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We may be getting better images of the Milky Way's supermassive black hole in the future. Astronomers used 10 years of observations of a distant blazar to detect turbulence in the Milky Way's interstellar medium. This turbulence makes images of Sagittarius A-star blurry.

Pairs of correlated or entangled photons are a foundational resource in quantum optics. They are most commonly produced through spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC), a nonlinear optical process that typically relies on a stable, coherent laser to pump a nonlinear crystal. Because of this requirement, SPDC has long been viewed as impractical without laboratory-grade laser systems.

Eighty years ago, Penn researchers J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly launched the age of electronic computing by harnessing electrons to solve complex numerical problems with ENIAC, the world's first general-purpose electronic computer. Today, that same architecture still underlies general computing, but electrons are beginning to show their limits. Because they carry a charge, they lose energy as heat, encounter resistance as they move through materials, and become harder to manage as chips incorporate more transistors and handle larger volumes of data.

Earthquakes can visibly and permanently crack the ground apart in dramatic and unpredictable surface fault rupture, but new research led by University of Michigan Engineering revealed that soil density strongly influences how and where they occur. The paper is published in the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering.

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New theoretical work suggests that the pattern of light emitted by atoms could be used to detect gravitational waves at frequencies outside the range of traditional detectors The post Gravitational waves could leave traces in light from cold atoms appeared first on Physics World.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have mapped the "cosmic web" of galaxies, the largest structure in the universe, with unprecedented detail.

A University of Sydney quantum physicist has developed a new approach to quantum error correction that could significantly

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Center for Artificial Intelligence Security Research (CAISER) is shining a light on AI vulnerabilities.

Dark matter makes up roughly 85 percent of all the matter in the universe. We have never directly detected a single particle of it. But a new method developed by physicists at MIT and across Europe may have just opened a door we didn't know existed. When two black holes collide and merge, they send ripples through the fabric of spacetime, these are known as gravitational waves and if those black holes happened to spiral through a dense cloud of dark matter on their way in, those waves carry an imprint of it. For the first time, scientists have a technique to read that imprint and one signal in the existing data is already raising eyebrows.

Author(s): Ryan WilkinsonA new technique efficiently simulates a crucial process in a fault-tolerant quantum computer: the preparation of so-called logical magic states. [Physics 19, s57] Published Thu May 14, 2026

Microglia, the immune cells that protect the brain, are thought to maintain a healthy brain environment by removing unwanted substances through dynamic remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton, the cell's internal framework. It has been known that microglia express Hv1/VSOP, a channel protein that transports protons, but it was believed to function at the cell membrane surface, regulating pH in its vicinity.

NYC Councilwoman Inna Vernikov accuses Mayor Zohran Mamdani of gaslighting the Jewish community, saying antisemitism office offers no accessible resources.

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Near-infrared light is invisible to humans. And yet, under the right conditions, the human eye can perceive it. Researchers from Poland's International Center for Translational Eye Research (ICTER) have now shown that the efficiency of this phenomenon depends not only on the laser pulse itself, but also on two highly specific factors: the beam diameter and the precise focusing of light on the retina. The research is published in the journal Optics Letters.

What use is a quantum computer? Perhaps both more and less than you think, according to quantum computing expert Shayan Majidy

When a massive star dies, it can leave behind a black hole. That much has been understood for decades. But the most monstrous black holes in the universe, the heavyweights detected by the faint ripples they send through the fabric of space and time aren't born that way at all. According to a new Cardiff University study, they're built through repeated, catastrophic collisions in the most densely packed star clusters in the cosmos.

Quantum technologies developer NVision has raised $55 million in a series B funding round. The company also revealed that it is expanding from quantum sensing into quantum computing. NVision has previously targeted quantum technologies for healthcare. POLARIS, NVision’s quantum-enhanced sensing platform, boosts the MRI signal of sugar-based imaging agents by orders of magnitude, enabling real-time measurement of metabolism on standard MRI systems. NVision is said it is now building on the quantum molecular approach behind POLARIS and extending its platform into quantum computation. NVision is expanding into quantum computing with its Photonic Integrated Quantum Circuits (PIQC) technology. Courtesy of NVision. While...

