distribution (QKD), a secure, quantum-based method in which eavesdropping attempts disrupt the quantum state, making unauthorized interception immediately detectable.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-quantum-encryption-method-city-sized.html
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Space & Physics
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3b602e6f900b2483e4896a0d395bded1aa6d74ae0fb5476981c6a9b5bc0c5a4c
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2026-02-06T14:20:01
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Three-way quantum correlations fade exponentially with distance at any temperature, study shows
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The properties of a quantum material are driven by links between its electrons known as quantum correlations. A RIKEN researcher has shown mathematically that, at non-zero temperatures, these connections can only exist over very short distances when more than two particles are involved. This finding, now published in Physical Review X, sets a fundamental limit on just how "exotic" a quantum material can be under realistic, finite-temperature conditions.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-quantum-exponentially-distance-temperature.html
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Space & Physics
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0136d121459e87f219596dc34eff8a2e23a143d0220ab682bf304503a97d46ae
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2026-02-06T14:00:06
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Quantum Twins simulator unveils 15,000 controllable quantum dots for materials research
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Researchers in Australia have unveiled the largest quantum simulation platform built to date, opening a new route to exploring the complex behavior of quantum materials at unprecedented scales.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-quantum-twins-simulator-unveils-dots.html
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Space & Physics
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8b5f1aff68fb2e9b378ea8f896f0691b45ae386675b07b63827cc19336909b2a
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2026-02-06T13:45:27
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Study reveals microscopic origins of surface noise limiting diamond quantum sensors
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A new theoretical study led by researchers at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory has identified the microscopic mechanisms by which diamond surfaces affect the quantum coherence of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers—defects in diamond that underpin some of today's most sensitive quantum sensors. The study has appeared in Physical Review Materials and was selected to be an Editors' Suggestion paper.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-reveals-microscopic-surface-noise-limiting.html
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Space & Physics
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08071fddc4fb5a129461151066df9741eaf4bdaf88d56fd0e29ed3711c050e15
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2026-02-06T13:00:01
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Extreme plasma acceleration in monster shocks offers new explanation for fast radio bursts
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In a new study published in Physical Review Letters, scientists have performed the first global simulations of monster shocks—some of the strongest shocks in the universe—revealing how these extreme events in magnetar magnetospheres could be responsible for producing fast radio bursts (FRBs).
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-extreme-plasma-monster-explanation-fast.html
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Space & Physics
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5b871db02484b3a15fd5ae5f6f8d5dbf53893430e6fa2dd4d13bb1459825a3da
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2026-02-06T12:29:24
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Scientists discover 'levitating' time crystals that you can hold in your hand
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Time crystals, a collection of particles that "tick"—or move back and forth in repeating cycles—were first theorized and then discovered about a decade ago. While scientists have yet to create commercial or industrial applications for this intriguing form of matter, these crystals hold great promise for advancing quantum computing and data storage, among other uses.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-scientists-levitating-crystals.html
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Space & Physics
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760e75df8eae84591c1b52ebc525b2cc8f1f939a928a42bf89635ed6e3f91965
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2026-02-06T11:00:03
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Measuring time at the quantum level depends on material symmetry
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EPFL physicists have found a way to measure the time involved in quantum events and found it depends on the symmetry of the material. "The concept of time has troubled philosophers and physicists for thousands of years, and the advent of quantum mechanics has not simplified the problem," says Professor Hugo Dil, a physicist at EPFL. "The central problem is the general role of time in quantum mechanics, and especially the timescale associated with a quantum transition."
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-quantum-material-symmetry.html
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Space & Physics
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8da98c90d2e8b82b2ac2a56073f91ea4184a622835829f9c14faa20fa074e13a
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2026-02-05T20:50:02
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Into the neutrino fog: The ghosts haunting our search for dark matter
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Ciaran O'Hare scribbles symbols using colored markers across his whiteboard like he's trying to solve a crime—or perhaps planning one. He bounces around the edges of the board, slowly filling it with sharp angles and curling letters. I watch on, and when he senses I'm losing track, he pauses intermittently, allowing my brain to catch up. Ciaran speaks with an easy to understand British inflection, but the language on the whiteboard might as well be hieroglyphics.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-neutrino-fog-ghosts-dark.html
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Space & Physics
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f3de2234c951ab9cfbe72a6c69da2eb392d5621341e8fefa55de45ebf554b72f
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2026-02-05T17:07:43
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Tuning topological superconductors into existence by adjusting the ratio of two elements
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Today's most powerful computers hit a wall when tackling certain problems, from designing new drugs to cracking encryption codes. Error-free quantum computers promise to overcome those challenges, but building them requires materials with exotic properties of topological superconductors that are incredibly difficult to produce. Now, researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) and West Virginia University have found a way to tune these materials into existence by simply tweaking a chemical recipe, resulting in a change in many-electron interactions.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-tuning-topological-superconductors-adjusting-ratio.html
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Space & Physics
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adc8f173e655daca62c76314713548c028f7cc52e28d5d059f172731192e82b3
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2026-02-05T17:00:01
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When lasers cross: A brighter way to measure plasma
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Measuring conditions in volatile clouds of superheated gases known as plasmas is central to pursuing greater scientific understanding of how stars, nuclear detonations and fusion energy work. For decades, scientists have relied on a technique called Thomson scattering, which uses a single laser beam to scatter from plasma waves as a way to measure critical information such as plasma temperature, density and flow.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-lasers-brighter-plasma.html
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Space & Physics
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b75d02e09050dee86d390fc5f4eebf073eac71aaaed26eae0f5804282275ee6d
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2026-02-05T16:10:24
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VIP-2 experiment narrows the search for exotic physics beyond the Pauli exclusion principle
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The Pauli exclusion principle is a cornerstone of the Standard Model of particle physics and is essential for the structure and stability of matter. Now an international collaboration of physicists has carried out one of the most stringent experimental tests to date of this foundational rule of quantum physics and has found no evidence of its violation. Using the VIP-2 experiment, the team has set the strongest limits so far for possible violations involving electrons in atomic systems, significantly constraining a range of speculative theories beyond the Standard Model, including those that suggest electrons have internal structure, and so-called "Quon models." Their experiment was reported in Scientific Reports in November 2025.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-vip-narrows-exotic-physics-pauli.html
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Space & Physics
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39d7e86caa842defc79b3288ef3112988f34ed6c1906a7476e9a7da509e4d86e
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2026-02-05T15:08:24
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AI-powered compressed imaging system developed for high-speed scenes
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A research team from the Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics (XIOPM) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with collaborators from the Institute National de la Recherche Scientifique, Canada, and Northwest University, has developed a single-shot compressed upconversion photoluminescence lifetime imaging (sCUPLI) system for high-speed imaging.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-ai-powered-compressed-imaging-high.html
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Space & Physics
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8e696e1c7b683c90588da9294c8f3661a8cf598d1dd3b0903ec7413003333512
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2026-02-05T15:01:34
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High-entropy garnet crystal enables enhanced 2.8 μm mid-infrared laser performance
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Recently, a research team from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences successfully grew a high-entropy garnet-structured oxide crystal and achieved enhanced laser performance at the 2.8 μm wavelength band. By introducing a high-entropy design into a garnet crystal system, the team obtained a wide emission band near 2.8 μm and continuous-wave laser output with improved average power and beam quality, demonstrating the material's strong potential as a high-performance gain medium for mid-infrared ultrashort-pulse lasers.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-high-entropy-garnet-crystal-enables.html
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Space & Physics
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93190c54a032423f53d1f57737225ec707dfe3982360eaef1b1320d262f35e3e
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2026-02-05T11:40:01
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Surgery for quantum bits: Bit-flip errors corrected during superconducting qubit operations
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Quantum computers hold great promise for exciting applications in the future, but for now they keep presenting physicists and engineers with a series of challenges and conundrums. One of them relates to decoherence and the errors that result from it: bit flips and phase flips. Such errors mean that the logical unit of a quantum computer, the qubit, can suddenly and unpredictably change its state from "0" to "1," or that the relative phase of a superposition state can jump from positive to negative.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-surgery-quantum-bits-bit-flip.html
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Space & Physics
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297affd3a576172ec79e8fe716a633b7d6f2b8273d5a010f9fc2f0ec3bcf66f2
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2026-02-05T10:44:53
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How superconductivity arises: New insights from moiré materials
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How exactly unconventional superconductivity arises is one of the central questions of modern solid-state physics. A new study published in the journal Nature provides crucial insights into this question. For the first time, an international research team was able to demonstrate a direct microscopic connection between a strongly correlated normal state and superconductivity in so-called moiré materials. In the long term, these findings could contribute to the development of new quantum materials and superconductors for future quantum technologies.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-superconductivity-insights-moir-materials.html
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Space & Physics
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f9d51a21046224450002aab4b3dd732fc2f12f92b9a3f34ec162e5edea6ac8f9
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2026-02-04T17:21:01
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Electron-phonon 'surfing' could help stabilize quantum hardware, nanowire tests suggest
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That low-frequency fuzz that can bedevil cellphone calls has to do with how electrons move through and interact in materials at the smallest scale. The electronic flicker noise is often caused by interruptions in the flow of electrons by various scattering processes in the metals that conduct them.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-electron-phonon-surfing-stabilize-quantum.html
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Space & Physics
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0e900d9e098e174c53e2b55bb3318645f4209b82279bdf1aa16a2fc8e6aaa017
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2026-02-04T16:20:01
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Glimpsing the quantum vacuum: Particle spin correlations offer insight into how visible matter emerges from 'nothing'
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Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have uncovered experimental evidence that particles of matter emerging from energetic subatomic smashups retain a key feature of virtual particles that exist only fleetingly in the quantum vacuum. The finding offers a new way to explore how the vacuum—once thought of as empty space—provides important ingredients needed to transform virtual "nothingness" into the matter that makes up our world.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-glimpsing-quantum-vacuum-particle-insight.html
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Space & Physics
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b45f66310a6b00d6cd6bfee9858fc848b069844641d2f4fe0a689946f3144a1f
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2026-02-04T15:20:01
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From cryogenic to red-hot: Optical temperature sensing from 77 K to 873 K
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An international collaboration involving researchers from the University of Innsbruck has developed a novel luminescent material that enables particularly robust and precise optical temperature sensing across an exceptionally broad temperature range.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-cryogenic-red-hot-optical-temperature.html
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Space & Physics
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1c643da8621099319c99159f54d9af5cec2e6505a8fe8132a08459f781f225ee
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2026-02-04T11:00:06
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Terahertz microscope reveals the motion of superconducting electrons
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You can tell a lot about a material based on the type of light shining at it: Optical light illuminates a material's surface, while X-rays reveal its internal structures and infrared captures a material's radiating heat. Now, MIT physicists have used terahertz light to reveal inherent, quantum vibrations in a superconducting material, which have not been observable until now.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-terahertz-microscope-reveals-motion-superconducting.html
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Space & Physics
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596f91476506da5935943a0698312a6c861a7036524fad0fadf7f4d62c9deb0e
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2026-02-03T20:50:01
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Cryogenic cooling material composed solely of abundant elements reaches 4K
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In collaboration with the National Institute of Technology (KOSEN), Oshima College, the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) succeeded in developing a new regenerator material composed solely of abundant elements, such as copper, iron, and aluminum, that can achieve cryogenic temperatures (approx. 4K = −269°C or below) without using any rare-earth metals or liquid helium.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-cryogenic-cooling-material-solely-abundant.html
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Space & Physics
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1922011daeed106bb9c23d60f55ac5dc63d249495f792d613e772643f75c4815
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2026-02-03T13:10:01
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Physicists achieve near-zero friction on macroscopic scales
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For the first time, physicists in China have virtually eliminated the friction felt between two surfaces at scales visible to the naked eye. In demonstrating "structural superlubricity," the team, led by Quanshui Zheng at Tsinghua University, have resolved a long-standing debate surrounding the possibility of the effect. Published in Physical Review Letters, the result could potentially lead to promising new advances in engineering.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-physicists-friction-macroscopic-scales.html
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Space & Physics
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6612dd3c27a076641c51766ef45324fe8ed74567fe3a09ca7b416f0c616916e7
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2026-02-03T12:20:01
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A new class of strange one-dimensional particles
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Physicists have long categorized every elementary particle in our three-dimensional universe as being either a boson or a fermion—the former category mostly capturing force carriers like photons, the latter including the building blocks of everyday matter like electrons, protons, or neutrons. But in lower dimensions of space, the neat categorization starts to break down.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-class-strange-dimensional-particles.html
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Space & Physics
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9378e811456c2b7672450ba8056316bd5841efb4100981909b4fddece015721e
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2026-02-03T09:13:39
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Superconductivity exposes altermagnetism by breaking symmetries, study suggests
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How are superconductivity and magnetism connected? A puzzling relation between magnetism and superconductivity in a quantum material has lingered for decades—now, a study from TU Wien offers a surprising new explanation.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-superconductivity-exposes-altermagnetism-symmetries.html
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Space & Physics
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d9a701f71d1929755a7269dd71b79b61f2540163ee7c8e0be05273a8c1947824
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2026-02-03T08:16:38
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Tiny droplets navigate mazes using 'chemical echolocation,' without sensors or computers
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A recent study by a team of researchers led by TU Darmstadt has found that tiny amounts of liquid can navigate their way through unknown environments like living cells—without sensors, computers or external control. The tiny droplets can navigate autonomously, are able to detect obstacles from a distance and move reliably through complex mazes—without cameras or electronics. The reason for this is a mechanism that the research team refers to as "chemical echolocation."
