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Design awards are a signal, not a guarantee. The agencies that win Red Dot, Webby, Apple Design Awards,

Beauty and mystery—it is hard to imagine a more alluring combination, and this is precisely what we encounter when we observe phenomena in the nanoworld. But are we really sure that observations made using modern microscopic techniques do not influence what is happening there? A comparison of images of copper oxide nanoparticles reacting with chloroauric acid, obtained using electron and photon beams, has yielded unexpected results.

A team of researchers led by the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) developed an approach that enabled them to directly observe how electrons interact with defects in advanced semiconductor devices in unprecedented detail. The team's methodology included an innovative simulation tool that enabled accurate theoretical interpretations of its experimental observations.

Physicists at The City College of New York have demonstrated a new way to transfer microwave signals onto light using magnetic waves inside a layered semiconductor. The work establishes a materials platform for building interfaces that could one day link quantum computers through optical networks. The research, titled "Microwave-to-optical transduction using magnon–exciton coupling," was led by the Laboratory for Nano and Micro Photonics (LaNMP) at CCNY, headed by physics professor Vinod M. Menon. It appears in the journal Nature Materials.

Somewhere between the microscopic realm of elementary particles and the macroscopic world of human beings, something strange happens: The rules of quantum physics, which work so exquisitely for tiny atoms, seem to lose their grip as objects grow larger. Pondering where and how this shift from small-scale quantum fuzziness to everyday sharp certainty happens gives rise to thought-experiment oddities like Schrödinger's famous dead-and-alive cat. The process by which quantum phenomena like superposition—the paradoxical affliction of Schrödinger's cat—fade into the classical reality we experience is known as decoherence.

The picture – The Quiet Predator– was taken by Kuwaiti photographer Ali Alobaidly The post Spectacular image of the Shark Nebula wins Royal Observatory Greenwich prize appeared first on Physics World.

A Stanford team has documented the first direct observation of quantum jumps of sound in a mechanical resonator, completing an arc of scientific exploration that started more than 100 years ago.

Quantum computers are no longer theoretical concepts. Today, they are being developed to tackle a range of complex problems, including exploring financial risk, modeling complex molecules and optimizing massive logistics networks. However, until now, there has been no way to benchmark the computational power of different systems on the same scale to see how they compare.

Physicists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have developed a technology that uses quantum sensors to measure biomagnetic signals, such as heart activity. Researchers from the DIAQNOS (DIAmond-based Quantum Sensing for NeurOSurgery) flagship project, coordinated by Dr. Arne Wickenbrock in Mainz, have demonstrated the potential of quantum technology for future medical applications.

An early-career Western Australian astrophysicist has helped uncover a universal rule behind one of the most powerful behaviors in the universe: when black holes launch jets. The discovery, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, shows black holes appear to fire off powerful jets at the same critical point in their feeding cycle—whether they are about 10 times the mass of the sun or millions of times heavier.

Computer simulations find that overmassive black holes form readily in the early universe. Their spectra match that of Little Red Dots, which later become powerful quasars and supermassive galactic black holes.

Jonathan Halliwell explains how quantum decoherence is key to understanding how we transition from a world with a wave-like nature of matter and energy to the classical macroscopic world that we’re used to. The post Where Does the Quantum World End and Ours Begin? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

A pocket-sized, roughly $100 detector can reveal the invisible stream of cosmic particles constantly passing through Earth and even through our bodies. What began as a student physics project is now being used in major experiments, balloon missions, and potentially future spacecraft.

New supercomputer simulations suggest JWST’s puzzling Little Red Dots are rapidly growing black holes from the early Universe. Extreme radiation may have helped create unusually massive black hole seeds, while dense surrounding gas allowed them to grow dozens of times faster than black holes can today. The simulated objects closely resemble the Little Red Dots seen by Webb. If correct, they could solve the mystery of how enormous black holes formed so soon after the Big Bang.

