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The 2026 Ig Nobel Prize winners were introduced at the 36th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, in Zurich, Switzerland, on September 3, 2026

A flash detected by the LUX-ZEPLIN dark matter detector in South Dakota intrigues physicists, offering a potential hint of dark matter, though alternative explanations remain possible.

Babies smell wonderful—at least to their parents. An international research team of Ilona Croy, Tomasz Frackowiak, Thomas Hummel and Agnieszka Sorokowska investigated why teenagers lose this special olfactory advantage and has now been awarded an Ig Nobel Prize for the research.

Cross-disciplinary research at Perimeter Institute and University of Maryland shows that dark photons could be lurking in more places than previously thought.

Physicists have proven a 100-year-old prediction of relativity by showing that Einstein's equivalence principle holds at quantum scales.

A new study has demonstrated that it is possible to make a network of atoms and photons that could improve how artificial intelligence stores and recalls memories. This network, called a quantum-optical spin glass, works as an associative memory, a form of AI that enables the recall of full memories from partial information—much like how humans can recognize a person's face in a blurred photograph.

Japanese scientist Hideki Shirakawa, co-winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in chemistry for discovering and developing conductive polymers, has died. He was 90.

Research means asking questions of the universe. For centuries, clever minds have advanced science by devising ingenious experiments designed so their results reveal something about the laws of nature as clearly and unambiguously as possible.

A team of Korean researchers has become the first in the world to identify the origin of the "beating" signal that has long been a major obstacle to interpreting quantum signals in topological insulator (TI) nanowires. Their analysis confirmed that the beating arises when two different quantum oscillations overlap: one created by topological electronic states on the surface and the other by ordinary electronic states inside the nanowire. This achievement provides a key criterion for interpreting the signals of topological quantum devices and realizing desired electronic states.

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Researchers from MIT have designed a new qubit architecture that enables qubits to interact with each other much more quickly while remaining very stable. This advance could someday help scientists build practical quantum computers that can run long, complex algorithms with high accuracy.

The hidden world of quantum mechanics exists at scales many orders of magnitude smaller than living organisms, yet scientists have long theorized that quantum effects play an important role in biology. Birds' ability to sense magnetic fields during migration is one of the best-known mysteries in this field, with leading theories suggesting that this sensing could be achieved by exploiting quantum entanglement.

Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime created when pairs of black holes spiral into each other and eventually merge. But if this ripple has been warped by another massive object on its way to Earth, a new analysis suggests that these black holes might appear far larger than they really are.

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Efficient heat management in solids is key to advancing the next generation of electronics. However, wavelike heat movement

Sensitive new measurements suggest that monitoring can continue even when reactors are offline The post Antineutrino detector could monitor spent nuclear fuel for clandestine activity appeared first on Physics World.

Chemical reactions at surfaces play a central role in many processes, including catalysis and materials synthesis. It is well known that the outcome of these reactions is influenced by the translational, vibrational and rotational motions of atoms and molecules. Now, a study shows that electron spin, another fundamental property of matter, also influences how chemical reactions at surfaces unfold.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers developed an artificial intelligence system that can manipulate individual molecules to build custom materials with atomic precision.

New nanostructure could be used to make lasers that work in the terahertz frequency range The post Plasmonic metamaterial makes a photonic time crystal appeared first on Physics World.

TODAY, Thursday, Sept 3, at 7 pm (CEST): The 36th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. Ten new prizes will be awarded for things that make people LAUGH, then THINK. The webcast will be available here and on our Youtube channel: The 2026 ceremony will be also webcast in a separate stream in Japanese (thanks to NIKONIKO/Dwango).

Author(s): Ana Maria Rey, James K. Thompson, and Haoqing ZhangTwo studies find that fundamental quantum constraints rule out a previously proposed neutrino-laser scheme. [Physics 19, 120] Published Wed Sep 02, 2026

Author(s): Yu-Kun Lu, Hanzhen Lin (林翰桢), and Wolfgang KetterleTwo studies find that fundamental quantum constraints rule out a previously proposed neutrino-laser scheme. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 101804] Published Wed Sep 02, 2026

Researchers at UCSB and UT Austin have determined that a galactic merger kicked a supermassive black hole into intergalactic space.