Stardust Solutions says its tiny spheres can reflect the sun’s rays without harming people or the environment. Critics say private companies have no business altering Earth’s atmosphere.

Observations of a nucleus paired with a neutral meson could provide new insights into the theory of quantum chromodynamics The post Physicists spot signs of an atom-like system bound by the strong force alone appeared first on Physics World.

Author(s): Christopher G. TullyNew density-functional-theory calculations describe the radioactive decay of tritium bound to graphene, offering a way to model experiments that could open cleaner windows onto neutrino mass. [Physics 19, 67] Published Wed May 13, 2026

Trying to solve quantum gravity is frustrating. We have made tremendous progress in quantum theory, but it seems that every time we find a new quantum technique, there's a reason it doesn't quite work with gravity. Take, for example, the case of quantum fluctuations and renormalization.

British chemists David Klenerman and Shankar Balasubramanian joined French biophysicist Pascal Mayer in winning Spain's top science award on Wednesday for DNA sequencing research that helped combat coronavirus.

In physics, the spontaneous de-mixing of two substances is known as phase separation. It is an important mechanism in nature to create structure and patterns and typically requires some form of attraction between the constituents. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) in Göttingen, together with collaborators at the University of Edinburgh and the Institute of Physical Chemistry in Warsaw, have now discovered a new route to phase separation available in systems where the constituents are inherently alive or active.

A research team at TU Wien has succeeded in modifying known materials in such a way that they possess new, desirable properties. These materials are expected to find application in the field of thermoelectricity.

Researchers have developed a technique to analyze how black holes "ring" when they collide and merge: one of the universe's most dramatic events. When black holes merge, the collision produces a new, larger black hole that "rings" like a plucked guitar string or a bell while it settles into its final, stable shape. But instead of sound waves, the new black hole rings with gravitational waves: ripples in spacetime first predicted by Albert Einstein.

High-energy cosmic rays, 10 million times more powerful than particles accelerated in Earth's strongest atom smasher, may hide a superheavy secret that is the key to unlocking a 60-year-old puzzle.

Extremely powerful quasars in the early Universe drove star-forming gas out of their galaxies. These Super-quasars are behind the JWST's puzzling early Universe observations.

Sitting in a restaurant, you reach for the ketchup bottle, eyeing the basket of fries in front of you. You give the bottle a shake, then a tap. For a moment, nothing happens—the ketchup clings stubbornly to the glass. Then, all at once, it lets go and rushes out, sometimes in a steady stream, sometimes in a messy surge that threatens to flood the basket.

Two RIKEN physicists have established new theoretical limits for experimentally measurable quantities by viewing solids through a lens of quantum geometry. Their results shed light both on the physics of solids and on quantum mechanics.

Seen just 800 million years after the big bang, an object called LAP1-B is a galactic building block that seems to hold some of the first stars to ever shine

The time had come to open the envelope, but Stephan Schlamminger, a physicist at the National Institute of

Researchers have recently found a new way to summon useful structures in magnetic materials using light, heat, and electric fields. This new method, described in a new study published in Physical Review Letters, may lead to more energy-efficient and flexible technologies for data storage and optical devices.

When physicists fire beams of fast electrons at materials, they often need to know exactly how much energy those electrons will lose as they travel through. Through new research published in Physical Review Letters, a team led by Ke Jiang at Shenzhen Technology University in China has found that porous, mostly empty foam materials can stop high-current electron beams far more effectively than denser materials—overturning many previous assumptions about how these beams interact with solid materials.

It's been 37 years since scientists first demonstrated the ability to move single atoms, suggesting the possibility of designing materials atom by atom to customize their properties. Today there are several techniques that allow researchers to move individual atoms in order to give materials exotic quantum properties and improve our understanding of quantum behavior.

A new quantum-inspired algorithm has cracked a problem so massive that conventional supercomputers struggle to even approach it. Researchers used the method to simulate extraordinarily complex quantum materials known as quasicrystals, opening the door to powerful new quantum devices and ultra-efficient electronics. The work could help scientists design advanced topological qubits and materials for future quantum computers.