Laser-driven inertial fusion company Marvel Fusion has launched Caelora, a wholly-owned subsidiary to commercialize high-energy laser technology. As a separate legal entity, Caelora is intended to shorten the technical learning curve for high-energy laser systems and strengthen the supply chain upon which fusion will depend. With the launch of its Caelora subsidiary, Marvel Fusion has become the latest fusion company to pursue revenue streams outside the confines of yet-to-be-realized fusion power plants. Courtesy of Marvel Fusion. Caelora builds on core technology developed under Marvel Fusion’s laser program in cooperation with Pulsed Light Technologies (PLT), which was funded by SPRIND, the German Federal Agency for...

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, will dismantle the Large Hadron Collider, which helped discover the so-called God Particle, in order to build a more powerful particle accelerator.

Nanostructured device efficiently transforms light into different frequencies – including those at technologically important near-infrared wavelengths The post Metasurface optical device boosts nonlinear frequency conversion appeared first on Physics World.

Author(s): Sophia ChenResearchers demonstrate a new quantum memory device that will enable faraway nodes in a network to coordinate in time, a key ingredient for a future quantum Internet. [Physics 19, s120] Published Wed Sep 16, 2026

When a material heats up, its electrical resistance often rises. The harder question is what, exactly, is getting in the way. The electrons carrying the current may be scattered by vibrations of the material's atomic lattice, known as phonons. They may also collide with one another. Frustratingly, a conventional temperature test warms the electrons and the lattice together, so the effects arrive tangled in the same resistance measurement.

In March 2026, scientists succeeded in transporting antiprotons by road for the first time in a purpose-built trap loaded on a truck. The BASE collaboration, which realized this experiment at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva under the lead of Professor Dr Stefan Ulmer and Dr Christian Smorra from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU), now presents its findings and experiences from this pioneering experiment in the journal Nature. Among other things, they report that it was possible to store antiprotons in a mobile transport vessel for more than a month for the first time ever.

Eastern oyster larvae are only 100–300 micrometers long, but their dense calcium carbonate shells make them substantially heavier than the surrounding seawater. A new study led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) shows that this excess weight allows gravity to drive the feeding currents the larvae use to bring food to their mouths, a finding that reveals a critical role for gravity in how these tiny animals feed and survive.

Oxford University researchers have captured the step-by-step assembly of individual virus-like particles, revealing how simple molecular interactions can reliably build these complex biological structures. The results were published today (September 16) in Nature.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster Landing Team received the first-ever Neil Armstrong Space Prize during a ceremony in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday night (Sept. 15).

Rydberg atoms are considered promising building blocks for quantum computers and their precursors, quantum simulators. Researchers at the 5th Institute of Physics of the University of Stuttgart have achieved record values for the lifetime, size, and storage time of circular Rydberg atoms, a special form of Rydberg atom in which electrons move in a stable circular orbit around the nucleus. The findings were published in Nature Communications.

Whether on a windowpane at home or during the industrial cleaning of computer chips: droplets sliding over solid surfaces become electrically charged. Yet the physical mechanism behind this charging remains a subject of debate. This charging is usually attributed to the exchange of charged particles (ions) at the interface between the droplet and the surface.

A new simulation suggests little red dots, unusually compact objects seen in photos from space, might be one stage in the evolution of black holes.

A new simulation suggests little red dots, unusually compact objects seen in photos from space, might be one stage in the evolution of black holes.

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James Webb Space Telescope spies colossal cosmic cloud | Space photo of the day for Sept. 16, 2026

Melania Trump visited a North Carolina elementary school to promote AI and technology education, joining pupils using robotics and announcing support for an AI learning platform.

Tennessee, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the UK announced a partnership to advance fusion energy, focusing on supply chains and workforce development, aiming for commercial deployment.

A laser can reshape the eye in more than one way. For decades, corneal laser vision correction was

A 74-year-old Oakland County man won $1.5 million in Michigan's Lotto 47 Double Play after matching six numbers, while another player won $136,660 by accidental replay.

Soft materials such as colloidal suspensions, emulsions, foams and gels often display complex and unusual behaviors compared with ordinary solids or liquids. From a mechanical point of view, for instance, they can resist deformation like solids, but they can also start to flow like liquids when a sufficiently strong external drive is applied. This transition from solid-like to liquid-like behavior, known as "yielding," is central to the physics of soft amorphous materials and to many industrial and biological processes.

