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Author(s): Pavel Aleynikov, Per Helander, and Håkan M. SmithThe concept for future fusion reactors has a key advantage over the tokamak, being practically immune to large-scale disruptions. The authors show, however, that a rapid shutdown of stellarator coil currents (with fast dissipation of poloidal magnetic flux) can nonetheless drive an avalanche of runaway electrons, even without any interruption of the net toroidal plasma current. The problem is far less serious than in a tokamak, but some runaways are inevitably present in an activated fusion device, so an accidental rapid coil ramp-down could produce a dangerous runaway current. Some form of dedicated intervention is likely necessary. [Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 024065] Published Fri Feb 20, 2026

Since the third Gaia data release in 2022, wide binary stars with separation greater than several thousand astronomical units have been intensely investigated across the world, to probe the nature of gravity in the low acceleration regime, weaker than about 1 nanometer per second squared.

Green hydrogen production technology, which utilizes renewable energy to produce eco-friendly hydrogen without carbon emissions, is gaining attention as a core technology for addressing global warming. Green hydrogen is produced through electrolysis, a process that separates hydrogen and oxygen by applying electrical energy to water, requiring low-cost, high-efficiency, high-performance catalysts.

Physicists combined human acumen and AI-assisted math to show that a doubted particle interaction is possible after all

Like many scientists, theoretical physicist Andrew Strominger was unimpressed with early attempts at probing ChatGPT, receiving clever-sounding answers that didn't stand up to scrutiny. So he was skeptical when a talented former graduate student paused a promising academic career to take a job with OpenAI. Strominger told him physics needed him more than Silicon Valley.

Traditional chemistry textbooks present a tidy picture: Atoms in molecules occupy fixed positions, connected by rigid rods. A molecule such as formic acid (methanoic acid, HCOOH) is imagined as two-dimensional—flat as a sheet of paper. But quantum physics tells a different story. In reality, nature resists rigidity and forces even the simplest structures into the third dimension.

Qubits, the heart of quantum computers, can change performance in fractions of a second — but until now, scientists couldn’t see it happening. Researchers at NBI have built a real-time monitoring system that tracks these rapid fluctuations about 100 times faster than previous methods. Using fast FPGA-based control hardware, they can instantly identify when a qubit shifts from “good” to “bad.” The discovery opens a new path toward stabilizing and scaling future quantum processors.

Atom-thick layers of molybdenum disulfide are ideally suited for radiation-resistant spacecraft electronics, researchers in China have confirmed. In a study published in Nature, Peng Zhou and colleagues at Fudan University put a communications system composed of the material through a gauntlet of rigorous tests—including the transmission of their university's Anthem—confirming that its performance is barely affected in the harsh environment of outer space.

Team Great Britain achieves a historic gold medal record at the 2026 Winter Olympics, sparking pride and pressure within the camp.

Spanish astronomers have conducted a near-infrared study of an ultra-high energy gamma-ray source designated LHAASO J2108+5157. The new study, published February 11 on the arXiv preprint server, tries to unravel the mysterious nature of this source.

Neutron stars are ultra-dense remnants of massive stars that collapsed after supernova explosions and are made up mostly of subatomic particles with no electric charge (i.e., neutrons). When two neutron stars collide, they are predicted to produce gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime that travel at the speed of light.

To capture higher-definition and sharper images of cosmological objects, astronomers sometimes combine the data collected by several telescopes. This approach, known as long-baseline interferometry, entails comparing the light signals originating from distant objects and picked up by different telescopes that are at different locations, then reconstructing images using computational techniques.

Researchers at the University of Maine and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

A new electrically controlled MXene membrane tunes ion separation on demand, opening doors to more efficient water treatment, drug delivery and rare earth mining.

Scientists developed a single-atom iridium catalyst that drives both water-splitting reactions on one electrode, using 98.5% less precious metal for cheaper green hydrogen.

Theory says that, under the right conditions, massive stars can collapse directly into black holes without exploding as supernovae. But observational evidence of the phenomenon has been hard to get. Now astronomers have found some sequestered in archival data.

"This is a crucial step towards characterizing giant planets beyond our solar system."

When things vibrate, they make sounds. Molecules do too, but at frequencies far beyond human hearing. Chemical bonds stretch, bend, and twist at characteristic rates that fall in the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Infrared spectroscopy, which measures how light excites these vibrations, is often likened to listening to a molecule's voice.