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-tiny-droplets-mazes-chemical-echolocation.html
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Space & Physics
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2d5f514bf5287513f5919ecad85f40d5e02d115af264d7d728c3ea48f53bbc84
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2026-02-03T07:50:05
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Ultra-thin metasurface can generate and direct quantum entanglement
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Quantum technologies, devices and systems that process, store, detect, or transfer information leveraging quantum mechanical effects, have the potential to outperform classical technologies in a variety of tasks. An ongoing quest within quantum engineering is the realization of a so-called quantum internet: a network conceptually analogous to today's internet, in which distant nodes are linked through shared quantum resources, most notably quantum entanglement.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-ultra-thin-metasurface-generate-quantum.html
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Space & Physics
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aad24ce75cf7d03858fca5edf9a2631ed571aa26c3a28bf6c0c7e18d13d8ff9c
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2026-02-03T07:46:05
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Niobium's superconducting switch cuts near-field radiative heat transfer 20-fold
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When cooled to its superconducting state, niobium blocks the radiative flow of heat 20 times better than when in its metallic state, according to a study led by a University of Michigan Engineering team. The experiment marks the first use of superconductivity—a quantum property characterized by zero electrical resistance—to control thermal radiation at the nanoscale.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-niobium-superconducting-field.html
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Space & Physics
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1f2dbbac94ef9215f280f52a40b1381d6cc45a293c26386d99aa1a174b6f9c8a
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2026-02-03T07:20:10
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Using duality to construct and classify new quantum phases
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A team of theoretical researchers has found duality can unveil non-invertible symmetry protected topological phases, which can lead to researchers understanding more about the properties of these phases, and uncover new quantum phases. Their study is published in Physical Review Letters.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-duality-quantum-phases.html
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Space & Physics
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d2552197b530e411abee18711c0d55a72f4863f6e9f0c7a8afa1effad7f50980
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2026-02-03T06:06:49
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Ultra-thin metasurface chip turns invisible infrared light into steerable visible beams
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The invention of tiny devices capable of precisely controlling the direction and behavior of light is essential to the development of advanced technologies. Researchers at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) have taken a significant step forward with the development of a metasurface that can turn invisible infrared light into visible light and aim it in different directions—without any moving parts. The details of their work are explained in a paper published in the journal eLight.
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https://phys.org/news/2026-02-ultra-thin-metasurface-chip-invisible.html
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Space & Physics
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4ac8bb5afd275395a2613948f4628812099c09e23aff708a40a7e43e715dd07d
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2026-02-05T23:39:29
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This paper-thin chip turns invisible light into a steerable beam
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Researchers have built a paper-thin chip that converts infrared light into visible light and directs it precisely, all without mechanical motion. The design overcomes a long-standing efficiency-versus-control problem in light-shaping materials. This opens the door to tiny, highly efficient light sources integrated directly onto chips.
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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260204121538.htm
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Space & Physics
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svg
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371b1e384ca2b1f00b73a5beffece7c39257edfaf4a2b83c5ff74ab148b93a55
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2026-02-05T01:59:59
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This ultra-thin surface controls light in two completely different ways
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A new metasurface design lets light of different spins bend, focus, and behave independently—while staying sharp across many colors. The trick combines two geometric phase effects so each spin channel can be tuned without interfering with the other. Researchers demonstrated stable beam steering and dual-focus lenses over wide frequency ranges. The approach could scale from microwaves all the way to visible light.
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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260204121536.htm
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Space & Physics
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svg
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2b24bb25d86887636dcb44b1eae49f4893c10bdf346c0a3cba15e5be508ef5fd
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2026-02-04T11:51:31
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A new way to control light could boost future wireless tech
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A new optical device allows researchers to generate and switch between two stable, donut-shaped light patterns called skyrmions. These light vortices hold their shape even when disturbed, making them promising for wireless data transmission. Using a specially designed metasurface and controlled laser pulses, scientists can flip between electric and magnetic modes. The advance could help pave the way for more resilient terahertz communication systems.
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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260204114540.htm
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Space & Physics
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svg
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607661f9c031316fb322ef577bcf35faf5e3c4c5c05d2d977bcd8f29119c545d
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2026-02-03T06:08:34
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New catalyst turns carbon dioxide into clean fuel source
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Researchers have found that manganese, an abundant and inexpensive metal, can be used to efficiently convert carbon dioxide into formate, a potential hydrogen source for fuel cells. The key was a clever redesign that made the catalyst last far longer than similar low-cost materials. Surprisingly, the improved manganese catalyst even beat many expensive precious-metal options. The discovery could help turn greenhouse gas into clean energy ingredients.
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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260203030548.htm
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Space & Physics
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svg
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8b15a632ae6c557190174e0c7f1a8e180bdc386196993c87ce88107e573ff0c4
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2026-02-03T03:48:13
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Scientists just mapped the hidden structure holding the Universe together
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Astronomers have produced the most detailed map yet of dark matter, revealing the invisible framework that shaped the Universe long before stars and galaxies formed. Using powerful new observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the research shows how dark matter gathered ordinary matter into dense regions, setting the stage for galaxies like the Milky Way and eventually planets like Earth.
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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260203020205.htm
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Space & Physics
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svg
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a8af38ea5df6d34270d826b5995b840d70fe4ffa734d647b713f9cb0d80cc743
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2026-02-01T23:12:24
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A record breaking gravitational wave is helping test Einstein’s theory of general relativity
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A newly detected gravitational wave, GW250114, is giving scientists their clearest look yet at a black hole collision—and a powerful way to test Einstein’s theory of gravity. Its clarity allowed scientists to measure multiple “tones” from the collision, all matching Einstein’s predictions. That confirmation is exciting—but so is the possibility that future signals won’t behave so neatly. Any deviation could point to new physics beyond our current understanding of gravity.
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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260201231224.htm
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Space & Physics
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svg
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224eaae2d8d641845bd13ffc5860f017d2be675d21f56e18ba615ee83ff0ccfe
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2026-02-02T07:44:45
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Scientists are hunting for a forbidden antimatter transformation
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MACE is a next-generation experiment designed to catch muonium transforming into its antimatter twin, a process that would rewrite the rules of particle physics. The last search for this effect ended more than two decades ago, and MACE plans to leap far beyond it using cutting-edge beams, targets, and detectors. A discovery would point to entirely new forces or particles operating at extreme energy scales.
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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260201231159.htm
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Space & Physics
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svg
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94c9af2063a98403d032a6f16a4bb35a7c8b59c808289d47186f44ad28e890b8
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2026-02-06T16:30:19+00:00
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An illuminating, if imperfect, celebration of friction
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People who teach physics often remove friction from calculations to make life easier for students. While that might speed up someone’s homework, it does mean that this all-important force tends to fade into the background, despite it being crucial for our daily lives. Here to bring friction centre stage is Jennifer Vail, a “tribologist” – or studier of friction – at US firm TA Instruments. Friction: a Biography is an engaging and wide-ranging book illustrating its many manifestations in the natural world, showing how this force can be harnessed to solve practical engineering problems. Vail, who wrote the book after giving a hugely popular TED talk on friction, does a great job of connecting abstract physical ideas with familiar human experience. I like, for example, her description of what happens when two surfaces slide over each other but the friction between them isn’t constant. As she explains, this “stick-slip” motion isn’t great if you’re trying to inject a drug into someone with a syringe. But it can be exploited to beautiful effect by violinists, creating “downright lovely” sounds (though apparently not when she’s practising on her own viola). One of the book’s strengths is its historical context. Famous figures like Leonardo da Vinci are introduced alongside the development of their ideas, lending a human dimension to the science. The author does a great job of explaining how tribology, which comes from the Greek for “to rub”, has been shaped by careful experimentation and the application of rigorous scientific thinking to industrial problems. After a trip to Switzerland, the physicist Frank Bowden showed we can ski because frictional heating causes a thin layer of snow to melt beneath our skis, providing liquid lubrication. After a trip to Switzerland, for example, the Australian-born physicist Frank Bowden showed we can ski because frictional heating causes a thin layer of snow to melt beneath our skis, providing liquid lubrication. This overturned an earlier explanation associated with Osborne Reynolds (best known for the eponymous number marking the transition from laminar to turbulent flow) who’d thought that snow melts due to pressure. Then there is the 19th-century researcher Robert Thurston, whose pendulum experiments on friction in bearings, described here in detail, guided the design of more efficient lubricated systems. As Vail explains, understanding friction is vital in the design of engines, where even small modifications – such as texturing surfaces, adding coatings, or putting nanoparticles into lubricants – can make them much more efficient and extend their useful life. Historical anecdotes are woven throughout the book. The story of why graphite in pencils came to be called “lead” is particularly memorable. It turns out that the Romans used lead to write, so the name stuck – even after graphite became more popular because it allowed darker writing. There are also lots of excursions into the natural world: did you know that beetles have a protein in their leg joints that acts as a solid lubricant? Vail’s discussion of lubrication is clear and well-integrated with practical examples. Particularly insightful is the explanation of how hydrodynamic lubrication occurs in biological systems, such as human cartilage, where a thin fluid layer separates cartilage surfaces in joints, reducing friction and wear. As Vail makes clear, tribology is vital in physiology, for example in how contact lenses work when we blink our eyes or how food feels in our mouth when we chew. The book also examines fluid dynamics and drag, distinguishing between viscosity as a material property and drag as a force. Vail’s discussion of plaque on the walls of our arteries is particularly compelling. If there’s not enough drag to shear off the plaque it can cause blockages and, potentially, a heart attack – showing how friction plays a role in our health. Environmental considerations are addressed too. The author discusses, for example, the impact of polytetrafluoroethalyene (PTFE), which she calls “the most controversial solid lubricant ever”. Also known as Teflon, it is widely used in frying pans, but is synthesized using some pretty nasty carcinogenic “forever” chemicals that don’t break down in the environment. PTFE also has a shady past, being first used in the Manhattan atomic-bomb project to coat valves when separating isotopes of uranium. Friction can improve energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, and mitigate global warming. On a more positive note, Vail shows how an understanding of friction can improve energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, and mitigate global warming. The book extends further still, encompassing atmospheric, oceanic and planetary processes, as well as astronomy and cosmology. Friction is a universal physical principle, extending well beyond conventional engineering applications and broadening the scope of the book. However, Vail’s intended audience is not always clear. Some sections read like a primer for tribologists, while others are highly speculative, such as the idea that life originated on Earth because oxidized molybdenum was delivered from Mars aboard Martian meteorites. There are also occasional errors and ambiguities, such as her discussion of the subtleties of the Earth’s tides. Statements such as electric vehicles “consuming 106% energy” could have been more clearly explained, while her market estimate for anti-friction coatings of just over $1.5m by 2028 is almost certainly too low by three orders of magnitude. While these issues do not undermine the book’s scientific substance, they may distract careful readers, and the rapid movement between topics occasionally disrupts the narrative flow. Overall, though, Vail does a good job of balancing technical exposition with anecdote and gentle humour. Friction might seem an unpromising subject for a book, but non-expert readers will find much to surprise and engage them. Despite its flaws, I would recommend it as an illuminating, if imperfect, celebration of friction and its central role in science and engineering. The post An illuminating, if imperfect, celebration of friction appeared first on Physics World.
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https://physicsworld.com/a/an-illuminating-if-imperfect-celebration-of-friction/
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Space & Physics
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390598268ddb775315a244d8c60f90c6909505e09a931a9bd3c4340913373b31
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2026-02-06T12:30:43+00:00
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Pockets and pillars capture ricocheting molecules in vacuum pump
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A passive vacuum pump that uses 3D-printed surfaces to better absorb gas molecules has been unveiled by researchers in the UK. It removes gas nearly four-times faster than a similar system with a flat surface. The pump could make it easier to design quantum sensors that require high-vacuum conditions. Cold atoms are at the heart of many quantum-sensing technologies. For example, atom interferometry is used to measure tiny deviations in local gravity – which can be used to map underground infrastructure. Cold-atom systems must operate at high vacuum and most vacuum pumps are mechanical or electrical in nature. The size of these active pumps and the energy that they consume makes it difficult to operate sensors in remote or mobile scenarios – particularly on satellites. As a result, researchers who are designing quantum sensors are keen on reducing or even eliminating their reliance on active pumps. One solution is the use of passive pumps, which have surfaces made from materials that absorb large numbers of gas molecules. Now, Lucia Hackermueller and colleagues at the University of Nottingham, Torr Scientific and Metamorphic Additive Manufacturing have created two new textured surfaces that accelerate passive pumping. One of their surfaces is a hexagonal array of tapered pockets that resembles a honeycomb. The other surface is a hexagonal array of conical protrusions. They chose their designs after doing Monte Carlo computer simulations of how gas molecules behave near textured surfaces. When a molecule collides with a flat surface it will either be absorbed or bounce off the surface and escape. However, if the surface has 3D structures on it, a molecule may ricochet back and forth several times between structures before it escapes. Each collision increases the chance that the molecule will be absorbed by the surface. So, the researchers sought to optimize the number of bounces in their simulations. They then used the 3D printing of a titanium alloy to create the two promising designs on hockey-puck sized flanges that could be installed in a conventional high-vacuum system (see figure). The final step in the fabrication process was to coat the surfaces with a nonevaporable getter, which is a material designed specifically to absorb gas molecules in a vacuum system. The team found that their hexagonal-pocket design pumped gas 3.8 times faster than a flat surface – and the hexagonal-protrusion design achieved a performance that is nearly as good. Team member Ben Hopton at the University of Nottingham says, “What’s exciting about this work is that relatively simple surface engineering can have a surprisingly large effect. By shifting some of the burden from active pumping to passive surface-based pumping, this approach has the potential to significantly reduce, or even remove, the need for bulky pumps in some vacuum systems, allowing quantum technologies to be far more portable.” The research is described in Physical Review Applied. The post Pockets and pillars capture ricocheting molecules in vacuum pump appeared first on Physics World.