Scientists in Japan have developed a new way to instantly detect elusive quantum “W states,” a major milestone for quantum technology. The breakthrough could help unlock faster quantum communication, teleportation, and powerful new computing systems.

A close flyby past the Red Planet this week will send NASA’s Psyche mission on its way towards its final destination. The mission’s closest approach to Mars occurs on Friday, May 15th, when the spacecraft passes only 4,500 kilometers (2,800 miles) from the surface of the Red Planet. That’s just 1.3 Mars radii distant, inside the orbits of Phobos and Deimos.

As modern technologies shrink to the nanoscale, surfaces increasingly dictate how materials deform, yield, and fail. Yet probing this regime has long been hindered by the challenge of preparing and controlling surfaces with true atomic precision, particularly at the outermost atomic layer.

Long-held assumptions tell us that atoms with the same number of protons, neutrons and electrons are indistinguishable, but one physicist wants to put this idea to the test

The world's first space-based neutrino detector launched to space this month to study elusive neutrino particles that constantly bombard Earth.

Insulators are materials in which electrons cannot move freely. Past theoretical studies predicted the existence of an unusual insulating state dubbed obstructed atomic insulator (OAI), in which electrons are localized inside a crystal, while their centers of charge lie in empty spaces between atoms, rather than on the atoms themselves.

New strategy could allow physicists to conduct previously impossible experiments in which light interacts directly with the quantum vacuum The post ‘Einstein’s flying mirror’ technique opens a path towards extreme light intensities appeared first on Physics World.

Author(s): Michael SchirberA new method for creating twisted structures in liquid crystals could be helpful in controlling them for possible memory-storage applications. [Physics 19, 71] Published Tue May 12, 2026

Gravitational wave researchers working on the world's most sensitive scientific instruments have found a way to tune their detectors using a process akin to the pitch-correction used in music production.

The largest-ever survey of physicists from around the world—released today—shows a distinct lack of consensus across many of physics's most important questions, from the nature of black holes and dark matter, to the still-incomplete unification of Einstein's theory of gravity with quantum mechanics.

A new study shows that a single radioactive cloud was responsible for a large share of the nuclear fallout during the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster on 11 March 2011. The work is published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials.

Simulating the nonlinear optical physics that underlies ultrafast laser systems is computationally demanding—a practical bottleneck in settings that require rapid feedback. A study by researchers at Stanford University, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory introduces a deep learning surrogate that delivers orders-of-magnitude acceleration over conventional simulation methods, while maintaining high fidelity across a challenging range of pulse shapes.

The concept of a field plays a key role in particle physics, but what exactly is it? From its origins in the study of magnetism to the quantum fields of today, columnist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein goes exploring

During takeoff and landing, planes emit ultrafine aerosol particles. Some particles also contain lubricating oil, as shown by measurements made by researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI in the environs of the Zurich Airport. Low-sulfur fuels could be the solution.

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Dark matter is thought to make up most of the matter in the universe, but the only way it interacts with its surroundings is through gravity. If two colliding black holes spiral through a dense region of dark matter and merge, gravitational waves rippling across space and time could carry an imprint of that dark matter.

Using AI and Rubin Observatory data, scientists are rethinking Type 1a supernova "standard candles," hunting for "unknown unknowns" that could lead us to missing ingredients in our recipe of the cosmos and solve the puzzle of dark energy.

The cosmological constant has been a problem in physics since Einstein, but new research may show why it takes the value that it does despite quantum fluctuations that should make its value practically infinite.

Quantum computers could someday solve pressing problems that are too convoluted for classical computers, such as modeling complex molecular interactions to streamline drug discovery and materials development.

Scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China have successfully deployed a multi-mode quantum relay network, achieving matter–matter entanglement over 14.5 kilometers, according to media reports.

Christian leaders Jeremiah J. Johnston and Greg Laurie say the Pentagon's latest UFO files point not to aliens, but to a biblical spiritual realm filled with angels and demons.

An international team of researchers, including scientists from HZDR and Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, for the first time directly observed how angular momentum is transferred and conserved within a crystal lattice. Using intense terahertz laser pulses, the researchers were able to selectively control these processes, which unveiled a surprising effect: During the angular momentum transfer, the direction of rotation reverses—caused by the rotational symmetry of the material.