A research team led by Professor Su-Il In of the Department of Energy Science and Engineering at DGIST has uncovered the principle that the products and reaction pathways of carbon dioxide (CO2) conversion to fuel via solar energy depend on the design of atomic-level interactions in the catalyst.

Author(s): Wladimir Zholobenko, Frank Jenko, Kaiyu Zhang, Philipp Ulbl, Konrad Eder, Andreas Stegmeir, Clemente Angioni, and Peter ManzA global, confinement-time-long, flux-driven turbulence simulation of the tokamak plasma edge region subject to a power ramp reproduces an abrupt turbulence transition. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 075101] Published Thu Feb 19, 2026

In nature, tiny crystals known as nanocrystals are formed slowly over many years. Rocks and minerals react with air, water, and carbon dioxide in a process called chemical weathering. These reactions happen gently, at room temperature and normal pressure, gradually producing crystals so small they are invisible to the naked eye. Although slow, these natural processes create materials that are increasingly important in modern technologies, from electronics to medical devices.

Astronomers have found a candidate Jellyfish Galaxy only about 5 billion years after the Big Bang. This is earlier than expected, since the ram pressure stripping responsible for it wasn't thought to be possible so early in the Universe's history. The galaxy could explain the puzzling "Red Nugget" galaxies, but first it has to be confirmed.

The early Universe was a busy place. As the infant cosmos exanded, that epoch saw the massive first stars forming, along with protogalaxies. It turns out those extremely massive early stars were stirring up chemical changes in the first globular clusters, as well. Not only that, many of those monster stars ultimately collapsed as black holes.

A new artificial intelligence framework developed at Cornell can accurately predict the performance of battery electrolytes while revealing the chemical principles that govern them, providing engineers with a new tool for designing better batteries.

By applying voltage to electrically control a new "transistor" membrane, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) achieved real-time tuning of ion separations—a capability previously thought impossible. The recent work, which could make precision separation processes like water treatment, drug delivery and rare earth element extraction more efficient, was published in Science Advances.

Astronomers have long debated why so many icy objects in the outer solar system look like snowmen. Michigan State University researchers now have evidence of the surprisingly simple process that could be responsible for their creation.

Many physicists are searching for a triplet superconductor. Indeed, we could all do with one, although we may not know it yet—or understand why. Triplet superconductors could be the key to achieving the most energy-efficient technology in the future.

We rate the Potensic Atom SE as the best cheap drone for beginners thanks to its build quality and value for money. Now this bundle is at its lowest-ever price.

Scientists have taken a major step toward mimicking nature’s tiniest gateways by creating ultra-small pores that rival the dimensions of biological ion channels—just a few atoms wide. The breakthrough opens new possibilities for single-molecule sensing, neuromorphic computing, and studying how matter behaves in spaces barely larger than atoms.

Bert de Jong of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab is our podcast guest The post Quantum Systems Accelerator focuses on technologies for computing appeared first on Physics World.

It is commonly assumed that tiny particles just go with the flow as they make their way through soil, biological tissue, and other complex materials. But a team of Yale researchers led by Professor Amir Pahlavan shows that even gentle chemical gradients, such as a small change in salt concentration, can dramatically reshape how particles move through porous materials. Their results are published in Science Advances.

By replacing single atoms with an entangled pair of ions, physicists in Germany have demonstrated unprecedented stability in an optical clock. Publishing their results in Physical Review Letters, a team led by Kai Dietze at the German National Metrology Institute, hope their approach could help usher in a new generation of optical clocks—opening up new possibilities in precision experiments and metrology.

By bringing gravity into the equation, we can focus on effective strategies for managing IBS in space and on Earth.

The KM3NeT collaboration is a large research group involved in the operation of a neutrino telescope network in the deep Mediterranean Sea, with the aim of detecting high-energy neutrino events. These are rare and fleeting high-energy interactions between neutrinos, particles with an extremely low mass that are sometimes referred to as "ghost particles."

An exotic type of dark matter could explain some of the characteristics of our galaxy’s central supermassive black hole, but many cosmologists are leery of the idea

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 used entangled X-ray photon pairs to produce ghost images of tiny samples, a proof of concept that could enable longer, lower-dose studies of delicate biological materials.

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In the everyday world, governed by classical physics, the concept of equilibrium reigns. If you put a drop of ink into water, it will eventually evenly mix. If you put a glass of ice water on the kitchen table, it will eventually melt and become room temperature. That concept rooted in energy transport is known as thermalization, and it is easy to comprehend because we see it happen every day. But this is not always how things behave at the smallest scales of the universe.

"This data provides us with rare insight into how galaxies were transformed in the early universe."