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https://physicsworld.com/a/pockets-and-pillars-capture-ricocheting-molecules-in-vacuum-pump/
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Space & Physics
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21991db5f45ba30157aea43b940f936154efeeea0b39b6bcc5ba9f3cd0c7d436
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2026-02-06T09:00:04+00:00
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Metasurfaces create super-sized neutral atom arrays for quantum computing
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A new way of creating arrays of ultracold neutral atoms could make it possible to build quantum computers with more than 100,000 quantum bits (qubits) – two orders of magnitude higher than today’s best machines. The approach, which was demonstrated by physicists at Columbia University in the US, uses optical metasurfaces to generate the forces required to trap and manipulate the atoms. According to its developers, this method is much more scalable than traditional techniques for generating arrays of atomic qubits. “Neutral atom arrays have become a leading quantum technology, notably for quantum computing, where single atoms serve as qubits,” explains atomic physicist Sebastian Will, who co-led the study with his Columbia colleague Nanfang Yu. “However, the technology available so far to make these arrays limits array sizes to about 10,000 traps, which corresponds to a maximum of 10,000 atomic qubits.” In common with standard ways of constructing atomic qubit arrays, the new method relies on a well-established technique known as optical tweezing. The principle of optical tweezing is that highly focused laser beams generate forces at their focal points that are strong enough to trap individual objects – in this case, atoms. To create many such trapping sites while maintaining tight control of the laser’s light field, scientists typically use devices called spatial light modulators (SLMs) and acousto-optic deflectors (AODs) to split a single moderately intense laser beam into many lower-intensity ones. Such arrays have previously been used to trap thousands of atoms at once. In 2025, for example, researchers at the California Institute of Technology in the US created arrays containing up to 6100 trapped atoms – a feat that Will describes as “an amazing achievement”. In the new work, which is detailed in Nature, Will, Yu and colleagues replaced these SLMs and AODs with flat optical surfaces made up of two-dimensional arrays of nanometre-sized “pixels”. These so-called metasurfaces can be thought of as a superposition of tens of thousands of flat lenses. When a laser beam hits them, it produces tens of thousands of focal points in a unique pattern. And because the pixels in the Columbia team’s metasurfaces are smaller than the wavelength of light they are manipulating (300 nm compared to 520 nm), Yu explains that they can use these metasurfaces to generate tweezer arrays directly, without the need for additional bulky and expensive equipment. The Columbia researchers demonstrated this by trapping atoms in several highly uniform two-dimensional (2D) patterns, including a square lattice with 1024 trapping sites; patterns shaped like quasicrystals and the Statue of Liberty with hundreds of sites; and a circle made up of atoms spaced less than 1.5 microns apart. They also created a 3.5 mm diameter metasurface that contains more than 100 million pixels and used it to generate a 600 × 600 array of trapping sites. “This is two orders of magnitude beyond the capabilities of current technologies,” Yu says. Another advantage of using metasurfaces, Will adds, is that they are “extremely resilient” to high laser intensities. “This is what is needed to trap hundreds of thousands of neutral atom qubits,” he explains. “Metasurfaces’ laser power handling capabilities go several orders of magnitude beyond the state of the art with SLMs and AODs.” For arrays of up to 1000 focal points, the researchers showed that their metasurface-generated arrays can trap single atoms with a high level of control and precision and with high single-atom detection fidelity. This is essential, they say, because it demonstrates that the arrays’ quality is high enough to be useful for quantum computing. While they are not there yet, Will says that the metasurface atomic tweezer arrays they developed “lay the critical groundwork for realizing neutral-atom quantum computers that operate with more than 100,000 qubits”. These high numbers, he adds, will be essential for realizing quantum computers that can achieve “quantum advantage” by outperforming classical computers. “The large number of qubits also allows for more ‘redundancy’ in the system to realize highly-efficient quantum error correction codes, which can make quantum computing – which is usually fragile – more resilient,” he says. The Columbia team is now working on further improving the quality of their metasurfaces. “On the atomic arrays side, we will now try to actually fill such arrays with more than 100 000 atoms,” Will tells Physics World. “Doing this will require a much more powerful laser than we currently have, but it’s in a realistic range.” The post Metasurfaces create super-sized neutral atom arrays for quantum computing appeared first on Physics World.
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https://physicsworld.com/a/metasurfaces-create-super-sized-neutral-atom-arrays-for-quantum-computing/
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Space & Physics
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a4e43b31940818d5f5e99be4cb87b5a2122ec06ebfce262c2c583d8348c66965
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2026-02-05T17:45:43+00:00
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Physics‑based simulations help diagnose and treat disease
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This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast features Amanda Randles, who is a computer scientist and biomedical engineer at Duke University in the US. In a conversation with Physics World’s Margaret Harris, Randles explains how she uses physics-based, computationally intensive simulations to develop new ways to diagnose and treat human disease. She has also investigated how data from wearable devices such as smartwatches can be used identify signs of heart disease. In 2024, the Association for Computing Machinery awarded Randles its ACM Prize in Computing for her groundbreaking work. Harris caught up with Randles at the 2025 Heidelberg Laureate Forum, which brings prizewinning researchers and early-career researchers in computer science and mathematics to Heidelberg, Germany for a week of talks and networking. Randles began her career as a physicist and she explains why she was drawn to the multidisciplinary research that she does today. Randles talks about her enduring love of computer coding and also reflects on what she might have done differently when starting out in her career. The post Physics‑based simulations help diagnose and treat disease appeared first on Physics World.
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https://physicsworld.com/a/physics-based-simulations-help-diagnose-and-treat-disease/
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Space & Physics
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25ed9d6759e13d957182ef6bda663c997f185b45218fb91467244f219a17dd2c
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2026-02-05T16:01:08+00:00
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The 10th annual Physics World Careers guide showcases job options for physicists
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I hear it all the time: physics students have only the haziest idea of what they can do with a physics degree. Staying in academia is the obvious option but they’re often not sure what else is out there. With hefty student debts to pay off, getting a well-paid job in finance seems to top many physicists’ wish lists these days. But there are lots of other options, from healthcare, green energy and computing to education, aviation and construction. Some of the many things you can do with a physics degree are covered in the latest edition of Physics World Careers, which is out now. This bumper, 96-page digital guide contains profiles of physicists working across a variety of fields, along with career-development advice and a directory of employers looking to hire physicists. Now in its 10th year, the guide has become an indispensable source of careers information for physicists setting out in the world of work. The 2026 edition of Physics World Careers includes, for example, an article featuring two leaders from the UK’s intelligence agency GCHQ, a spotlight on the many jobs in nuclear energy, as well as careers tips from a recent Physics World Live panel. Remember that if you’re ready to start your job search, you can find all the latest opportunities on the Physics World Jobs portal, which has vacancies in physics and engineering for people at all career stages. A great example of where a physics degree can take you is Rob Farr, a theoretical physicist who’s spent more than 25 years in the food industry. He’s a wonderful illustration of a physicist doing something you might not expect, in his case going from the chilly depths of ice cream science to the dark arts of coffee production and brewing. But that’s the beauty of a physics degree – it provides skills, knowledge and insight that can be applied to very different areas. The post The 10th annual <em>Physics World Careers</em> guide showcases job options for physicists appeared first on Physics World.
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https://physicsworld.com/a/the-10th-annual-physics-world-careers-guide-showcases-job-options-for-physicists/
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Space & Physics
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9b2c2a80a4ab996f9dcced0ee8130b38b6554676b8c5246557a1c223af23e930
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2026-02-05T11:00:15+00:00
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Joined-up thinking in quantum metrology: why collaboration is the secret of success
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The UNESCO International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ) ends on an exotic flourish this month, with the official closing ceremony – which will be live-streamed from Accra, Ghana – looking back on what’s been a global celebration “observed through activities at all levels aimed at increasing public awareness of the importance of quantum science and applications”. The timing of IYQ has proved apposite, mirroring as it does a notable inflection point within the quantum technology sector. Advances in fundamental quantum science and applied R&D are accelerating on a global scale, harnessing the exotic properties of quantum mechanics – entanglement, tunnelling, superposition and the like – to underpin practical applications in quantum computing and quantum communications. Quantum metrology, meanwhile, has progressed from its roots in fundamental physics to become a cornerstone of technology innovation, yielding breakthroughs in fields such as precision timing, navigation, cryptography and advanced imaging – and that’s just for starters. Notwithstanding all this forward motion, IYQ has also highlighted significant challenges when it comes to scaling quantum systems, achieving fault tolerance and ensuring reproducible performance. Enter NMI-Q, an international initiative that leverages the combined expertise of the world’s leading National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) – from the G7 countries and Australia – to accelerate the adoption of foundational hardware and software technologies for quantum computing systems and the quantum internet. The NMI-Q partnership was officially launched in November last year at the IYQ conference “Quantum Metrology: From Foundations to the Future”, an event hosted by NPL. Together, the respective NMIs will conduct collaborative pre-standardization research; develop a set of “best measurement practices” needed by industry to fast-track quantum innovation; and, ultimately, shape the global standardization effort in quantum technologies. “NMI-Q has an ambitious and broad-scope brief, but it’s very much a joined-up effort when it comes to the division of labour,” says Cyrus Larijani, NPL’s head of quantum programme. The rationale being that no one country can do it all when it comes to the performance metrics, benchmarks and standards needed to take quantum breakthroughs out of the laboratory and into the commercial mainstream. Post-launch, NMI-Q has received a collective “uptick” from the quantum community, with the establishment of internationally recognized standards and trusted benchmarks seen as core building blocks for the at-scale uptake and interoperability of quantum technologies. “What’s more,” adds Larijani, “there’s a clear consensus for collaboration over competition [between the NMIs], supported by shared development roadmaps and open-access platforms to avoid fragmentation and geopolitical barriers.” In terms of technology push, the scale of investment – both public and private sector – in all things quantum means that the nascent supply chain is evolving at pace, linking component manufacturers, subsystem developers and full-stack quantum computing companies. That’s reinforced by plenty of downstream pull: all sorts of industries – from finance to healthcare, telecoms to energy generation – are seeking to understand the commercial upsides of quantum technologies, but don’t yet have the necessary domain knowledge and skill sets to take full advantage of the opportunities. Given that context, the onus is on NMI-Q to pool its world-leading expertise in quantum metrology to inform evidence-based decision-making among key stakeholders in the “quantum ecosystem”: investors, policy-makers, manufacturers and, ultimately, the end-users of quantum applications. “Our task is to make sure that quantum technologies are built on reliable, scalable and interoperable foundations,” notes Larijani. “That’s the crux of where we’re going with NMI-Q.” Right now, NPL and its partner NMIs are busy shaping NMI-Q’s work programme and deliverables for 2026 and beyond, with the benchmarking of quantum computers very much front-and-centre. Their challenge lies in the diversity of quantum hardware platforms in the mix; also the emergence of two different approaches to quantum computing – one being a gate-based framework for universal quantum computation, the other an analogue approach tailored to outperforming classical computers on specific tasks. “In this start-up phase, it’s all about bringing everyone together to define and assign the granular NMI-Q work packages and associated timelines,” says Larijani. Operational and strategic alignment is also mandatory across the member NMIs, so that each laboratory (and its parent government) is fully on board with the collaboration’s desired outcomes. “It’s going very well so far in terms of aligning members’ national interests versus NMI-Q’s direction of travel,” adds Larijani. “This emphasis on ‘science diplomacy’, if you like, will remain crucial to our success.” Long term, NMI-Q’s development of widely applicable performance metrics, benchmarks and standards will, it is hoped, enable the quantum technology industry to achieve critical mass on the supply side, with those economies of scale driving down prices and increasing demand. “Ultimately, though, we want NMI-Q to blossom into something much bigger than the individual NMIs, spanning out to engage the supply chains of member countries,” says Larijani. “It’s really important for NPL and the NMI-Q partners to help quantum companies scale their offerings, advance their technology readiness level and, sooner than later, get innovative products and services into the market.” That systematic support for innovation and technology translation is evident on the domestic front as well. The UK Quantum Standards Network Pilot – which is being led by NPL – brings together representatives from industry (developers and end-users), academia and government to work on all aspects of standards development and ensure that UK quantum technology companies have access to global supply chains and markets. So what does success look like for Larijani in 2026? “We’re really motivated to work with as many quantum companies as we can – to help these organizations launch new quantum products and applications,” he explains. Another aspiration is to encourage industry partners to co-locate their R&D and innovation activities within NPL’s Institute for Quantum Standards and Technology. “There are moves to establish a quantum technology cluster at NPL to enable UK and overseas companies to access our specialist know-how and unique measurement capability,” Larijani concludes. “Equally, as a centre-of-excellence in quantum science, we can help to scale the UK quantum workforce as well as encourage our own spin-out ventures in quantum metrology.” “Quantum Metrology: From Foundations to the Future” was held at NPL as part of UNESCO’s IYQ global celebrations. Organized by a steering committee of NMI-Q members, the conference explored quantum metrology and standards as enablers of technology innovation; also their role as “a cornerstone for trust, interoperability, and societal benefit in quantum innovation and adoption”. The commitments below – articulated as formal recommendations for UNESCO – reflect the collective vision of conference delegates for an inclusive, ethical and sustainable quantum future… NPL retains copyright on this article. The post Joined-up thinking in quantum metrology: why collaboration is the secret of success appeared first on Physics World.