Inside some fusion energy systems, particles hotter than the core of the sun can become unruly in a few thousandths of a second, far faster than any human operator can react. A new software framework developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Princeton University hands those split-second decisions to artificial intelligence (AI), while keeping the machine safe and humans firmly in charge of the goals.

Imagine a construction site where the bricks are individual molecules and the "cranes" are microscopic needles so sharp they can feel a single atom. For decades, building at this scale was a laborious, time-consuming task where a single human error could damage the delicate tools.

Researchers at the Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures have, for the first time, identified a model cell line for a rare form of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). "The KOPM-88 cell line is, to date, the first and only known cell line worldwide to carry the KMT2A::SEPTIN6 fusion gene," explains Dr. Stefan Nagel, head of the Molecular Genetics research group in the Department of Human and Animal Cell Cultures at the DSMZ. "Thus, cancer research now has an urgently needed model system to specifically investigate this aggressive subtype of leukemia and develop novel therapeutic approaches." The work is published in the journal Cells.

An international team including Nobel Prize-winning physicist Professor Sir Roger Penrose has observed a long-predicted effect of gravity on a falling quantum object for the first time. The result shows that a fundamental principle at the heart of Einstein's theory of gravity remains consistent with the behavior of matter in the quantum world. The study, led by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the University of Ulm and the University of Oxford, was published today (Sept. 2) in Science Advances.

Neutrinos are pervasive yet intangible particles that permeate the universe, streaming through whole planets, stars and our bodies by the trillions each second. The elementary particles are often described as "ghostly" for their near-zero mass and elusive nature, as they have very little interaction with normal matter.

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A 2D magnetic material exhibits a charge-ordered state in which electrons move collectively and unusually slowly while maintaining quantum coherence The post Two-dimensional material shows promise for long-term memory, thanks to slow electrons appeared first on Physics World.

TOMORROW, Thursday, September 3, 2026: The 36th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. and webcast and watch parties.

In the last decade, scientists have shown that fusion energy can work, as a physical process. Next question:

A new Quantum Monte Carlo method reveals distinct entanglement signatures of different quantum critical points The post Probing quantum critical points appeared first on Physics World.

A search for one mysterious particle unexpectedly revealed evidence for two different structures that may belong to the bizarre family of exotic subatomic particles known as XYZ states. The findings could help physicists uncover new ways that quarks and gluons combine to create matter.

Nicki Minaj joins a celebrity panel for a White House-linked pitch night, awarding $1 million to five US firms. The event, hosted by Dean Cain, highlights American enterprise.

Extreme quasars near the dawn of time are giving astrophysicists clues to the formation of supermassive black holes.

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Hawking radiation causes black holes to eventually evaporate. This is because particle pairs are spontaneously created near the event horizon (the position of the last ray of light that can escape the black hole's gravitational pull). A particle and its antiparticle are created for a brief moment and disappear immediately afterward. But sometimes a particle falls into the black hole, allowing the other particle to escape: This is Hawking radiation. According to Stephen Hawking, this would ultimately mean that no black holes would remain in the universe.

Every second, tens of billions of neutrinos produced by nuclear fusion in the sun pass through every square centimeter of Earth—and through our bodies—almost without interacting. Although they are among the most abundant particles emitted by the sun, their extremely weak interactions make detecting these elusive particles one of the greatest experimental challenges in particle physics. A number of specialized neutrino detectors are in operation around the world, exploiting the unique properties of neutrinos to investigate astrophysical phenomena.

Researchers at Constructor University and Constructor Labs have developed BiteNetI, a deep-learning model that locates the binding sites of 14 biologically important ion types directly in three-dimensional protein structures. The model needs only several seconds per structure and reaches two- to threefold higher accuracy than most existing predictors, including Google DeepMind's AlphaFold 3. The study, authored by Igor Kozlovskii and Petr Popov, has been published in the journal Communications Biology. The tool provides an open-access platform that could help accelerate drug discovery and the understanding of protein function.