Using data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers led by researchers at the University of California, Riverside have produced the most detailed map of the cosmic web ever made, tracing the network of galaxies all the way back to when the universe was one billion years old.

The fundamentals of quantum mechanics are minuscule. Scientists constantly home in on finer resolutions to measure, quantify, and control these fundamentals, like photons that carry light and have no mass unless they are moving. The more precise the measurement, the more possibilities for better quantum technology or the ability to detect elusive dark-matter axions in deep space.

TODAY — TICKETS TICKETS TICKETS to attend the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony go on sale  TODAY — 12 May, 2026, 10 am CET). The 36th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will take place in Zurich, Switzerland, in early September

Author(s): Ryuichiro Akaho, Hiroki Nagakura, Wakana Iwakami, Shun Furusawa, Akira Harada, Hirotada Okawa, Hideo Matsufuru, Kohsuke Sumiyoshi, and Shoichi YamadaBy incorporating a detailed model of neutrino-flavor oscillations in simulations of collapsing stars, researchers have shown that the phenomenon can both promote and inhibit supernovae. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 191002] Published Mon May 11, 2026

Sending a camera to space isn’t a matter of grabbing whichever body has the best autofocus. Vacuum, radiation,

Scientists have pulled off a mind-bending quantum experiment that sounds almost impossible: they showed that tiny metal particles made of thousands of atoms can exist in multiple places at once. Using advanced laser techniques, researchers at the University of Vienna observed quantum interference in sodium nanoparticles far larger than the kinds of particles usually seen behaving this way. The finding pushes quantum mechanics into a new realm, suggesting that even surprisingly “large” objects still obey the bizarre rules of the quantum world.

Scientists in Germany have pulled off a staggering computing feat by fully simulating a 50-qubit quantum computer for the first time ever using Europe’s new exascale supercomputer, JUPITER. The breakthrough shatters the previous 48-qubit record and highlights just how powerful next-generation supercomputers have become.

Author(s): Martin ObergaulingerBy incorporating a detailed model of neutrino-flavor oscillations in simulations of collapsing stars, researchers have shown that the phenomenon can both promote and inhibit supernovae. [Physics 19, 66] Published Mon May 11, 2026

Dark matter particles could be mediators of the interaction between electrons and atomic nuclei, as shown by a study conducted by junior group leader, Dr. Konstantin Gaul, Dr. Lei Cong, and Professor Dr. Dmitry Budker, of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM) and the PRISMA++ Cluster of Excellence. Their work, published last week in Physical Review Letters, presents new constraints on previously unexplored candidates for dark matter and, more generally, some hypothetical particles that are not included in the Standard Model of particle physics (SM).

In new research published in Nature Materials, a team of researchers led by Columbia University chemist Xiaoyang Zhu, in collaboration with fellow Columbians Xavier Roy, Milan Delor, Dmitri Basov, and James McIver, has observed coherent ferrons for the first time.

Entropy gets a bad rap. Typically associated with randomness and chaos, it can also correlate with freedom and diversity. Cornell researchers have found that, thanks to the latter qualities, entropy can help bind certain pairs of molecules faster and more robustly—an approach that could have broad applications in drug development and assembling nanoparticles to form new materials.

Astronomers have discovered two early-universe galaxies where the central black holes appear to have grown far faster than their host galaxies. Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal that the black holes in these galaxies, seen just 800 million years after the Big Bang, are significantly more massive relative to their host galaxies, as opposed to what astronomers see in the nearby universe. The study is published on the arXiv preprint server.

Black holes live forever, at least according to general relativity. Once material crosses a black hole's event horizon, it is trapped forever, until the last day of cosmic time. But we know that isn't true. General relativity is a classical model. It doesn't take into account the fuzzy, indeterminate nature of the quantum. We don't have a complete and consistent theory of quantum gravity, but we do have some understanding of quantum black holes.

A new "geometry‑based" quantum swap gate makes neutral‑atom computers far less sensitive to laser noise — bringing large‑scale, stable quantum processors a step closer to reality.