Join the audience for a live webinar on 6 October 2026 sponsored by IOP Publishing's journal, Physics in Medicine and Biology The post Establishing a research career in advanced X-ray Imaging: insights from Xiaochuan Pan and PMB award winner Ronan Smith appeared first on Physics World.

A defect framework unlocks difficult calculations in N = 4 super Yang-Mills The post A new way to study giant gravitons appeared first on Physics World.

Light is traditionally described by properties such as wavelength, amplitude, phase and polarization. Advances in optics have shown that light can also be shaped into complex spatial patterns known as structured light, enabling new ways to carry information and interact with matter for applications in imaging, optical communications and information processing.

Author(s): Marric StephensIncreasing the charging rate of a quantum battery leads to unavoidable fluctuations in the total energy stored.  [Physics 19, s114] Published Tue Sep 15, 2026

A research team at the Institute of Applied Physics at TU Darmstadt has shown for the first time that atoms that are completely disordered and in constant motion can nevertheless emit jointly directed light preferentially in one direction—even though neither the atoms nor their environment exhibit a direction—and that the strength of this asymmetry can be specifically adjusted. The paper is published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Xufeng Zhang is using magnets to make computers more power efficient at the quantum level. The Northeastern professor of electrical and computer engineering recently published two papers highlighting small-scale magnetic systems he and his team developed that could help make computers much more power efficient in the future.

Researchers have found that if black holes have certain features, known as "hair," then we could prove it by observing the gravitational ringdown of merging black holes. Future studies could test the no-hair theorem of general relativity.

A mathematical shape famous for covering a surface without ever repeating has revealed an unexpected ability to twist light into unusual chiral patterns. The discovery could lead to new ways of controlling light, polarization, and advanced optical devices.

Does gravity act equally on all particles in the universe, or are there differences between ordinary and exotic matter? Physics professor Anna Soter and her team at ETH Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Villigen are investigating this question. "We have taken an important step toward carrying out an exciting experiment on this topic," says Soter. "We want to measure the gravitational interaction of the muon."

Astronomers have discovered that winds from a supermassive black hole are about 100 times more powerful than previously thought. XRISM observations showed the resulting turbulence spreading roughly 300,000 light-years, extending far beyond the black hole’s host galaxy. The energy involved rivals several billion supernova explosions, revealing just how dramatically black holes can influence the space around them.

The latest gravitational-wave discoveries include record-breaking cataclysms

Astronomers have found that a nearby galaxy's black hole is blasting out a far more powerful and hidden gas outflow than previously realized. Studying NGC 1068, a well-known galaxy with an actively feeding black hole at its center, researchers combined new infrared observations with existing data to map how the black hole's energy is reshaping the surrounding gas. The results are reported in a paper published Aug. 6 in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Artificial intelligence is transforming how information is generated, processed and stored, but its rapid expansion is also driving unprecedented demand for computing power and electricity. Developing hardware that can process information more efficiently is therefore becoming one of the major technological challenges of the AI era.

Have you ever wondered what Earth observation satellites see when they look down at the deep ocean or a dense tropical forest during the dead of night? The answer, for the most part, is nothing. Standard optical sensors require a steady stream of light to function, and in these photon-limited regions, they hit a hard physical boundary. But what if we could rewrite the rules of optical imaging? By borrowing techniques from quantum photonics, we can push beyond these classical limits and unlock a fundamentally new way to observe the darkest and most hidden environments on our planet.

How can we predict the way a real material, such as a polymer, responds mechanically over timescales ranging from the ultrafast motion of atoms to the slow deformations measured in a laboratory? This is a deceptively difficult problem.

A new study of nine nearby galaxies has shown that actively growing supermassive black holes may contribute to, rather than prevent, star formation in their host galaxies.

Extremely short, intense light flashes are in high demand to investigate atoms, molecules and new materials. Free-electron lasers (FELs) produce these flashes. But around the world, beam time available at large-scale user facilities is in short supply, and waiting times are long.