A research group in Japan has demonstrated a world-record 10-channel multiplexed quantum photonic interface based on an integrated waveguide array, a key technology for optically interconnecting multiple quantum computers. The study is published in the journal Optica.

Some stars encounter supermassive black holes and live to tell the tale. New research shows why the flares these encounters cause dim over repeated episodes.

For generations, textbooks have taught that a cell’s energy simply drifts to wherever it is needed. New research

Her mapping of the ribosome, which led to new designs for antibiotics, faced years of derision, as many scientists saw it as a dead-end effort.

Shadowy dark matter has eluded scientists for decades. The LZ experiment may have spotted one particle, called a WIMP, but more data is needed to check.

By combining roughly two decades of observations from NASA's Swift X-ray Telescope with radio monitoring, astronomers have caught a supermassive black hole at the heart of the Perseus Cluster suddenly flaring in X-rays, and about 300 days later, its powerful radio emission flared too. Their paper describing the connection between this black hole's accretion disk and the jets it launches was submitted to the arXiv preprint server on Aug. 13 and accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Diffraqtion, an MIT and University of Maryland spinout building quantum camera platforms for defense and space sensing, has secured strategic investments from Lockheed Martin Ventures and Presidio Ventures, the venture capital arm of Sumitomo Corporation. The latest financing brings the company's raised total for its pre-seed round to more than $10 million. Diffraqtion's cameras draw on quantum estimation theory rather than quantum compute, without using qubits or cryogenics. The cameras resolve detail below the diffraction limit; by sorting incoming light by its shape rather than its brightness, according to the company, the imaging technology measures information that conventional cameras discard. This reduces the aperture and...

From schools of fish and flocks of birds to microscopic synthetic particles, many systems in nature and the

Black holes are some of the most awe-inspiring and mysterious celestial objects in the universe. This is primarily because astronomers still don’t understand the underlying mechanisms that drive black holes, including its formation, evolution, and end. As their name implies, black holes can’t be viewed directly since they blend into the background of the vastness of space. Therefore, astronomers are limited to “seeing” black holes when they consume other celestial objects, most notably stars. When this happens, the astronomers see the light from the star being violently consumed by a nearby black hole in a spectacular display. However, astronomers are still puzzled regarding what happens after the consumption.

Scientists and philosophers have argued over the nature of time since … well, since time immemorial. Is time real, or is it a convenient illusion? Why does time seem to flow in just one direction? In a new book called “On Time,” British physicist Jim Al-Khalili lays out what he thinks is the answer to such questions.

When plants are attacked by herbivores or pathogens, they must respond rapidly while also preparing for potential future attacks. Calcium, a cellular second messenger, and the plant hormone jasmonic acid play important roles in this response. Within seconds of an injury, the plant generates calcium waves that relay information about the attack. At the same time, the synthesis of jasmonic acid is initiated in the chloroplast, triggering, through several intermediate steps, the expression of defense genes in the cell nucleus.

A collaborative research team has successfully visualized in real space the ultrafast optical modulation of hyperbolic phonon polaritons (HPhPs) in a van der Waals heterostructure composed of hBN and WS2. The research is published in the journal Nano Letters, and was led by Kazuki Kamada of the Institute for Molecular Science (IMS) and Osaka Metropolitan University, along with Dr. Jun Nishida, assistant professor at IMS, and Takashi Kumagai, associate professor at IMS.

Swapping out one letter in a word can entirely change its meaning. Similarly, swapping one atom in a molecule can completely change its identity. A group of chemists at the University of Chicago has demonstrated a new way to make a single-atom edit to a molecule without changing any of its other components. The innovative method can be used to make a family of molecules known as pyrroles, including many widely used medicines, and is significantly simpler, faster and more cost-effective than previous processes.

After analyzing infrared images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of researchers has discovered multiple massive black holes from approximately 12.5–12.8 billion years ago that were actively accumulating surrounding matter and growing rapidly. Some were even on the path to merging, according to a study published Aug. 31 in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan.

A Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) study of data from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Solar Orbiter gives the most detailed view of the heliospheric current sheet (HCS) to date. The HCS is a sprawling, undulating surface emanating from the sun to beyond the solar system that serves as the boundary between the sun's north and south magnetic field hemispheres.

The XENONnT experiment, in its hunt for dark matter, has detected the rare, feeble glow of neutrinos smacking into electrons

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have identified one of the most distant exploding stars ever confirmed. The supernova, SN 2023aeaf, was found at a redshift of 3.195—so far away that its light has been traveling for roughly 11.7 billion years. The study, published in The Astrophysical Journal on Aug. 13, offers a close-up look at how massive stars die in the young universe's primitive, metal-poor conditions.

Astrophysicists at Syracuse University in New York think they've found a hitherto-hidden explanation for strange activity during so-called repeating partial Tidal Disruption Events (rpTDEs). These are interactions between a supermassive black hole and a star that wanders too close for comfort, but not close enough to get swallowed up.

Physicists have demonstrated a new way to entangle distant quantum bits without the constant measurements and active control normally required. The team created a “quantum bath,” a shared environment filled with correlated microwave photons that automatically pushes separated qubits into an entangled state and helps keep them there. The experiment confirms a theoretical prediction made more than 20 years ago and could offer a simpler way to connect modules in future quantum computers.

Astronomers may have finally solved the mystery behind a nearly two-decade-old cosmic explosion that seemed to break the rules of physics. The energy output of a powerful gamma-ray burst, GRB 061201, discovered in 2006, did not match well-established patterns seen in other similar explosions. Now, in a new study published in the Astrophysical Journal on Aug. 3, astronomers have revealed why.

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is on a mission to probe dark energy, hunt for distant worlds and transform our view of the universe

Roman Space Telescope Launch NASA’s newest flagship observatory is on its way. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

THREE DAYS from now, on Thursday, September 3, 2026: The 36th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony.

An international team of astronomers, including a team at the University of Arizona Steward Observatory, announced the discovery of 31 quasars

Physicists have mathematically captured a bizarre “spacetime crystal” that can either dissolve or collapse into a microscopic black hole after only a tiny change in energy. Their breakthrough came from an unusual trick involving infinitely many dimensions, potentially giving researchers a new tool for studying primordial and microscopic black holes.

Quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of gravity explain almost everything we see in nature, yet physicists still do not know how to unite them. A new theoretical framework suggests that some experiments that appear to show gravity behaving quantum mechanically may have a much more ordinary explanation. Researchers found that scenarios involving a supposed “superposition of gravity” can sometimes be described equally well as quantum particles moving through classical spacetime.

IBM and University of Chicago researchers have completed a quantum computation that leading classical methods could not practically reproduce. The system used 70 error-corrected logical qubits and finished the task in roughly 15 minutes while also providing statistical evidence that the result was reliable.

Learn more about the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and how it could uncover some of the mysteries surrounding dark matter and dark energy. 

Quantum technologies promise secure communication networks, powerful forms of computing and new sensing tools. One of the major challenges, however, is that different quantum systems often operate at different wavelengths of light. Quantum memories, trapped ions and other quantum devices may work best in the ultraviolet or visible range, while long-distance communication over optical fibers works most efficiently at telecommunications wavelengths.

Nature is the foremost international weekly scientific journal in the world and is the flagship journal for Nature Portfolio. It publishes the finest peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology on the basis of its originality, importance, interdisciplinary interest, timeliness, accessibility, elegance and surprising conclusions. Nature publishes landmark papers, award winning news, leading comment and expert opinion on important, topical scientific news and events that enable readers to share the latest discoveries in science and evolve the discussion amongst the global scientific community.

Nature is the foremost international weekly scientific journal in the world and is the flagship journal for Nature Portfolio. It publishes the finest peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology on the basis of its originality, importance, interdisciplinary interest, timeliness, accessibility, elegance and surprising conclusions. Nature publishes landmark papers, award winning news, leading comment and expert opinion on important, topical scientific news and events that enable readers to share the latest discoveries in science and evolve the discussion amongst the global scientific community.