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https://physicsworld.com/a/joined-up-thinking-in-quantum-metrology-why-collaboration-is-the-secret-of-success/
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ebbaac8775d752d47e47d18e10e0b4ba62855a6458e6ced25396b926fc308b5c
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2026-02-05T09:00:57+00:00
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Schrödinger cat state sets new size record
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Classical mechanics describes our everyday world of macroscopic objects very well. Quantum mechanics is similarly good at describing physics on the atomic scale. The boundary between these two regimes, however, is still poorly understood. Where, exactly, does the quantum world stop and the classical world begin? Researchers in Austria and Germany have now pushed the line further towards the macroscopic regime by showing that metal nanoparticles made up of thousands of atoms clustered together continue to obey the rules of quantum mechanics in a double-slit-type experiment. At over 170 000 atomic mass units, these nanoparticles are heavier than some viroids and proteins – a fact that study leader Sebastian Pedalino, a PhD student at the University of Vienna, says demonstrates that quantum mechanics remains valid at this scale and alternative models are not required. According to the rules of quantum mechanics, even large objects behave as delocalized waves. However, we do not observe this behaviour in our daily lives because the characteristic length over which this behaviour extends – the de Broglie wavelength λdB = h/mv, where h is Planck’s constant, m is the object’s mass and v is its velocity – is generally much smaller than the object itself. In the new work, a team led by Vienna’s Markus Arndt and Stefan Gerlich, in collaboration with Klaus Hornberger at the University of Duisburg-Essen, created clusters of sodium atoms in a helium-argon mixture at 77 K in an ultrahigh vacuum. The clusters each contained between 5000 and 1000 atoms and travelled at velocities of around 160 m s−1, giving them de Broglie wavelengths between 10‒22 femtometres (1 fm = 10-12 m). To observe matter-wave interference in objects with such ultra-short de Broglie wavelengths, the team used an interferometer containing three diffraction gratings constructed with deep ultraviolet laser beams in a so-called Talbot–Lau configuration. The first grating channels the clusters through narrow gaps, from which their wave function expands. This wave is then modulated by the second grating, resulting in interference that produces a measurable striped pattern at the third grating. This result implies that the clusters’ location is not fixed as it propagates through the apparatus. Instead, its wave function is spread over a span dozens of times larger than an individual cluster, meaning that it is in a superposition of locations rather than occupying a fixed position in space. This is known as a Schrödinger cat state, in reference to the famous thought experiment by physicist Erwin Schrödinger in which he imagined a cat sitting in a sealed box to be both dead and alive at once. The Vienna-Duisburg-Essen researchers characterized their experiment by calculating a quantity known as macroscopicity that combines the duration of the quantum state (its coherence time), the mass of the object in that state and the degree of separation between states. In this work, which they detail in Nature, the macroscopicity reached a value of 15.5 – an order of magnitude higher than the best known previous reported measurement of this kind. Arndt explains that this milestone was reached thanks to a long-term research programme that aims to push quantum experiments to ever higher masses and complexity. “The motivation is simply that we do not yet know if quantum mechanics is the ultimate theory or if it requires any modification at some mass limit,” he tells Physics World. While several speculative theories predict some degree of modification, he says, “as experimentalists our task is to be agnostic and see what happens”. Arndt notes that the team’s machine is very sensitive to small forces, which can generate notable deflections of the interference fringes. In the future, he thinks this effect could be exploited to characterize the properties of materials. In the longer term, this force-sensing capability could even be used to search for new particles. While Arndt says he is “impressed” that these mesoscopic objects – which are in principle easy to see and even to localize under a scattering microscope – can be delocalized on a scale more than 10 times their size if they are isolated and non-interacting, he is not entirely surprised. The challenge, he says, lies in understanding what it means. “The interpretation of this phenomenon, the duality between this delocalization and the apparently local nature in the act of measurement, is still an open conundrum,” he says. Looking ahead, the researchers say they would now like to extend their research to higher mass objects, longer coherence times, higher force sensitivity and different materials, including nanobiological materials as well as other metals and dielectrics. “We still have a lot of work to do on sources, beam splitters, detectors, vibration isolation and cooling,” says Arndt. “This is a big experimental adventure for us.” The post Schrödinger cat state sets new size record appeared first on Physics World.
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https://physicsworld.com/a/schrodinger-cat-state-sets-new-size-record/
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Space & Physics
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1818c45f46be59c22f97ee6858b8ffd09b2826ba0440cf6dec44723ecb1f3c98
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2026-02-04T15:00:07+00:00
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Using AI boosts scientific productivity and career prospects, finds study
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Using artificial intelligence (AI) increases scientists’ productivity and impact but collectively leads to a shrinking of research focus. That is according to an analysis of more than 41 million research papers by scientist in China and the US, which finds that scientists who produce AI-augmented research also progress faster in their careers than their colleagues who do not (Nature 649 1237). The study was carried out by James Evans, a sociologist at the University of Chicago, and his colleagues who analysed 41.3 million papers listed in the OpenAlex dataset published between 1980 and 2025. They looked at papers in physics and five other disciplines – biology, chemistry, geology, materials science and medicine. Using an AI language model to identify AI-assisted work, the team picked out almost 310 000 AI-augmented papers from the dataset. They found that AI-supported publications receive more citations than no-AI-assisted papers, while also being more impactful across multiple indicators and having a higher prevalence in high-impact journals. Individual researchers who adopt AI publish, on average, three times as many papers and get almost five times as many citations as those not using AI. In physics, researchers who use AI tools garner 183 citations every year, on average, while those who do not use AI get only 51 annually. AI also boosts career trajectories. Based on an analysis of more than two million scientists in the dataset, the study finds that junior researchers who adopt AI are more likely to become established scientists. They also gain project leadership roles almost one-and-a-half years earlier, on average, than those who do not use AI. But when the researchers examined the knowledge spread of a random sample of 10 000 papers, half of which used AI, they found that AI-produced work shrinks the range of topics covered by almost 5%. The finding is consistent across all six disciplines. Furthermore, AI papers are more clustered than non-AI papers, suggesting a tendency to concentrate on specific problems. AI tools, in other words, appear to funnel research towards areas rich in data and help to automate established fields rather than exploring new topics. Evans and colleagues think this AI-induced convergence could drive science away from foundational questions and towards data-rich operational topics. AI could, however, help combat this trend. “We need to reimagine AI systems that expand not only cognitive capacity but also sensory and experimental capacity,” they say. “[This could] enable and incentivize scientists to search, select and gather new types of data from previously inaccessible domains rather than merely optimizing analysis of standing data.” Meanwhile, a new report by the AI company OpenAI has found that messages on advanced topics in science and mathematics on ChatGPT over the last year have grown by nearly 50%, to almost 8.4 million per week. The firm says its generative AI chatbot is being used to advance research across scientific fields from experiment planning and literature synthesis to mathematical reasoning and data analysis. The post Using AI boosts scientific productivity and career prospects, finds study appeared first on Physics World.
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https://physicsworld.com/a/using-ai-boosts-scientific-productivity-and-career-prospects-finds-study/
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a20fd968aa8cd9afdcf498905ae1f8891b7400be38092b7e74f2967e22510c3e
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2026-02-04T13:00:45+00:00
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Interactions between dark matter and neutrinos could resolve a cosmic discrepancy
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Hints of non-gravitational interactions between dark matter and “relic” neutrinos in the early universe have emerged in a study of astronomical data from different periods of cosmic history. The study was carried out by cosmologists in Poland, the UK and China, and team leader Sebastian Trojanowski of Poland’s NCBJ and NCAC PAS notes that future telescope observations could verify or disprove these hints of a deep connection between dark matter and neutrinos. Dark matter and neutrinos play major roles in the evolution of cosmic structures, but they are among the universe’s least-understood components. Dark matter is thought to make up over 25% of the universe’s mass, but it has never been detected directly; instead, its existence is inferred from its gravitational interactions. Neutrinos, for their part, are fundamental subatomic particles that have a very low mass and interact only rarely with normal matter. According to the standard (ΛCDM) model of cosmology, dark matter and neutrinos do not interact with each other. The work of Trojanowski and colleagues challenges this model by proposing that dark matter and neutrinos may have interacted in the past, when the universe was younger and contained many more neutrinos than it does today. This proposal, they say, was partly inspired by a longstanding cosmic conundrum. Measurements of the early universe suggest that structures such as galaxies should have grown more rapidly than ΛCDM predicts. At the same time, observations of today’s universe indicate that matter is slightly less densely packed than expected. This suggests a slight mismatch between early and late measurements. To explore the impact that dark matter-neutrino interactions (νDM) would have on this mismatch, a team led by Trojanowski’s colleague Lei Zu analysed data from different epochs of the universe’s evolution. Data from the young (high redshift) universe came from two instruments – the ground-based Atacama Cosmology Telescope and the space-based Planck Telescope, which the European Space Agency operated from 2009 to 2013 – that were designed to study the afterglow of the Big Bang, which is known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Data from the older (low-redshift, or z< 3.5) universe, meanwhile, came from a variety of sources, including galaxy maps from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and weak gravitational lensing data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) conducted with the Dark Energy Camera on the Victor M Blanco Telescope in Chile. Drawing on these data, the team calculated that an interaction strength u ≈10−4 between dark matter and neutrinos would be enough to resolve the discrepancy. The statistical significance of this result is nearly 3σ, which team member Sming Tsai Yue-Lin of the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing, China says was “largely achieved by incorporating the high-precision weak lensing data from the DES with the weak lensing component”. While this is not high enough to definitively disprove the ΛCDM model, the researchers say it does show that the model is incomplete and requires further investigation. “Our study shows that interactions between dark matter and neutrinos could help explain this difference, offering new insight into how structure formed in the universe,” explains team member Eleonora Di Valentino, a senior research fellow at Sheffield University, UK. Trojanowski adds that the ΛCDM has been under growing pressure in recent years, while the Standard Model of particle physics cannot explain the nature of dark matter. “These two theories need to be extended to resolve these problems and studying dark matter-neutrino interactions are a promising way to achieve this goal,” he says. The team’s result, he continues, adds to the “massive amount of data” suggesting that we are reaching the limits of the standard cosmological model and may be at the dawn of understanding physics beyond it. “We illustrate that we likely need to bridge cosmological data and fundamental particle physics to describe the universe across different scales and so resolve current anomalies,” he says. One of the challenges of doing this, Trojanowski adds, is that the two fields involved – cosmological data analysis and theoretical astroparticle physics – are very different. “Each field has its own approach to problem-solving and even its own jargon,” he says. “Fortunately, we had a great team and working together was really fun.” The researchers say that data from future telescope observations, such as those from the Vera C Rubin Observatory (formerly known as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, LSST) and the China Space Station Telescope (CSST), could place more stringent tests on their hypothesis. Data from CMB experiments and weak lensing surveys, which map the distribution of mass in the universe by analysing how distant galaxies distort light, could also come in useful. They detail their present research in Nature Astronomy. The post Interactions between dark matter and neutrinos could resolve a cosmic discrepancy appeared first on Physics World.
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https://physicsworld.com/a/interactions-between-dark-matter-and-neutrinos-could-resolve-a-cosmic-discrepancy/
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ec434f93948312d323e8be9f1826801526f01c5a3afa84b87f27da55b8b8d388
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2026-02-04T10:20:29+00:00
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Quantum states that won’t entangle
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Quantum entanglement is a uniquely quantum link between particles that makes their properties inseparable. It underlies the power of many quantum technologies from secure communication to quantum computing, by enabling correlations impossible in classical physics. Entanglement nevertheless remains poorly understood and is therefore the subject of a lot of research, both in the fields of quantum technologies as well as fundamental physics. In this context, the idea of separability refers to a composite system that can be written as a simple product (or mixture of products) of the states of its individual parts. This implies there is no entanglement between them and to create entanglement, a global transformation is needed. A system that remains completely free of entanglement, even after any possible global invertible transformation is applied, is called absolutely separable. In other words, it can never become entangled under the action of quantum gates. Necessary and sufficient conditions to ensure separability exist only in the simplest cases or for highly restricted families of states. In fact, entanglement verification and quantification is known to be generically an NP-hard problem. Recent research published by a team of researchers from Spain and Poland has tackled this problem head-on. By introducing new analytical tools such as linear maps and their inverses, they were able to identify when a quantum state is guaranteed to be absolutely separable. These tools work in any number of dimensions and allow the authors to pinpoint specific states that are on the border of being absolutely separable or not (mathematically speaking, ones that lie on the boundary of the set). They also show how different criteria for absolute separability, which may not always agree with each other, can be combined and refined using convex geometry optimisation. Being able to more easily and accurately determine whether a quantum state is absolutely separable will be invaluable in quantum computation and communication. The team’s results for multipartite systems (systems with more than two parts) also reveal how little we currently understand about the entanglement properties of mixed, noisy states. This knowledge gap suggests that much more research is needed in this area. Sufficient criteria for absolute separability in arbitrary dimensions via linear map inverses – IOPscience J. Abellanet Vidal et al, 2025 Rep. Prog. Phys. 88 107601 The post Quantum states that won’t entangle appeared first on Physics World.
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https://physicsworld.com/a/quantum-states-that-wont-entangle/
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25d0a15f2f8134365fca5d9bae475723f4e5013fce624fe033f4c7587b3b3992
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2026-02-04T09:56:27+00:00
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The secret limits governing quantum relaxation
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A universal constraint for relaxation rates for quantum Markov generators: complete positivity and beyond – IOPscience D. Chruściński et al, 2025 Rep. Prog. Phys. 88 097602 The post The secret limits governing quantum relaxation appeared first on Physics World.