The vast majority of modern quantum technologies—from quantum cryptography to the quantum internet to the quantum computer—rely on one essential element: the transmission of photons. Two qubits (two atoms, for example) exchange information: One qubit emits a photon, and the other qubit absorbs it.

A new declaration from winners of the Fields Medal reflects many mathematicians’ growing alarm over a “severe misalignment” between the tech industry and their field a week after AI toppled one of math’s biggest open problems

The James Webb Space Telescope spots mysterious “little red dots” everywhere. A bold new theory suggests they’re suns dozens of times larger than our entire solar system. The post Black Holes or Black Hole Stars? Astronomers Spar Over Webb Telescope’s ‘Little Red Dots.’ first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Physicists at the University of Oxford have helped confirm that one of the strangest phenomena in physics—quantum entanglement—occurs even among some of the heaviest and most fleeting particles ever created. The discovery, made using the world's most powerful particle collider at CERN, has been published in Physical Review Letters.

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Monash University-led researchers have directly imaged tiny swirling structures inside an atomically thin semiconductor, opening new possibilities for future low-energy electronic technologies. Published in Science Advances, the study reveals structures known as merons and antimerons, nanoscale "whirlpools" of electrical polarization, in twisted layers of the semiconductor tungsten diselenide (WSe₂).

In 1931, physicist Hans Bethe predicted that, in certain one-dimensional quantum systems, particles can bind together to form multi-particle states known as Bethe strings. Unlike ordinary molecules, which are held together by chemical bonds, Bethe strings arise purely from interactions between particles and exist only in one dimension. For decades, Bethe strings remained primarily a theoretical concept.

Gravity from entropy theory offer hints of why low-entropy regions persist in the universe The post Could quantum information theory explain universe evolution? appeared first on Physics World.

Nonlinear optical processes enable frequency mixing, ultrafast signal processing, high-speed modulation, and many other functions critical to optical and quantum applications. Although nonlinearity is fundamental to photonics technologies, existing optical devices offer limited nonlinear capabilities. Moreover, nonlinear devices are difficult to miniaturize, hindering their widespread adoption. In a collaboration that included the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the University of Texas at Austin (UTA), Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), and the University of California, Irvine, researchers addressed the material- and device-level constraints to nonlinearity in compact optical devices....

The Hubble and James Webb space telescopes discovered some surprising things about 27 new tiny objects far beyond the orbit of Neptune.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has opened many wonders of the cosmos to scientists since it began science operations a few years ago. But one thing it hasn't done is find an "exomoon." These still-theoretical moons orbit exoplanets in other star systems, and JWST was supposed to find a plethora of them.

Black holes are regions of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. When two black holes orbit each other and merge, they produce gravitational waves (i.e., ripples in spacetime) that can resemble those emitted by mergers involving other exotic compact objects.

Researchers have experimentally demonstrated the optical Magnus effect for the first time, revealing that a tightly focused laser interacts most strongly with an atom slightly away from the beam’s center. The unexpected shift is similar to the physics that makes a spinning table tennis ball curve through the air. Because lasers are used to control qubits, the effect could create errors in quantum computers, but it might also provide a new way to couple qubits together.

Scientists are combining an electron microscope with a quantum computer to squeeze far more information from each electron. The approach could reveal faint details with fewer electrons, helping protect fragile samples that conventional microscopy can damage.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered that the ring system of the tiny solar system body is even more interesting than they knew.

Physicists at CERN have found a new way to peer deep inside atomic nuclei and distinguish between two competing explanations for how gluons behave. Using the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, researchers measured particle production at unprecedented spatial resolution, revealing structures as small as about one-quarter the size of a proton. At the smallest scales, they saw a surprising drop in J/ψ production that conventional “nuclear shadowing” struggles to explain.

The most comprehensive catalogue of exploding white dwarf stars ever assembled has revealed new clues about dark energy, the mysterious force driving the universe’s accelerating expansion.