Scientists have unveiled a new fabrication technique for the ultra-clean manufacturing of 2D heterostructures – materials just a

While Earth's atmosphere protects us from harmful cosmic rays, other cosmic particles are passing through us every second.

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University of Arizona researchers have demonstrated a promising new application for graphene nanoribbons, a nanoscale semiconductor material with

Author(s): D. S. Akerib et al. (LZ Collaboration)The LZ collaboration reports strong evidence (4.5 σ ) for coherent elastic scattering of 8 B solar neutrinos. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 091806] Published Fri Aug 28, 2026

Rubidium atoms on China’s Tiangong space station fell with the same acceleration, upholding a cornerstone of Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

Electrons, particles that carry a negative electric charge, typically move through materials. At low densities and temperatures, however, the electrical repulsion between them can overpower their tendency to move, prompting them to arrange themselves into ordered patterns known as Wigner crystals.

The Artemis II astronauts, who flew around the moon this past April, will receive the United States' highest space honor today (Aug. 28), and you can watch it live.

A newly detected star orbits the central black hole of our Milky Way closer than any other known

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In dark skies at night, distant starlight twinkles and speaks to vast cosmic histories almost as old as time itself. New data from instruments such as NASA's James Webb Space Telescope are helping astrophysicists probe deep cosmic mysteries, including the evolution of black holes and galaxies.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have studied 72 young sun-like stars to discover that forming planets is a real race against time.

Most of the stars in our Milky Way galaxy sit neatly on a flat plane. But the space around our galaxy is much more chaotic. Rogue bands of stars called "stellar streams" orbit the Milky Way much like planets in our solar system orbit the sun.

Plastic pollution is one of the most urgent environmental challenges of the 21st century. As larger plastic debris breaks down through mechanical, photochemical and biological processes, it forms microplastics that have been detected in water, soil, air and even the human body. Among these materials, polyamide microplastics are of particular concern because polyamide is widely used in textiles, fishing gear, packaging and engineering materials.

Some molecules come in two "handed" forms. This property, called chirality, can influence not only how molecules interact with light but also which electron spins they allow to pass. Researchers at the University of Osaka have developed novel chiral hole-transport materials that shed new light on this unusual effect while also improving the interfaces of perovskite solar cells.

Finding one Higgs boson was hard enough, but physicists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are hunting for something even more elusive: pairs of Higgs bosons. At the recent International Conference on High Energy Physics 2026, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations presented new constraints on the double-Higgs production rate, providing insight into how the Higgs boson interacts with itself.

High-energy nuclear collisions recreate extreme conditions similar to those in the early universe, producing quark–gluon plasma (QGP), a hot state of matter in which quarks and gluons are no longer confined inside protons and neutrons. While large systems such as lead–lead collisions can produce matter that behaves like a fluid, collective behavior has also been observed in smaller systems.

Nature is the foremost international weekly scientific journal in the world and is the flagship journal for Nature Portfolio. It publishes the finest peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology on the basis of its originality, importance, interdisciplinary interest, timeliness, accessibility, elegance and surprising conclusions. Nature publishes landmark papers, award winning news, leading comment and expert opinion on important, topical scientific news and events that enable readers to share the latest discoveries in science and evolve the discussion amongst the global scientific community.

Table tennis professionals are true masters at redirecting fast-moving projectiles. Putting a targeted spin on a serve can make the little white ball fly straight toward the edge of the table but then, at the last moment, take a sharp curve into the left corner. The physical phenomenon behind this sporting trick is known as the Magnus effect. It acts on balls of all sizes and has helped decide more than a few soccer matches.

Being prepared for an emergency is key to keeping people safe. This means more than just having supplies such as food, water and first-aid kits. Sometimes, the most important preparation is having the right data to help first responders and the community stay safe.

This podcast features Katharine Hunt of the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust The post Gamma Knife radiosurgery brings precision treatment to benign brain conditions appeared first on Physics World.

A highly concentrated beam of light from the center of the galaxy OP 313 allows researchers to infer