By applying new methods of machine learning to quantum chemistry research, Heidelberg University scientists have made significant strides in computational chemistry. They have achieved a major breakthrough toward solving a decades-old dilemma in quantum chemistry: the precise and stable calculation of molecular energies and electron densities with a so-called orbital-free approach, which uses considerably less computational power and therefore permits calculations for very large molecules.

In a paper published in the journal Small, a team of physicists from IISER Pune have developed tiny electronic devices from a special semiconductor material called bismuth oxyselenide (Bi2O2Se). This development has potential applications in future flexible smartphones, wearable health monitors, smart fabrics, and bendable electronic gadgets.

A novel method to manipulate the inner structure of cells connects several scientific fields and could represent a significant step in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Dr. Travis Craddock, a professor of biology at the University of Waterloo and Canada Research Chair in Quantum Neurobiology, led the research team that is the first to use weak magnetic fields and isotopes to change the structure of cells.

Quantum computer research is advancing at a rapid pace. Today's devices, however, still have significant limitations: For example, the length of a quantum computation is severely limited—that is, the number of possible interactions between quantum bits before a serious error occurs in the highly sensitive system. For this reason, it is important to keep computing operations as efficient and lean as possible.

We know that supermassive black holes can inhibit star formation in their galaxies. But new research and JWST observations show that the most luminous quasars can actually suppress star formation in neighbouring galaxies. SMBH may have played a more pronounced role in shaping the early Universe than previously thought.

The CMS Collaboration has shown, for the first time, that machine learning can be used to fully reconstruct particle collisions at the LHC. This new approach can reconstruct collisions more quickly and precisely than traditional methods, helping physicists better understand LHC data. The paper has been submitted to the European Physical Journal C and is currently available on the arXiv preprint server.

Researchers in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences have devised a new way to make some of the smallest, smoothest mirrors ever created for controlling single particles of light, known as photons. These mirrors could play key roles in future quantum computers, quantum networks, integrated lasers, environmental sensing equipment, and more.

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For the first time, researchers in China have accurately quantified how chaos increases in a quantum many-body system as it evolves over time. Combining experiments and theory, a team led by Yu-Chen Li at the University of Science and Technology of China showed that the level of chaos grows exponentially when time reversal is applied to these systems—matching predictions of their extreme sensitivity to errors. The research has been published in Physical Review Letters.

Intense radiation emitted by active supermassive black holes—thought to reside at the center of most, if not all, galaxies—can slow star growth not just in their host galaxy, but also in galaxies millions of light-years away, according to a study led by Yongda Zhu, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Arizona Department of Astronomy and Steward Observatory.

A biomimetic synapse built from water droplets and biological ion channels achieves synaptic plasticity and performs machine learning tasks.

Author(s): Matteo RiniScientists and policymakers gathered in Ghana to close out the 2025 International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, calling for stronger global collaboration and a more inclusive quantum future. [Physics 19, 22] Published Tue Feb 17, 2026

Author(s): Julian SchmidtAn optical clock based on a pair of calcium ions achieves a given precision more quickly when the ions are entangled. [Physics 19, 20] Published Tue Feb 17, 2026

A new framework explains direct transitions between ordered states, offering insights into real quantum materials The post Rethinking how quantum phases change appeared first on Physics World.

The Milky Way's center is densely-packed with stars and there should be abundant pulsars there. But for some reason, we can't find them. New research presents a candidate pulsar in the GC. It's close enough to the Milky Way's supermassive black hole that it can test Einstein's General Relativity. But first, it has to be confirmed.

Have you ever seen a hibiscus flower? Although its petals have a range of colors, what makes the trumpet-shaped flower more beautiful is the central stalk, which houses the anthers that produce pollen grains. Powdery in structure, this pollen is commonly bright yellow or golden in color. During my childhood, I often touched the stalks of these fascinating, bright red flowers, which caused the "golden dust" to stick to my fingers.

A team of physicists from the University of Ottawa have developed a new theoretical model that shines new light on how scientists understand the way lasers interact with dense matter, such as solids and liquids. This could unlock advances in ultrafast physics and next-generation technology.

Efficient generation and reliable distribution of quantum entangled states is crucial for emerging quantum applications, including quantum key distribution (QKDs). However, conventional polarization-based entanglement states are not stable over long fiber networks. While time-bin entanglement offers a promising alternative, it requires complex infrastructure. In this study, researchers explore how stable time-bin entangled states can be generated and distributed using commercially available components, paving the way for practical quantum communication networks.