Researchers at Harvard have demonstrated a way to protect quantum information using microscopic sound waves. By continuously surrounding a diamond-based qubit with mechanical vibrations, they extended its coherence time by roughly threefold. The same phonons could eventually both transmit and protect quantum information, opening the door to compact sound-based quantum networks on chips.

Scientists blasted diamonds with lasers to get the best measurement of the mineral's melting point yet. The new, more accurate numbers could help improve fusion experiments and studies of giant planets.

Quantum computers promise to tackle problems that are extraordinarily difficult for today's computers. But there is a major obstacle: quantum systems are notoriously fragile. Noise, loss and even tiny disturbances can destroy the delicate behavior that gives them their power. Building systems with many quantum particles is also extremely challenging.

A new study suggests that the young stars orbiting the Milky Way's central black hole may have a surprisingly ordinary origin. But the black hole's influence may be what makes their origin look more exotic than it really is. Along with shaping their orbits, it may also destroy their stellar companions. The paper outlining this work was published in Astronomy & Astrophysics on Aug. 11.

Rocket Lab has filed a protest against NASA's decision to award Blue Origin a $700 million Mars orbiter contract, saying it's inconsistent with the eligibility rules laid out by Congress.

Two studies find signs of strange black hole binary systems

Donald Trump has faced online criticism after appearing to turn away during a museum guide's account of how Marine Corporal William 'Kyle' Carpenter shielded a fellow serviceman from a grenade.

Researchers have found a way to perform certain quantum operations more than 1,000 times faster, cutting thousands of repeated control cycles down to just one. The advance could reduce errors and bring reliable, fault-tolerant quantum computers closer to reality.

New finding could help create active matter with a structure that continuously reorganizes itself The post Non-reciprocal interactions keep particles in collective motion appeared first on Physics World.

Author(s): Zhuang Ge, Tommi Eronen, Vasile Alin Sevestrean, Ovidiu Niţescu, Sabin Stoica, Marlom Ramalho, Jouni Suhonen, Anu Kankainen, Marjut Hukkanen, Arthur Jaries, Ari Jokinen, Joel Kostensalo, Jenni Kotila, Maxime Mougeot, Iain D. Moore, Wirunchana Rattanasakuldilok, Jouni Ruotsalainen, and Marek StryjczykHigh-precision measurements of nuclear decay energies can reveal rare low-Q transitions with enhanced sensitivity to the absolute neutrino mass. Using the JYFLTRAP double Penning trap and the PI-ICR technique, the electron-capture Q value of 113 Sn was determined with an eightfold improvement in precision over the previous evaluation. Combining the new mass result with known excited states in

Author(s): Michael SchirberA crystal with special geometric properties can be optically driven to produce an output beam with any desired polarization. [Physics 19, s113] Published Thu Sep 10, 2026

Author(s): Klaus RichterTheorists find a persistent signature of a chaotic quantum system’s initial state, implying a memory effect—called a quantum birthmark—that resists thermodynamic equilibration. [Physics 19, 125] Published Thu Sep 10, 2026

To monitor the amount and type of nuclear material at power plants and weapons facilities, scientists look for a special signal—the unique pattern of gamma rays emitted by specific radioactive elements. However, some of these elements also emit X-rays in the same energy range as the gamma-ray emissions, masking the signal and making nuclear stockpiles harder to assess.

Over a decade ago, the Fermi satellite detected an excess of gamma-ray emissions in the galactic center. Potential explanations included Sgr. A*, the Milky Way's SMBH, pulsars, and even self-annihilating dark matter. There's no clear answer yet, since the region is so difficult to observe. But recent research shows that dark matter can't be ruled out.

Within tiny halos of light clinging to a vanishingly thin wisp of optical fiber, scientist Jongmin Lee guides atoms like marbles through a narrow pipe. Rock the fiber and the atoms shift side by side; they just don't fall off. But don't be deceived by the seemingly delicate nature of his experiment. Lee is exploring how to measure motion precisely in rough-and-tumble environments.

On Sept. 10, 2011, NASA's GRAIL spacecraft launched on a mission to the moon! Here's why the moon gravity mapping mission mattered.