For more than 60 years, Bell's theorem has been the gold standard for demonstrating that quantum mechanics defies the rules of classical physics. Now, an international team of researchers, including Constructor University Professor Dr. Nicolas Gisin, has extended this principle to new limits, using an "elegant triangle" to reveal new forms of quantum nonlocality that specifically emerge in multi-node quantum networks.

The James Webb Space Telescope has helped scientists peek into the secrets of galactic evolution — and the view is stunning, too.

A LiU team led by Professor Henrik Pedersen has shown that switching from continuous to pulsed electron driven

eleQtron, a developer of trapped-ion quantum computers, has closed a €57 million ($66M) Series A funding round. The company plans to use the funding to scale its production capacity, expand cloud-based access to systems, and further advance the development of its hardware platform. Jan Henrik Leisse (left) and Michael Johanning, CEO and CTO, respectively, of eleQtron. Courtesy of sichtplan. eleQtron was founded in 2020 as a spinoff from the University of Siegen. The company employs more than 100 people and said that it currently partners with leading European research and computing centers to advance the industrial use of quantum computing. The company said that it currently has an order backlog of more than €54 million....

High harmonic generation (HHG) theory predicts that under optimized conditions, a plasma medium can support strong spatiotemporal compression of laser energy, boosting the intensity of the light many orders of magnitude greater than the incident driving laser pulse. This theory has now been experimentally proven by an international team of scientists from the University of Oxford, Queen’s University Belfast, the Central Laser Facility (CLF), AWE plc, the University of Michigan, and the University of Jena. Researcher Robin Timmis aligns the OHREX spectrometer. Courtesy of the University of Oxford/Helen Towrie. Using the Gemini laser at the CLF in England, the research team demonstrated that the highly nonlinear...

Colorado School of Mines’ Frédéric Sarazin on a new undergraduate route into quantum engineering The post Building up the quantum workforce: an undergraduate route into industry appeared first on Physics World.

ONE DAY until Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony tickets go on sale (12 May 2026, at 10:00 CET). The 36th first annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will take place in Zurich Switzerland, in early September.

As quantum computers advance, they are expected to be able to break tried-and-true security schemes that currently keep

When you throw a ball in the air, the equations of classical physics will tell you exactly what

Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have demonstrated, for the first time, a single quantum of vibrational energy interacting with a single atomic spin, seeding a pathway to quantum technologies that use sound as an information carrier, instead of light or electricity. The results are published in Nature.

A peculiar object dubbed an 'X-ray dot' could help solve the mystery of the 'little red dots' discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope.

2 DAYS until Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony tickets go on sale (12 May 2026). The 36th first annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will take place in Zurich Switzerland, in early September.

Under a microscope, a bouquet of lollipop-like structures, each smaller than a grain of sand, waves gently in

A major obstacle may be standing in the way of the next generation of ultra-tiny computer chips. Researchers discovered that many promising 2D materials lose their advantages because an invisible atomic-scale gap forms when they are combined with insulating layers. That tiny gap weakens electronic performance and could prevent further miniaturization. The team says new “zipper materials” that lock together more tightly may offer a path forward.

Scientists have taken a major step toward ultra-secure quantum communication by demonstrating a remarkably stable quantum encryption system that worked across more than 120 kilometers of optical fiber. Using tiny semiconductor quantum dots that emit single particles of light on demand, the team achieved one of the highest secure key rates yet for this type of technology while maintaining continuous operation for over six hours without manual adjustments.

For the first time, scientists have measured the instantaneous mind-blowing power of jets blasting from a black hole.

Physicists may have just cracked open a hidden side of the quantum world. For decades, every known particle was thought to belong to one of two categories — bosons or fermions — but researchers have now shown that bizarre “in-between” particles called anyons could also exist in a one-dimensional system. Even more exciting, these strange particles may be adjustable, allowing scientists to tune their behavior in ways never before possible.

May 9, 2026: Our weekly roundup of the latest science in the news, as well as a few fascinating articles to keep you entertained over the weekend

3 DAYS until Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony tickets go on sale (12 May 2026). The 36th first annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will take place in Zurich Switzerland, in early September.