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https://physicsworld.com/a/the-secret-limits-governing-quantum-relaxation/
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eff125e2f3b5ceec9fd4de8d93ba4f4b45668813d0d65a16186ccdccee062682
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2026-02-04T09:00:49+00:00
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Implanted electrodes provide intuitive control of prosthetic hand
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Loss of a limb can significantly impact a person’s independence and quality-of-life, with arm amputations particularly impeding routine daily activities. Prosthetic limbs can restore some of the lost function, but often rely on surface electrodes with low signal quality. A research team at the University of Michigan has now shown that implanted electrodes could provide more accurate and reliable control of hand and wrist prostheses. Today, most upper-limb prostheses are controlled using surface electrodes placed on the skin to detect electrical activity from underlying muscles. The recorded electromyography (EMG) signals are then used to classify different finger and wrist movements. Under real-world conditions, however, these signals can be impaired by inconsistent electrode positioning, changes in limb volume, exposure to sweat and artefacts from user movements. Implanted electrodes, tiny contacts that are surgically sutured into muscles, could do a better job. By targeting muscles deeper in the arm, they offer higher signal-to-noise ratios and less susceptibility to daily variations. And although amputation can eliminate many of the muscles that control hand functions, techniques such as regenerative peripheral nerve interface (RPNI) surgery – in which muscle tissue is grafted to nerves in the residual limb – enable electrodes to target missing muscles and record relevant signals for prosthetic control. Senior author Cynthia Chestek points out that such RPNI grafts are also beneficial for the nerve itself. “They provide a target for nerve endings that prevent the formation of painful neuromas, and that may in turn help reduce phantom limb pain,” she explains “In future, it would also be possible to place electrodes and a wireless transmitter during that same surgery, such that no additional surgeries are required other than the original amputation.” In their latest work, reported in the Journal of Neural Engineering, Chestek and colleagues investigated whether implanted electrodes could provide stable and high-quality signals for controlling prosthetic hand and wrist function. The study involved two individuals with forearm amputations and EMG electrodes implanted into RPNIs and muscles in their residual limb. The subjects performed various experiments, during which the team recorded EMG signals from the implanted electrodes plus dry-domed and gelled (used to improve contact with the skin) surface electrodes. In one experiment, participants were tasked with controlling a virtual hand and wrist in real time by mimicking movements (various grips) on a screen. The researchers used the recorded EMG signals to train linear discriminant analysis classifiers to distinguish the cued grips, training separate classifiers for each electrode type. They then evaluated the performance of these grip classifiers during a posture classification experiment, in which the subjects actively controlled hand or wrist movements of a virtual hand. Participants achieved faster, more accurate and more reliable control using the implanted electrodes than the surface electrodes. With participants sitting and keeping their arm still, the implanted electrodes achieved average per-bin accuracies (the percentage of correctly classified time bins) of 82.1% and 91.2% for subjects 1 and 2, respectively. The surface electrodes performed worse, with accuracies of 77.1% and 81.3% for gelled electrodes, and 58.2% and 67.1% for dry-domed electrodes, for subjects 1 and 2, respectively. The researchers repeated this experiment with the subjects standing and moving their arm to mimic daily activities. Adding movement reduced the classification accuracy in all cases, but affected the implanted electrodes to a far smaller degree. The control success rate (the ability to hold a grip for at least 1 s, within 3 s of seeing a movement cue) also diminished between still and moving conditions, but again, the implanted electrodes experienced smaller decreases. Overall, the performance of online classifiers using implanted electrodes was only slightly affected by arm movements, while classifiers trained on surface electrodes became unstable. Investigating the reasons underlying this difference revealed that implanted electrodes exhibited higher EMG signal amplitudes, lower cross-correlation between channels, and smaller signal deviations between still and moving conditions. To examine a real-world scenario, subject 1 completed the “Coffee Task”, which involves performing the various grips and movements required to: place a cup into a coffee machine; place a coffee pod into the machine; push the start button; move the filled cup onto a table; and open a sugar packet and pour it into the cup. The subject performed the task using an iLimb Quantum myoelectric prosthetic hand controlled by either implanted or dry surface electrodes, with and without control of wrist rotation. The participant performed the task faster using implanted electrodes, successfully completing the task on all three attempts. For surface-based control, they reached the maximum time limit of 150 s in two out of three attempts. Although gelled electrodes are the gold standard for surface EMG, they cannot be used whilst wearing a standard prosthetic socket. “With the Coffee Task, use of the physical prosthetic hand is needed, so this was only performed with dry-domed surface electrodes and implanted electrodes,” explains first author Dylan Wallace. The researchers also assessed whether simultaneous wrist and hand control can reduce compensatory body movements (measured using reflective markers on the subject’s torso), compared with hand control alone. Without wrist rotation, the subject had to lean their entire upper body to complete the pouring task. With wrist rotation enabled, this lean was greatly reduced. This finding emphasizes how wrist control provides significant functional benefit for prosthesis users during daily activities. Chestek notes that in a previous study where participants wore a prosthesis without an active wrist, “almost everything we asked them to do required large body movements”. “Fortunately, the implantable electrodes provide highly specific and high-amplitude signals, such that we were able to add that wrist movement without losing the ability to classify multiple different grasps,” she explains. “The next step would be to pursue continuous, rather than discrete, movement for all of the individual joints of the hand – though that will not happen quickly.” The post Implanted electrodes provide intuitive control of prosthetic hand appeared first on Physics World.
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https://physicsworld.com/a/implanted-electrodes-provide-intuitive-control-of-prosthetic-hand/
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21550ef2b155f300f5f922177c2ae682aae49c5e307a78a6d1ec9e3716626f7b
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2026-02-03T15:22:40+00:00
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New cosmic map will put dark-matter theories to the test
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Astronomers have created the most detailed map to date of the vast structures of dark matter that appear to permeate the universe. Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the team, led by Diana Scognamiglio at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, used gravitational lensing to map the dark matter filaments and clusters with unprecedented resolution. As a result, physicists have new and robust data to test theories of dark matter. Dark matter is a hypothetical substance that appears to account for about 85% of the mass in universe – yet it has never been observed directly. Dark matter is invoked by physicists to explain the dynamics and evolution of large scale structures in the universe. This includes the gravitational formation of galaxy clusters and the cosmic filaments connecting them over 100-million-light–year distances. Light from very distant objects beyond these structures is deflected by the gravitational tug of dark matter within the clusters and filaments. This can be observed on Earth as the gravitational lensing of these distant objects. This distorts images of the distant objects and affects their observed brightness. These effects can be used to determine the dark-matter content of the clusters and filaments. In 2007, the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) used the Hubble Space Telescope to create a map of cosmic filaments in an area of the sky about nine times larger than that occupied by the Moon. “The COSMOS field was published by Richard Massey and my advisor, Jason Rhodes,” Scognamiglio recounts. “It has a special place in the history of dark-matter mapping, with the first wide-area map of space-based weak lensing mass.” However, Hubble’s limited resolution meant that many smaller-scale features remained invisible in COSMOS. In a new survey called COSMOS-Web, Scognamiglio’s team harnessed the vastly improved imaging capabilities of the JWST, which offers over twice the resolution of its predecessor. “We used JWST’s exceptional sharpness and sensitivity to measure the shapes of many more faint, distant galaxies in the COSMOS-Web field – the central part of the original COSMOS field,” Scognamiglio describes. “This allowed us to push weak gravitational lensing into a new regime, producing a much sharper and more detailed mass map over a contiguous area.” With these improvements, the team could measure the shapes of 129 galaxies per square arcminute in area of sky the size of 2.5 full moons. With thorough mathematical analysis, they could then identify which of these galaxies had been distorted by dark-matter lensing. “The map revealed fine structure in the cosmic web, including filaments and mass concentrations that were not visible in previous space-based maps,” Scognamiglio says. The map allowed the team to identify lensing structures out to distances of roughly 5 billion light–years, corresponding to the universe’s peak era of star formation. Beyond this point, galaxies became too sparse and dim for their shapes to be measured reliably, placing a new limit on the COSMOS-Web map’s resolution. With this unprecedented resolution, the team could also identify features as small as the dark matter halos encircling small clusters of galaxies, which were invisible in the original COSMOS survey. The astronomers hope their result will set a new, higher-resolution benchmark for future studies using JWST’s observations to probe the elusive nature of dark matter, and its intrinsic connection with the formation and evolution of the universe’s largest structures. “It also sets the stage for current and future missions like ESA’s Euclid and NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will extend similar dark matter mapping techniques to much larger areas of the sky,” Scognamiglio says. The observations are described in Nature Astronomy. The post New cosmic map will put dark-matter theories to the test appeared first on Physics World.
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https://physicsworld.com/a/new-cosmic-map-will-put-dark-matter-theories-to-the-test/
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2026-02-03T13:24:16+00:00
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Top-cited authors from India and North America share their tips for early-career researchers
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Some 20 papers from researchers based in North America have been recognized with a Top Cited Paper award for 2025 from IOP Publishing, which publishes Physics World. The prize is given to corresponding authors who have papers published in both IOP Publishing and its partners’ journals from 2022 to 2024 that are in the top 1% of the most cited papers. Meanwhile, 29 papers from India have been recognized with a Top Cited Paper award for 2025. Below, some of the winners of the 2025 top-cited paper award from India and North America outline their tips for early-career researchers who are looking to boost the impact of their work. Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity. Shikhar Mittal from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai: Early-career researchers, especially PhD students, often underestimate the importance of presentation and visibility when it comes to their work. While doing high-quality research is, of course, essential, it is equally important to write your paper clearly and professionally. Even the tiniest of details, such as consistent scientific notation, clean figures, correct punctuation and avoiding typos can make a big difference. A paper full of careless errors may not be taken seriously, even if it contains strong scientific results. Another crucial aspect is visibility. It is important to actively advertise your research by presenting your work at conferences and reaching out to researchers who are working on related topics. If someone misses citing your relevant work, a polite message can often lead to recognition and even collaboration. Being proactive in how you communicate and share your research can significantly improve its impact. Sandip Mondal from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay: Don’t try to solve everything at once. Pick a focused, well-motivated question and go deep into it. It’s tempting to jump on “hot topics”, but the work that lasts – and gets cited – is methodologically sound, reproducible and well-characterized. Even incremental advances, if rigorously done, can be very impactful. Another tip is to work with people who bring complementary skills — whether in theory, device fabrication or characterization. Collaboration isn’t just about co-authors; it’s about deepening the quality of your work. And once your paper is published, your job isn’t done. Promote it as visibility breeds engagement, which leads to impact. Sarika Jalan from the Indian Institute of Technology Indore: Try to go in-depth into the problem you are working on. Publications alone cannot give visibility, its understanding and creativity that will matter in the long run. Marcia Rieke from the University of Arizona: Write clearly and concisely. I would also suggest being careful with your choice of journal – high-impact-factor journals can be great but may lead to protracted refereeing while other journals are very reputable and sometimes have faster publication rates. Dan Scolnic from Duke University: At some point there needs to be a transition from thinking about “number of papers” to “number of citations” instead. Graduate students typically talk about writing as many papers as possible – that’s the metric. But at some point scientists start getting judged on the impact of their papers, which is most easily understood with citations. I’m not saying one should e-mail anyone with a paper to cite them, but rather, to think about what one wants to put time in to work on. One should say “I’d like to work on this because I think it can have a big impact”. P Veeresha from CHRIST University in Bangalore: Build a strong foundation in the fundamentals and always think critically about what society truly needs. Also focus on how your research can be different, novel, and practically useful. It’s important to present your work in a simple and clear way so that it connects with both the academic community and real-world applications. Parasuraman Swaminathan from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras: Thorough research is critical for good quality research, be bold and try to push the boundaries of your chosen topic. Arnab Pal from the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Chennai: Focus on asking meaningful, well-motivated questions rather than just solving technically difficult problems. Write clearly and communicate your ideas with simplicity and purpose. Engage with the research community early through talks, preprints and collaborations. Above all, be patient and consistent; impactful work often takes time to be recognized. Steven Finkelstein from the University of Texas at Austin: Work on topics that both you think are interesting, and that others find interesting, and above all work with people who you trust. The post Top-cited authors from India and North America share their tips for early-career researchers appeared first on Physics World.