Quasicrystals are orderly structures that never repeat. Scientists just showed they can exist in space and time.

Just how small can a QR code be? Small enough that it can only be recognized with an electron microscope. A research team at TU Wien, working together with the data storage technology company Cerabyte, has now demonstrated exactly that. The QR code covers an area of just 1.98 square micrometers—smaller than most bacteria. The record has now been verified and officially entered into the Guinness World Records.

“Our understanding of instabilities—when they grow, how they grow—is important to making fusion work.”

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, working with international partners, have uncovered surprising behavior in a specially engineered crystal. Composed of tantalum, tungsten and selenium—elements often studied for their potential in advanced electronics—the crystal demonstrates an unexpected atomic arrangement that hints at novel applications in spin-based electronics and quantum materials.

System could shed light on emergent periodic phenomena in biological systems The post Time crystal emerges in acoustic tweezers appeared first on Physics World.

Astrophysicists from the University of Waterloo have observed a new jellyfish galaxy, the most distant one of its kind ever captured. Jellyfish galaxies are named for the long, tentacle-like streams that trail behind them. They move quickly through their hot, dense galaxy cluster, and the gas within the cluster acts like a strong wind pushing the jellyfish galaxy's own gas out the back, forming trails. The technical term for this process is ram-pressure stripping. The Waterloo scientists found this galaxy in deep space data captured by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It is at z = 1.156, meaning we're seeing it as it was 8.5 billion years ago, when the universe was much younger.

Dark energy is one of those cosmological features that we are still learning about. While we can't see it directly, we can most famously observe its effects on the universe—primarily how it is causing the expansion of the universe to speed up. But recently, physicists have begun to question even that narrative, pointing to results that show the expansion isn't happening at the same rate our math would have predicted.

The low-noise, high-gain properties needed for high-performance quantum computing can be realized in a microwave photonic circuit device called a Josephson traveling-wave parametric amplifier (JTWPA), RIKEN researchers have shown experimentally. This advance stands to speed up development of superconducting quantum computer systems at the 100-qubit scale. The work is published in the journal Physical Review Applied.

Scientists have long seen a puzzling pattern in tokamaks, the doughnut-shaped machines that could one day reliably generate electricity from fusing atoms. When plasma particles escape the core of the magnetic fields that hold the plasma in its doughnut shape, they stream down toward the exhaust system, known as the divertor. There, plasma particles strike metal plates, cool down and bounce back. (The returning atoms help fuel the fusion reaction.) But experiments consistently show that far more particles hit the inner divertor target than the outer one.

Henry Yuen is developing a new mathematical language to describe problems whose inputs and outputs aren’t ordinary numbers. The post A New Complexity Theory for the Quantum Age first appeared on Quanta Magazine

Livermore company was co-founded by National Ignition Facility research leaders Annie Kritcher and Mike Dunne.

Physicists in Germany have carried out the most accurate measurement to date of the width of the proton. By examining a previously unexplored energy-level transition in the hydrogen atom, Lothar Maisenbacher and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics have shown that the Standard Model continues to hold up under extraordinarily tight scrutiny, leaving even less room than before for rival theories that contradict our best understanding of how the universe behaves. The research has been published in Nature.

One of the challenges to creating fusion energy is understanding what happens at the smallest scales during fusion reactions. In inertial confinement fusion (ICF), for example, a fuel-filled capsule is bombarded with lasers to create shockwaves and heat and compress the target to kickstart fusion. This process involves many complex interactions that scientists have not been able to observe until now. Dual-probe experiments on laser shockwaves at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) could help unlock the engineering challenges underlying fusion, opening a path to a new source of abundant energy. The research was led by the University of Michigan through the Department of Energy’s...

Physicists have observed the bizarre Terrell-Penrose effect in real life

Astronomers are racing to understand mysterious ancient objects that pepper James Webb Space Telescope images

Quantum key distribution promises ultra-secure communication by using the strange rules of quantum physics to detect eavesdroppers instantly. But even the most secure quantum link can falter if the transmitter and receiver aren’t perfectly aligned. Researchers have now taken a deep dive into this often-overlooked issue, building a powerful new analytical framework to understand how tiny beam misalignments—caused by vibrations, turbulence, or mechanical flaws—disrupt secure key generation.

Scientists scanning the heart of the Milky Way have spotted a tantalizing signal: a possible ultra-fast pulsar spinning every 8.19 milliseconds near Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at our galaxy’s core. Pulsars act like incredibly precise cosmic clocks, and finding one in this extreme environment could open a rare window into how space-time behaves under intense gravity.