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https://physicsworld.com/a/top-cited-authors-from-india-and-north-america-share-their-tips-for-early-career-researchers/
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Space & Physics
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fd2bd0022021c378ed471d380e08e08b9e27a259635ddc021712c4bd033b1bd6
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2026-02-03T11:00:08+00:00
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Twenty-three nominations, yet no Nobel prize: how Chien-Shiung Wu missed out on the top award in physics
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The facts seem simple enough. In 1957 Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee won the Nobel Prize for Physics “for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles”. The idea that parity is violated shocked physicists, who had previously assumed that every process in nature remains the same if you reverse all three spatial co-ordinates. Thanks to the work of Lee and Yang, who were Chinese-American theoretical physicists, it now appeared that this fundamental physics concept wasn’t true (see box below). As Yang once told Physics World columnist and historian of science Robert Crease, the discovery of parity violation was like having the lights switched off and being so confused that you weren’t sure you’d be in the same room when they came back on. But one controversy has always surrounded the prize. Lee and Yang published their findings in a paper in October 1956 (Phys. Rev. 1 254), meaning that their Nobel prize was one of the rare occasions that satisfied Alfred Nobel’s will, which says the award should go to work done “during the preceding year”. However, the first verification of parity violation was published in February 1957 (Phys. Rev. 105 1413) by a team of experimental physicists led by Chien-Shiung Wu at Columbia University, where Lee was also based. (Yang was at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton at the time.) Surely Wu, an eminent experimentalist (see box below “Chien-Shiung Wu: a brief history”), deserved a share of the prize for contributing to such an fundamental discovery? In her paper, entitled “Experimental Test of Parity Conservation in Beta Decay”, Wu says she had “inspiring discussions” with Lee and Yang. Was gender bias at play, did her paper miss the deadline, or was she simply never nominated? (Courtesy: IOP Publishing) Parity is a property of elementary particles that says how they behave when reflected in a mirror. If the parity of a particle does not change during reflection, parity is said to be conserved. In 1956 Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang realized that while parity conservation had been confirmed in electromagnetic and strong interactions, there was no compelling evidence that it should also hold in weak interactions, such as radioactive decay. In fact, Lee and Yang thought parity violation could explain the peculiar decay patterns of K mesons, which are governed by the weak interaction. In 1957 Chien-Shiung Wu suggested an experiment to check this based on unstable cobalt-60 nuclei radioactively decaying into nickel-60 while emitting beta rays (electrons). Working at very low temperatures to ensure almost no random thermal motion – and thereby enabling a strong magnetic field to align the cobalt nuclei with their spins parallel – Wu found that far more electrons were emitted in a downward direction than upward. In the figure, (a) shows how a mirror image of this experiment should also produce more electrons going down than up. But when the experiment was repeated, with the direction of the magnetic field reversed to change the direction of the spin as it would be in the mirror image, Wu and colleagues found that more electrons were produced going upwards (b). The fact that the real-life experiment with reversed spin direction behaved differently from the mirror image proved that parity is violated in the weak interaction of beta decay. Back then, the Nobel statutes stipulated that all details about who had been nominated for a Nobel prize – and why the winners were chosen by the Nobel committee – were to be kept secret forever. Later, in 1974, the rules were changed, allowing the archives to be opened 50 years after an award had been made. So why did the mystery not become clear in 2007, half a century after the 1957 prize? The reason is that there is a secondary criterion for prizes awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences – in physics and chemistry – which is that the archive must stay shut for as long as a laureate is still alive. Lee and Yang were in their early 30s when they were awarded the prize and both went on to live very long lives. Lee died on 24 August 2024 aged 97 and it was not until the death of Yang on 18 October 2025 at 103 that the chance to solve the mystery finally arose. <><>Overlooked for a Nobel Chien-Shiung Wu in 1963 at Columbia University by which time she had already received the first three of her 23 known nominations for a Nobel prize. (Courtesy: Smithsonian Institution) Born on 31 May 1912 in Jiangsu province in eastern China, Chien-Shiung Wu graduated with a degree in physics from National Central University in Nanjing. After a few years of research in China, she moved to the US, gaining a PhD at the University of California at Berkeley in 1940. Three years later Wu took up a teaching job at Princeton University in New Jersey – a remarkable feat given that women were not then even allowed to study at Princeton. During the Second World War, Wu joined the Manhattan atomic-bomb project, working on radiation detectors at Columbia University in New York. After the conflict was over, she started studying beta decay – one of the weak interactions associated with radioactive decay. Wu famously led a crucial experiment studying the beta decay of cobalt-60 nuclei, which confirmed a prediction made in October 1956 by her Columbia colleague Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang in Princeton that parity can be violated in the weak interaction. Lee and Yang went on to win the 1957 Nobel Prize for Physics but the Nobel Committee was not aware that Lee had in fact consulted Wu in spring 1956 – several months before their paper came out – about potential experiments to prove their prediction. As she was to recall in 1973, studying the decay of cobalt-60 was “a golden opportunity” to test their ideas that she “could not let pass”. The first woman in the Columbia physics department to get a tenured position and a professorship, Wu remained at Columbia for the rest of her career. Taking an active interest in physics well into retirement, she died on 16 February 1997 at the age of 84. Only now, with the publication of this Physics World article, has it become clear that despite receiving 23 nominations from 18 different physicists in 16 years between 1958 and 1974, she never won a Nobel prize. As two physicists based in Stockholm with a keen interest in the history of science, we had already examined the case of Lise Meitner, another female physicist who never won a Nobel prize – in her case for fission. We’d published our findings about Meitner in the December 2023 issue of Fysikaktuellt – the journal of the Swedish Physical Society. So after Yang died, we asked the Center for History of Science at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences if we could look at the 1957 archives. A previous article in Physics World from 2012 by Magdolna Hargittai, who had spoken to Anders Bárány, former secretary of the Nobel Committee for Physics, seemed to suggest that Wu wasn’t awarded the 1957 prize because her Physical Review paper had been published in February of that year. This was after the January cut-off and therefore too late to be considered on that occasion (although the trio could have been awarded a joint prize in a subsequent year). After receiving permission to access the archives, we went to the centre on Thursday 13 November 2025, where – with great excitement – we finally got our hands on the thick, black, hard-bound book containing information about the 1957 Nobel prizes in physics and chemistry. About 500 pages long, the book revealed that there were a total of 58 nominations for the 1957 Nobel Prize for Physics – but none at all for Wu that year. As we shall go on to explain, she did, however, receive a total of 23 nominations over the next 16 years. Lee and Yang, we discovered, received just a single nomination for the 1957 prize, submitted by John Simpson, an experimental physicist at the University of Chicago in the US. His nomination reached the Nobel Committee on 29 January 1957, just before the deadline of 31 January. Simpson clearly had a lot of clout with the committee, which commissioned two reports from its members – both Swedish physicists – based on his recommendation. One was by Oskar Klein on the theoretical aspects of the prize and the other by Erik Hulthén on the experimental side of things. Klein devotes about half of his four-page report to the Hungarian-born theorist Eugene Wigner, who – we discovered – received seven separate nominations for the 1957 prize. In his opening remarks, Klein notes that Wigner’s work on symmetry principles in physics, first published in 1927, had gained renewed relevance in light of recent experiments by Wu, Leon Lederman and others. According to Klein, these experiments cast a new light on the fundamental symmetry principles of physics. Klein then discusses three important papers by Wigner and concludes that he, more than any other physicist, established the conceptual background on symmetry principles that enabled Lee and Yang to clarify the possibilities of experimentally testing parity non-conservation. Klein also analyses Lee and Yang’s award-winning Physical Review paper in some detail and briefly mentions subsequent articles of theirs as well as papers by two future Nobel laureates – Lev Landau and Abdus Salam. Klein does not end his report with an explicit recommendation, but identifies Lee, Yang and Wigner as having made the most important contributions. It is noteworthy that every physicist mentioned in Klein’s report – apart from Wu – eventually went on to receive a Nobel Prize for Physics. Wigner did not have to wait long, winning the 1963 prize together with Maria Goeppert Mayer and Hans Jensen, who had also been nominated in 1957. As for Hulthén’s experimental report, it acknowledges that Wu’s experiment started after early discussions with Lee and Yang. In fact, Lee had consulted Wu at Columbia on the subject of parity conservation in beta-decay before Lee and Yang’s famous paper was published. According to Wu, she mentioned to Lee that the best way would be to use a polarized cobalt-60 source for testing the assumption of parity violation in beta-decay. Many physicists were aware of Lee and Yang’s paper, which was certainly seen as highly speculative, whereas Wu realized the opportunity to test the far-reaching consequences of parity violation. Since she was not a specialist of low-temperature nuclear alignment, she contacted Ernest Ambler at the National Bureau of Standards in Washington DC, who was a co-author on her Physics Review paper of 15 February 1957. Hulthén describes in detail the severe technical challenges that Wu’s team had to overcome to carry out the experiment. These included achieving an exceptionally low temperature of 0.001 K, placing the detector inside the cryostat, and mitigating perturbations from the crystalline field that weakened the magnetic field’s effectiveness. Despite these difficulties, the experimentalists managed to obtain a first indication of parity violations, which they presented on 4 January 1957 at a regular lunch that took place at Columbia every Friday. The news of these preliminary results spread like wildfire throughout the physics community, prompting other groups to immediately follow suit. Hulthén mentions, for example, a measurement of the magnetic moment of the mu (μ) meson (now known as the muon) that Richard Garvin, Leon Lederman and Marcel Weinrich performed at Columbia’s cyclotron almost as soon as Lederman had obtained information of Wu’s work. He also cites work at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands led by C J Gorter that apparently had started to look into parity violation independently of Wu’s experiment (Physica 23 259). It is clear from Hulthén’s report that the Nobel Physics Committee was well informed about the experimental work carried out in the wake of Lee and Yang’s paper of October 1956, in particular the groundbreaking results of Wu. However, it is not clear from a subsequent report dated 20 September 1957 (see box below) from the Nobel Committee why Wigner was not awarded a share of the 1957 prize, despite his seven nominations. Nor is there any suggestion of postponing the prize a year in order to include Wu. The report was discussed on 23 October 1957 by members of the “Physics Class” – a group of physicists in the academy who always consider the committee’s recommendations – who unanimously endorsed it. (Courtesy: The Nobel Archive, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm) This image is the final page of a report written on 20 September 1957 by the Nobel Committee for Physics about who should win the 1957 Nobel Prize for Physics. Dated 20 September 1957 and published here for the first time since it was written, the English translation is as follows. “Although much experimental and theoretical work remains to be done to fully clarify the necessary revision of the parity principle, it can already be said that a discovery with extremely significant consequences has emerged as a result of the above-mentioned study by Lee and Yang. In light of the above, the committee proposes that the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics be awarded jointly to: Dr T D Lee, New York, and Dr C N Yang, Princeton, for their profound investigation of the so-called parity laws, which has led to the discovery of new properties of elementary particles.” The report was signed by Manne Siegbahn (chair), Gudmund Borelius, Erik Hulthén, Oskar Klein, Erik Rudberg and Ivar Waller. Most noteworthy with regard to this meeting of the Physics Class was that Meitner – who had also been overlooked for the Nobel prize – took part in the discussions. Meitner, who was Austrian by birth, had been elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1945, becoming a “Swedish member” after taking Swedish citizenship in 1951. In the wake of these discussions, the academy decided on 31 October 1957 to award the 1957 Nobel Prize for Physics to Lee and Yang. We do not know, though, if Meitner argued for Wu to be awarded a share of that year’s prize. A total of 23 nominations to give a Nobel prize to Wu reached the Nobel Committee on 10 separate years and she was nominated by 18 leading physicists, including various Nobel-prize winners and Tsung-Dao Lee himself Although Wu did not receive any nominations in 1957, she was nominated the following year by the 1955 Nobel laureates in physics, Willis Lamb and Polykarp Kusch. In fact, after Lee and Yang won the prize, nominations to give a Nobel prize to Wu reached the committee on 10 separate years out of the next 16 (see graphic below). She was nominated by a total of 18 leading physicists, including various Nobel-prize winners and Lee himself. In fact, Lee nominated Wu for a Nobel prize on three separate occasions – in 1964, 1971 and 1972. However, it appears she was never nominated by Yang (at the time of writing, we only have archive information up to 1974). One reason for Lee’s support and Yang’s silence could be attributed to the early discussions that Lee had with Wu, influencing the famous Lee and Yang paper, which Yang may not have been aware of. It is also not clear why Lee and Yang never acknowledged their discussion with Wu about the cobalt-60 experiment that was proposed in their paper; further research may shed more light on this topic. Following Wu’s nomination in 1958, the Nobel Committee simply re-examined the investigations already carried out by Klein and Hulthén. The same procedure was repeated in subsequent years, but no new investigations into Wu’s work were carried out until 1971 when she received six nominations – the highest number she got in any one year. (Courtesy: IOP Publishing) Our examination of the newly released Nobel archive from 1957 indicates that although Chien-Shiung Wu was not nominated for that year’s prize, which was won by Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee, she did receive a total of 23 nominations over the next 16 years (1974 being the last open archive at the time of writing). Those 23 nominations were made by 18 different physicists, with Lee nominating Wu three times and Herwig Schopper, Emilio Segrè and Ryoya Utiyama each doing so twice. The peak year for nominations for her was 1971 when she received six nominations. The archives also show that in October 1957 Werner Heisenberg submitted a nomination for Lee (but not Yang); it was registered as a nomination for 1958. The nomination is very short and it is not clear why Heisenberg did not nominate Yang. That year the committee decided to ask Bengt Nagel, a theorist at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, to investigate the theoretical importance of Wu’s experiments. The nominations she received for the Nobel prize concerned three experiments. In addition to her 1957 paper on parity violation there was a 1949 article she’d written with her Columbia colleague R D Albert verifying Enrico Fermi’s theory of beta decay (Phys. Rev. 75 315) and another she wrote in 1963 with Y K Lee and L W Mo on the conserved vector current, which is a fundamental hypothesis of the Standard Model of particle physics (Phys. Rev. Lett. 10 253). After pointing out that four of the 1971 nominations came from Wu’s colleagues at Columbia, which to us may have hinted at a kind of lobbying campaign for her, Nagel stated that the three experiments had “without doubt been of great importance for our understanding of the weak interaction”. However, he added, “the experiments, at least the last two, have been conducted to certain aspects as commissioned or direct suggestions of theoreticians”. In Nagel’s view, Wu’s work therefore differed significantly from, for example, James Cronin and Val Fritsch’s famous discovery in 1964 of charge-parity (CP) violation in the decay of Ko mesons. They had made their discovery under their own steam, whereas (Nagel suggested) Wu’s work had been carried out only after being suggested by theorists. “I feel somewhat hesitant whether their theoretical importance is a sufficient motivation to render Wu the Nobel prize,” Nagel concluded. The Nobel archives are currently not open beyond 1974 so we don’t know if Wu received any further nominations over the next 23 years until her her death in 1997. Of course, had Wu not carried out her experimental test of parity violation, it is perfectly possible that another physicist or group of physicists would have something similar in due course. Nevertheless, to us it was a missed opportunity not to include Wu as the third prize winner alongside Lee and Yang. Sure, she could not have won the prize in 1957 as she was not nominated for it and her key publication did not appear before the January deadline. But it would simply have been a case of waiting a year and giving Wu and her theoretical colleagues the prize jointly in 1958. Another possible course of action would have been to single out the theoretical aspects of symmetry violation and award the prize to Lee, Wigner and Yang, as Klein had suggested in his report. Unfortunately, full details of the physics committee’s discussions are not contained in the archives, which means we don’t know if this was a genuine possibility being considered at the time. But what is clear is that the Nobel committee knew full well the huge importance of Wu’s experimental confirmation of parity violation following the bold theoretical insights of Lee and Yang. Together, their work opened a new chapter in the world of physics. Without Wu’s interest in parity violation and her ingenious experimental knowledge, Lee and Yang would never have won the Nobel prize. The post Twenty-three nominations, yet no Nobel prize: how Chien-Shiung Wu missed out on the top award in physics appeared first on Physics World.
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https://physicsworld.com/a/twenty-three-nominations-yet-no-nobel-prize-how-chien-shiung-wu-missed-out/
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2026-02-03T09:00:45+00:00
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Multi-ion cancer therapy tackles the LET trilemma
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Cancer treatments using heavy ions offer several key advantages over conventional proton therapy: a sharper Bragg peak and small lateral scattering for precision tumour targeting, as well as high linear energy transfer (LET). High-LET radiation induces complex DNA damage in cancer cells, enabling effective treatment of even hypoxic, radioresistant tumours. A team at the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST) in Japan is now exploring the potential benefits of multi-ion therapy combining beams of carbon, oxygen and neon ions. “Different ions exhibit distinct physical and biological characteristics,” explains QST researcher Takamitsu Masuda. “Combining them in a way that is tailored to the specific characteristics of a tumour and its environment allows us to enhance tumour control while reducing damage to surrounding healthy tissues.” The researchers are using multi-ion therapy to increase the dose-averaged LET (LETd) within the tumour, performing a phase I trial at the QST Hospital to evaluate the safety and feasibility of this LETd escalation for head-and-neck cancers. But while high LETd prescriptions can improve treatment efficacy, increasing LETd can also deteriorate plan robustness. This so-called “LET trilemma” – a complex trade-off between target dose homogeneity, range robustness and high LETd – is a major challenge in particle therapy optimization. In their latest study, reported in Physics in Medicine & Biology, Masuda and colleagues evaluated the impact of range and setup uncertainties on LETd-optimized multi-ion treatment plans, examining strategies that could potentially overcome this LET trilemma. The team retrospectively analysed the data of six patients who had previously been treated with carbon-ion therapy. Patients 1, 2 and 3 had small, medium and large central tumours, respectively, and adjacent dose-limiting organs-at-risk (OARs); and patients 4, 5 and 6 had small, medium and large peripheral tumours and no dose-limiting OARs. For each case, the researchers first generated baseline carbon-ion therapy plans and then incorporated oxygen- or neon-ion beams and tuned the plans to achieve a target LETd of 90 keV/µm to the gross tumour volume (GTV). Particle therapy plans can be affected by both range uncertainties and setup variations. To assess the impact of these uncertainties, the researchers recalculated the multi-ion plans to incorporate range deviations of +2.5% (overshoot) and –2.5% (undershoot) and various setup uncertainties, evaluating their combined effects on dose and LETd distributions. They found that range uncertainty was the main contributor to degraded plan quality. In general, range overshoot increased dose to the target, while undershoot decreased dose. Range uncertainties had the largest effect on small tumours and central tumours: patient #1 exhibited a deviation of around ±6% from the reference, while patient #3 showed a dose deviation of just ±1%. Robust target coverage was maintained in all large or peripheral tumours, but deteriorated in patient 1, leading to an uncertainty band of roughly 11%. “Wide uncertainty bands indicate a higher risk that the intended dose may not be accurately delivered,” Masuda explains. “In particular, a pronounced lower band for the GTV suggests the potential for cold spots within the tumour, which could compromise local tumour control.” The team also observed that range undershoot increased LETd and overshoot decreased it, although absolute differences in LETd within the entire target were small. Importantly, all OAR dose constraints were satisfied even in the largest error scenarios, with uncertainty bands comparable to those of conventional carbon-ion treatment plans. To investigate strategies to improve plan robustness, the researchers created five new plans for patient 1, who had a small, central tumour that was particularly susceptible to uncertainties. They modified the original multi-ion plan (carbon- and oxygen-ion beams delivered at 70° and 290°) in five ways: expanding the target; altering the beam angles to orthogonal or opposing arrangements; increasing the number of irradiation fields to a four-field arrangement; and using oxygen ions for both beam ports (“heavier-ion selection”). The heavier-ion selection plan proved the most effective in mitigating the effects of range uncertainty, substantially narrowing the dose uncertainty bands compared with the original plan. The team attribute this to the inherently higher LETd in heavier ions, making the 90 keV/µm target easier to achieve with oxygen-ion beams alone. The other plan modifications led to limited improvements. These findings suggest that strategically employing heavier ions to enhance plan robustness could help control the balance among range robustness, uniform dose and high LETd – potentially offering a practical strategy to overcome the LET trilemma. “Clinically, this strategy is particularly well-suited for small, deep-seated tumours and complex, variable sites such as the nasal cavity, where range uncertainties are amplified by depth, steep dose gradients and daily anatomical changes,” says Masuda. “In such cases, the use of heavier ions enables robust dose delivery with high LETd.” The researchers are now exploring the integration of emerging technologies – such as robust optimization, arc therapy, dual-energy CT, in-beam PET and online adaptation – to minimize uncertainties. “This integration is highly desirable for applying multi-ion therapy to challenging cases such as pancreatic cancer, where uncertainties are inherently large, or hypofractionated treatments, where even a single error can have a significant impact,” Masuda tells Physics World. The post Multi-ion cancer therapy tackles the LET trilemma appeared first on Physics World.
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https://physicsworld.com/a/multi-ion-cancer-therapy-tackles-the-let-trilemma/
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2026-02-02T13:00:36+00:00
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New project takes aim at theory-experiment gap in materials data
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Condensed-matter physics and materials science have a silo problem. Although researchers in these fields have access to vast amounts of data – from experimental records of crystal structures and conditions for synthesizing specific materials to theoretical calculations of electron band structures and topological properties – these datasets are often fragmented. Integrating experimental and theoretical data is a particularly significant challenge. Researchers at the Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and the Institute of Physics (IOP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) recently decided to address this challenge. Their new platform, MaterialsGalaxy, unifies data from experiment, computation and scientific literature, making it easier for scientists to identify previously hidden relationships between a material’s structure and its properties. In the longer term, their goal is to establish a “closed loop” in which experimental results validate theory and theoretical calculations guide experiments, accelerating the discovery of new materials by leveraging modern artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. Physics World spoke to team co-leader Quansheng Wu to learn more about this new tool and how it can benefit the materials research community. The platform works by taking the atomic structure of materials and mathematically mapping it into a vast, multidimensional vector space. To do this, every material – regardless of whether its structure is known from experiment, from a theoretical calculation or from simulation – must first be converted into a unique structural vector that acts like a “fingerprint” for the material. Then, when a MaterialsGalaxy user focuses on a material, the system automatically identifies its nearest neighbors in this vector space. This allows users to align heterogeneous data – for example, linking a synthesized crystal in one database with its calculated topological properties in another – even when different data sources define the material slightly differently. The vector-based approach also enables the system to recommend “nearest neighbour” materials (analogs) to fill knowledge gaps, effectively guiding researchers from known data into unexplored territories. It does this by performing real-time vector similarity searches to dynamically link relevant experimental records, theoretical calculations and literature information. The result is a comprehensive profile for the material. We aggregated data from three primary channels: public databases; our institute’s own high-quality internal experimental records (known as the MatElab platform); and the scientific literature. All data underwent rigorous standardization using tools such as the pymatgen (Python Materials Genomics) materials analysis code and the spglib crystal structure library to ensure consistent definitions for crystal structures and physical properties. This project is a multi-disciplinary effort involving a close-knit collaboration among several research groups at the IOP, CAS and other leading institutions. My colleague Hongming Weng and I supervised the core development and design under the strategic guidance of Zhong Fang, while Tiannian Zhu (the lead author of our Chinese Physics B paper about MaterialsGalaxy) led the development of the platform’s architecture and core algorithms, as well as its technical implementation. We enhanced the platform’s capabilities by integrating several previously published AI-driven tools developed by other team members. For example, Caiyuan Ye contributed the Con-CDVAE model for advanced crystal structure generation, while Jiaxuan Liu contributed VASPilot, which automates and streamlines first-principles calculations. Meanwhile, Qi Li contributed PXRDGen, a tool for simulating and generating powder X-ray diffraction patterns. Finally, much of the richness of MaterialsGalaxy stems from the high-quality data it contains. This came from numerous collaborators, including Weng (who contributed the comprehensive topological materials database, Materiae), Youguo Shi (single-crystal growth), Shifeng Jin (crystal structure and diffraction), Jinbo Pan (layered materials), Qingbo Yan (2D ferroelectric materials), Yong Xu (nonlinear optical materials), and Xingqiu Chen (topological phonons). My own contribution was a library of AI-generated crystal structures produced by the Con-CDVAE model. One major benefit is that it prevents researchers from becoming stalled when data for a specific material is missing. By leveraging the tool’s “structural analogs” feature, they can look to the properties or growth paths of similar materials for insights – a capability not available in traditional, isolated databases. We also hope that MaterialsGalaxy will offer a bridge between theory and experiment. Traditionally, experimentalists tend to consult the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database while theorists check the Materials Project. Now, they can view the entire lifecycle of a material – from how to grow a single crystal (experiment) to its topological invariants (theory) – on a single platform. Beyond querying known materials, MaterialsGalaxy also allows researchers to use integrated generative AI models to create new structures. These can be immediately compared against the known database to assess synthesis feasibility and potential performance throughout the “vertical comparison” workflow. We’re focusing on enhancing the depth and breadth of the tool’s data fusion. For example, we plan to develop representations based on graph neural networks (GNNs) to better handle experimental data that may contain defects or disorder, thereby improving matching accuracy. We’re also interested in moving beyond crystal structure by introducing multi-modal anchors such as electronic band structures, X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and spectroscopic data. To do this, we plan to utilize technologies derived from computational linguistics and information processing (CLIP) to enable cross-modal retrieval, for example searching for theoretical band data by uploading an experimental XRD pattern. Separately, we want to continue to expand our experimental data coverage, specifically targeting synthesis recipes and “failed” experimental records, which are crucial for training the next generation of “AI-enabled” scientists. Ultimately, we plan to connect an even wider array of databases, establishing robust links between them to realize a true Materials Galaxy of interconnected knowledge. The post New project takes aim at theory-experiment gap in materials data appeared first on Physics World.
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https://physicsworld.com/a/new-project-takes-aim-at-theory-experiment-gap-in-materials-data/
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2026-02-07T14:07:54+00:00
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This Week In Space podcast: Episode 196 — Becoming Martian!
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This Week in Space podcast 196 — Becoming Martian!
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https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-movies-shows/this-week-in-space-podcast-episode-196-becoming-martian
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17cfd11bc4f4de950630ffb5b48645d726a8d1c4eebcbce6fd2fd23e9fe7baf0
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2026-02-07T14:00:00+00:00
|
Silo vs Fallout: getting under the surface of TV's bunker-based hits
|
A split image showing Ella Purnell as Lucy MacLean in Fallout, and Rebecca Ferguson as Juliette Nichols in Silo.
|
https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-movies-shows/silo-vs-fallout-getting-under-the-surface-of-tvs-bunker-based-hits
|
Space & Physics
| |
c379cf5b59b89a6c3d19401d103ab5210631cf205b13103e761dde7febc0ead2
|
2026-02-07T11:00:00+00:00
|
Will astronauts aboard the ISS get to watch Super Bowl LX?
|
The Soyuz MS-28 crew of Chris Williams with NASA (left) and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov (center) and Sergei Mikaev on Nov. 26, 2025, a day before their launch to the ISS.
|
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/human-spaceflight/how-will-astronauts-aboard-the-iss-watch-super-bowl-lx
|
Space & Physics
| |
0d2327784df0d6655d58f1b08fcc6b01066a9585f3ea9c45b26fe2480369cbed
|
2026-02-07T10:00:00+00:00
|
Peak Design 7L sling bag review
|
The Peak Design 7L Sling Back viewed from the front
|
https://www.space.com/stargazing/skywatching-kit/peak-design-7l-sling-bag-review
|
Space & Physics
| |
00a7a5f42f5c7029aa2a8905f2bc42bb98cf08e9db87aae5bb53a8ff2a6efb58
|
2026-02-06T23:40:05+00:00
|
SpaceX's next astronaut launch for NASA is officially on for Feb. 11 as FAA clears Falcon 9 rocket to fly again
|
The Dragon spacecraft for SpaceX's Crew-12 astronaut mission is ready to meet its Falcon 9 rocket after the FAA cleared the company to resume flights after an upper stage issue.
|
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacexs-next-astronaut-launch-for-nasa-is-officially-on-for-feb-11-as-faa-clears-falcon-9-rocket-to-fly-again
|
Space & Physics
| |
ae71eb1c80c3e55390e4cbb84a997759d20b4861886cd4070f8ae02c037fc129
|
2026-02-06T22:00:00+00:00
|
James Webb Space Telescope finds precursors to 'building blocks of life' in nearby galaxy
|
JWST NIRCam) false colour image of IRAS07251-0248
|
https://www.space.com/astronomy/james-webb-space-telescope/james-webb-space-telescope-finds-precursors-to-building-blocks-of-life-in-nearby-galaxy
|
Space & Physics
| |
242aa627c13d6b36f5cebee03c30b14bf2144f4390e452ac55ddc1e29c048dfc
|
2026-02-06T20:00:00+00:00
|
Halo: Campaign Evolved: Release date rumors, platforms, and everything else we know about the Halo remake
|
Hero art for Halo: Campaign Evolved, the remake of Halo: Combat Evolved.
|
https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-games/halo-campaign-evolved-release-date-rumors-platforms-and-everything-else-we-know-about-the-halo-remake
|
Space & Physics
| |
e79bb40d8b80d8de69b6b9e4625e0fa78d1419af0dcc677388e52b5e0c0c9590
|
2026-02-06T19:52:08+00:00
|
NASA space telescope sees interstellar visitor comet 3I/ATLAS flare up while exiting the solar system
|
NASA's SPHEREx captured these infrared observations during a December 2025 campaign, revealing dust, water, organic molecules and carbon dioxide in comet 3I/ATLAS's coma.
|
https://www.space.com/astronomy/comets/nasa-space-telescope-sees-comet-3i-atlas-dramatically-flare-as-interstellar-visitor-exits-solar-system
|
Space & Physics
| |
642e3325f1820a619bebbd3867c1c06ead262eca9c5bcfbfda1a77b0da72aaf0
|
2026-02-06T17:00:00+00:00
|
Nimoy-Knight Foundation honors 'Girl Spock' and her mission to become the 1st openly autistic woman in space
|
Dr. Jessica Schonhut-Stasik is the latest recipient of the Nimoy-Knight Foundation's Live Long & Prosper Tribute Award.
|
https://www.space.com/entertainment/nimoy-knight-foundation-honors-girl-spock-and-her-mission-to-become-the-1st-openly-autistic-woman-in-space
|
Space & Physics
| |
97aea2bd5a46938f87c91f894d5ee7b47380e5e4aa49ce4b6e42ce44c957fdbd
|
2026-02-06T16:00:00+00:00
|
UK government proposes 30% budget cut to astronomy and physics research: 'It's pretty disastrous'
|
The Jodrell Bank Observatory radio telescope in the UK.
|
https://www.space.com/astronomy/uk-government-proposes-30-percent-budget-cut-to-astronomy-and-physics-research-its-pretty-disastrous
|
Space & Physics
| |
2cc5dc895ea714bc3a49892b49ca19c947ec23803f8d792dcdef98f9b82d8688
|
2026-02-06T15:00:00+00:00
|
When will SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket return to flight after 4 upper-stage issues in 19 months?