Researchers at the University of Oxford have developed a powerful new method to visualize an essential lithium-ion battery electrode component that had been extremely difficult to trace before. The discovery, published in Nature Communications, could lead to increased manufacturing efficiency of battery electrodes and ultimately help improve the charging rate and lifetime of Li-ion batteries.

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are helping to pave a path for the eventual discovery of dark matter. With new approaches to measurement in the quantum realm, using quantum optical sensing techniques, ORNL scientists are developing the methods required to achieve sight beyond sight—and detect this mysterious, invisible, yet seemingly ubiquitous substance.

Researchers discovered unexpected atomic ordering in a tantalum tungsten selenium crystal, linking self organization and magnetism to spintronic and quantum uses.

Kaillie Humphries, a bobsledding legend, continues to make history as she competes in the 2026 Winter Olympics, balancing motherhood and a storied career.

A viral claim about Earth losing gravity for seven seconds in 2026 has been debunked by scientists. Learn why this sensational story is a hoax.

Scientists have developed a new way to read the hidden states of Majorana qubits, which store information in paired quantum modes that resist noise. The results confirm their protected nature and show millisecond scale coherence, bringing robust quantum computers closer to reality.

Quantum computers are alternative computing devices that process information, leveraging quantum mechanical effects, such as entanglement between different particles. Entanglement establishes a link between particles that allows them to share states in such a way that measuring one particle instantly affects the others, irrespective of the distance between them.

With $20 M funding so far, Quantum Gravity Gradiometer Pathfinder Mission is intended to “advance U.S. space sensing”.

The fragility and laws of quantum physics generally make the characterization of quantum systems time‑consuming. Furthermore, when a quantum system is measured, it is destroyed in the process. A breakthrough by researchers at the University of Vienna demonstrates a novel method for quantum state certification that efficiently verifies entangled quantum states in real time without destroying all available states—a decisive step forward in the development of robust quantum computers and quantum networks.

Gravity feels reliable—stable and consistent enough to count on. But reality is far stranger than our intuition. In truth, the strength of gravity varies over Earth's surface. And it is weakest beneath the frozen continent of Antarctica after accounting for Earth's rotation.

Astronomers have analyzed the data from long-term radio observations of a binary pulsar known as PSR J1906+0746. Results of the new study, published February 5 on the arXiv pre-print server, deliver important information regarding the nature of this system.

Osmotic energy, often called blue energy, is a promising way to generate sustainable electricity from the natural mixing of salt and fresh water. It exploits the voltage that arises when ions from saltwater pass through an ion-selective membrane toward water with a lower salt concentration.

Scientists have used a novel new approach to discover the potential origins of the sun goddess particle Amaterasu, the second most energetic cosmic ray ever to be detected striking Earth.

For the first time, researchers have shown that self-assembled phosphorus chains can host genuinely one-dimensional electron behavior. Using advanced imaging and spectroscopy techniques, they separated the signals from chains aligned in different directions to reveal their true nature. The findings suggest that squeezing the chains closer together could trigger a dramatic shift from semiconductor to metal. That means simply adjusting density could unlock entirely new electronic states.

Dark energy is one of those cosmological features that we are still learning about. While we can’t see it directly, we can most famously observe its effects on the universe - primarily how it is causing the expansion of the universe to speed up. But recently, physicists have begun to question even that narrative, pointing to results that show the expansion isn’t happening at the same rate our math would have predicted. In essence, dark energy might be changing over time, and that would have a huge impact on the universe’s expansion and cosmological physics in general. A new paper available in pre-print on arXiv from Dr. Slava Turyshev, who is also famously the most vocal advocate of the Solar Gravitational Lens mission, explores an alternative possibility that our data is actually just messy from inaccuracies in how we

By engineering lubricated interfaces inside nanopores, researchers have enabled ions to flow through a nanofluidic membrane with unprecedented speed and control.

Researchers at Queen’s University (Ontario) have developed light-powered computing machine capable of performing complex applications including protein folding for drug discovery and number partitioning for cryptography. The machine is built from off-the-shelf components and commercially available lasers, fiber optics, and modulators, operates at room temperature, and remains stable while performing billions of operations per second. According to its developers, the machine is best suited for optimization problems that show up in supply chains, drug design, urban planning, and numerous other other areas. (From left): Hugh Morison, Ph.D. student, Bhavin Shastri, physics professor, and Ph.D. student Nayem Al Kayed developed a...