|
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 25 Starlink satellites to orbit from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on Feb. 2, 2026.
|
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/4-upper-stage-issues-in-19-months-when-will-spacexs-falcon-9-rocket-return-to-flight
|
Space & Physics
| |
ba0c4bff13450bb5fa0e3c4c45ad979d17511dc76bbe5d55098e80a700dce43a
|
2026-02-06T14:00:00+00:00
|
Nearby star's massive eruption could help astronomers unlock secret of superflares
|
Artist's illustration of a superstorm erupting from the sun.
|
https://www.space.com/astronomy/stars/nearby-stars-massive-eruption-could-help-astronomers-unlock-secret-of-superflares
|
Space & Physics
| |
6454048fc3c2b7701affeae2536213b10bd88784d7ca61c1ef9a7c3afdc5230f
|
2026-02-06T13:00:00+00:00
|
SpaceX Dragon arrives for Crew-12 launch | Space photo of the day for Feb. 6, 2026
|
The SpaceX Dragon crew capsule "Freedom" moves to the hangar at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
|
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacex-dragon-arrives-for-crew-12-launch-space-photo-of-the-day-for-feb-6-2026
|
Space & Physics
| |
5d36aada346024994747906a9324956b4790f0433893ccf70b0ece3bee76ed35
|
2026-02-06T11:00:00+00:00
|
Does dark matter actually exist? New theory says it could be gravity behaving strangely
|
The galaxy Messier 33, according to competing models of the universe (left), with a dark matter halo (right) without a bubble of this mysterious "stuff."
|
https://www.space.com/astronomy/dark-universe/does-dark-matter-actually-exist-new-theory-says-it-could-be-gravity-behaving-strangely
|
Space & Physics
| |
bcded3a88d7b9d8c1b124a3ddc6667182a8594a31161340a370db2c558e8b346
|
2026-02-05T22:00:00+00:00
|
This supermassive black hole jet is more powerful than the Death Star's laser
|
An artistic representation of a tidal disruption event, or a black hole shredding a star.
|
https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes/this-supermassive-black-hole-jet-is-more-powerful-than-the-death-stars-laser-planets-are-going-to-be-destroyed
|
Space & Physics
| |
22daf3a5e911666988d322278cd085aca04ea9a8288f8969afe399fd13b70d46
|
2026-02-05T21:00:00+00:00
|
The 10 bleakest space movies of all time
|
Split image showing screenshots from three bleak sci-fi movies (L-R): Gravity, High Life, and Moon.
|
https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-movies-shows/bleakest-space-movies-of-all-time
|
Space & Physics
| |
787ff39fcc8542cd511f5f2bd611a2c36e72229879dd1261dcdaf80d60106193
|
2026-02-05T20:00:00+00:00
|
Astrophotographer captures the 'Flaming Star Nebula' ablaze in deep-space (photo)
|
Swirls of red and orange gas fill a deep space starry background
|
https://www.space.com/stargazing/astrophotography/astrophotographer-captures-the-flaming-star-nebula-ablaze-in-deep-space-photo
|
Space & Physics
| |
c80ac5293f8c4b0301eb3f882e9440db37284ba916afe80ed83185a28e5b4e52
|
2026-02-05T19:00:00+00:00
|
China joins race to develop space-based data centers with 5-year plan
|
Multiple companies are planning to develop space-based data centers, which would greatly increase the number of satellites in Earth orbit.
|
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/satellites/china-joins-race-to-develop-space-based-data-centers-with-5-year-plan
|
Space & Physics
| |
d59c916c003b85eca7c9a0e59605ce2d6a95e68ca0f87f9cb62a38b5ed0d007c
|
2026-02-05T18:00:00+00:00
|
This week's "Starfleet Academy" episode, "Series Acclimation Mil", is a near-perfect "DS9" sequel
|
Kerrice Brooks as SAM in season 1, episode 5, of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy looking at a display showing an outline of Benjamin Sisko.
|
https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-movies-shows/starfleet-academy-episode-series-acclimation-mil-is-a-near-perfect-deep-space-nine-sequel
|
Space & Physics
| |
fdce084fa21184a4cd4069a2f96f94c1c0499fab306068c7edb372da4ea1ab81
|
2026-02-05T17:00:00+00:00
|
Now's your best chance to see Mercury all year — Here's what you need to know
|
The moon, Venus and Mercury in the evening sky.
|
https://www.space.com/stargazing/now-is-your-best-chance-to-see-mercury-2026-heres-what-you-need-to-know
|
Space & Physics
| |
f3f205af766b3c6f2f64840554fe969f3c626fd5ca204f4edddecede0e8b7a49
|
2026-02-05T16:00:00+00:00
|
Could a toxic chemical in Mars dirt help us build a Red Planet base?
|
Future Mars settlers will need to rely on local resources such as the planet's dirt to make a colony sustainable on the Red Planet.
|
https://www.space.com/astronomy/mars/could-a-toxic-chemical-in-mars-dirt-help-us-build-a-red-planet-base
|
Space & Physics
| |
9fc350aa81ecc6e5a8db6ae35c1de656eb0d122d2eb73c07b244ece4f1920c04
|
2026-02-05T15:00:00+00:00
|
NASA chief flies over Artemis 2 moon rocket | Space photo of the day for Feb. 5, 2025
|
NASA chief Jared Isaacman's personal F-5 aircraft flew over Kennedy Space Center in Florida recently.
|
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/nasa-chief-flies-over-artemis-2-moon-rocket-space-photo-of-the-day-for-feb-5-2025
|
Space & Physics
| |
51afaae39ab056360c55f4e9a27be52fdf7d6da3fa29ce977eb9ea74c2a7b2c6
|
2026-02-05T14:47:48+00:00
|
Our round-up of the best NASA Artemis 2 gear on planet Earth
|
A selection of Artemis 2 products on a purple galaxy background with a Space.com deals badge
|
https://www.space.com/technology/our-round-up-of-the-best-nasa-artemis-2-gear-on-planet-earth
|
Space & Physics
| |
ad90aefc6afb636043f80b239a979c7b0ba012f890eb88e5fbb457b5eca012c1
|
2026-02-05T14:00:00+00:00
|
Will a bright comet adorn our early spring sky? Why astronomers are getting excited about Comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS)
|
A view of comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS).
|
https://www.space.com/astronomy/comets/will-a-bright-comet-adorn-our-early-spring-sky-why-astronomers-are-getting-excited-about-comet-c-2026-a1-maps
|
Space & Physics
| |
078f7fbde8f1cb512e4bb560ff7d314216c9b3a5cc06f69f80a526ef4f1ca2c8
|
2026-02-05T13:00:00+00:00
|
James Webb Space Telescope's view of 800,000 galaxies paints a detailed picture of dark matter
|
(Main) The JWST's view of 800,000 galaxies with dark matter indicated in blue (Inset) The JWST in orbit around Earth.
|
https://www.space.com/astronomy/dark-universe/james-webb-space-telescopes-view-of-800-000-galaxies-paints-a-detailed-picture-of-dark-matter
|
Space & Physics
| |
9af5f56c3e0e3e853c05901373d83e1787cde24280d16bc1562eca1fa81f0a2f
|
2026-02-05T11:00:00+00:00
|
Did astronomers see a black hole explode? An 'impossible' particle that hit Earth in 2023 may tell us
|
A speculative illustration of tiny primordial black holes. Have physicists just seen one explode?
|
https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes/did-astronomers-see-a-black-hole-explode-an-impossible-particle-that-hit-earth-in-2023-may-tell-us
|
Space & Physics
| |
3a48b3898d5dedf31230199c9311b5be57b96f9a20f4b6c4e41be95666090d85
|
2026-02-04T22:00:00+00:00
|
It's time to think about human reproduction in space, scientists urge
|
What will the first families in space look like?
|
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/human-spaceflight/its-time-to-think-about-human-reproduction-in-space-scientists-urge
|
Space & Physics
| |
d276fb27b434141ba789ae5dd19f2dd4b9a03414f6f1dcb143eb03ec1976708f
|
2026-02-04T20:00:00+00:00
|
Watch dead neutron stars smash together in new NASA supercomputer simulation
|
An illustration showing two neutron stars meeting and merging
|
https://www.space.com/astronomy/stars/watch-dead-neutron-stars-smash-together-in-new-nasa-supercomputer-simulation
|
Space & Physics
| |
44acdce395dcb102bdf1652923d0ccc4aae4d998611f863aaca64b815912e9f0
|
2026-02-04T19:00:00+00:00
|
Star Trek needs to go back to 20+ episode seasons — and there's never been a better time
|
Star Trek image showing all captains
|
https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-movies-shows/star-trek-needs-to-go-back-to-20-episode-seasons-and-theres-never-been-a-better-time
|
Space & Physics
| |
d6406844d563312ab808c8d15a4535782314246813b6d5063bc183b04c9780e0
|
2026-02-04T18:00:00+00:00
|
Photographer captures rare aurora over Brazil during intense geomagnetic storm (photo)
|
two people stand smiling at the camera against the background of the milky way stretching into the sky and a distinct red glow behind them, a diffuse glow filling the sky.
|
https://www.space.com/stargazing/auroras/photographer-captures-rare-aurora-over-brazil-during-intense-geomagnetic-storm-photo
|
Space & Physics
| |
474dffa6c23d227a7835a9e65692c48ba1d276d0a1bf9d8fc7adc73afae46003
|
2026-02-04T17:00:00+00:00
|
Astronomers relieved as industrial plant threatening Earth's darkest sky gets cancelled
|
Cerro Paranal with the band of the Milky Way arching above it.
|
https://www.space.com/astronomy/astronomers-relieved-as-industrial-plant-threatening-earths-darkest-sky-gets-cancelled
|
Space & Physics
| |
7275dbeede443940cb08379b32e8b9c74118ea995f1e3af9badfe224a254ce3a
|
2026-02-04T16:00:00+00:00
|
A monstrous sunspot 15 Earth's wide is currently facing Earth: Here's how to see it for yourself
|
Sunspot region 4366 pictured on Feb.4, 2026 by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.
|
https://www.space.com/stargazing/a-monstrous-sunspot-15-earths-wide-is-currently-facing-earth-heres-how-to-see-it-for-yourself
|
Space & Physics
| |
ccbb1e2de80ff9626ebf6700d47d600528ce1e235c6c7edadef668d8a2abe4a2
|
2026-02-04T15:48:07+00:00
|
Sun unleashes colossal X4.2 solar flare, knocking out radio signals across Africa and Europe (video)
|
An impulsive X4.2 solar flare sparked strong radio blackouts across Africa and Europe as the giant sunspot continues to rage.
|
https://www.space.com/astronomy/sun/sun-unleashes-colossal-x4-2-solar-flare-knocking-out-radio-signals-across-africa-and-europe-video
|
Space & Physics
| |
1a022580e57f8780ee9d877c021572fa3bf5619d71597faa20f558c91e0eb8f5
|
2026-02-04T15:00:00+00:00
|
Unlock a brand-new world of British sci-fi with a VPN
|
Screenshot from The War Between The Land And The Sea.
|
https://www.space.com/technology/unlock-a-brand-new-world-of-british-sci-fi-with-a-vpn
|
Space & Physics
| |
f191dd51c8e1f9d9cd58503b4f4fd0ab18fce30ef0c07a15048dd4651dadf12f
|
2026-02-04T15:00:00+00:00
|
James Webb Space Telescope finds most distant galaxy ever detected: 'It looks nothing like what we predicted'
|
Galaxy MoM-z14, seen as it appeared just 280 million years after the Big Bang, allows astronomers to peer closer than ever before to the era when the first stars and galaxies formed, known as cosmic dawn.
|
https://www.space.com/astronomy/james-webb-space-telescope/james-webb-space-telescope-finds-most-distant-galaxy-ever-detected-it-looks-nothing-like-what-we-predicted
|
Space & Physics
| |
f908ad75f3e2c3e410e3bc852a4746ab7a1fecb005090ccc98254b6bdf9e0d53
|
2026-02-04T14:00:00+00:00
|
NASA satellite watches January's polar vortex | Space photo of the day for Feb. 4, 2026
|
A close up of January 2026's brutally cold winter storm.
|
https://www.space.com/astronomy/earth/nasa-satellite-watches-januarys-polar-vortex-space-photo-of-the-day-for-feb-4-2026
|
Space & Physics
| |
e031d7f059427ed22fc2d6aa1e88d62d678bed6b8f8a746181e68687e99bfaee
|
2026-02-04T13:00:00+00:00
|
Is Jupiter on a diet? New measurements say it's smaller than we thought
|
An artist's impression of Juno at Jupiter.
|
https://www.space.com/astronomy/jupiter/is-jupiter-on-a-diet-new-measurements-say-its-smaller-than-we-thought
|
Space & Physics
| |
4617533472b3e83ac0785710dc9d701f8be1061fc439c34ca3f957f12ff1d3a6
|
2026-02-04T11:00:00+00:00
|
A 'cold Earth' exoplanet just 146 light-years away might be in its star's habitable zone — if it exists
|
An artist's impression of HD 137010b.
|
https://www.space.com/astronomy/exoplanets/a-cold-earth-exoplanet-just-146-light-years-away-might-be-in-its-stars-habitable-zone-if-it-exists
|
Space & Physics
| |
4d640b9f57a07719f43b22b05aa2c0848a199d9d96f6e41f62c7a3373dab2e25
|
2026-02-04T10:55:27+00:00
|
With the Mandalorian and Grogu movie arriving in our galaxy soon, start building the excitement with this fantastic Lego set
|
A Lego recreation of Grogu in his hover pram on a space background with a space.com deals badge in the top left corner
|
https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-movies-shows/with-the-mandalorian-and-grogu-movie-arriving-in-our-galaxy-soon-start-building-the-excitement-with-this-fantastic-lego-set
|
Space & Physics
|
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