/ en-us Â鶹ÒùÔº internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Â鶹ÒùÔºics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. A new platform for engineering chiral electron pathways offers potential fresh insights into a quantum phenomenon discovered by chemists—and exemplifies how the second quantum revolution is fostering transdisciplinary collaborations that bridge physics, chemistry, and biology to tackle fundamental questions. /news/2025-06-quantum-spirals-programmable-platform-ways.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Fri, 13 Jun 2025 14:00:03 EDT news668940541 Researchers have identified a form of molecular motion that has not previously been observed. When what are known as "guest molecules"—molecules that are accommodated within a host molecule—penetrate droplets of DNA polymers, they do not simply diffuse in them in a haphazard fashion, but propagate through them in the form of a clearly-defined frontal wave. The team includes researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research and the University of Texas at Austin. /news/2025-06-molecular-motion-guest-molecules-dna.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 12 Jun 2025 16:00:03 EDT news668962430 For the past six years, Los Alamos National Laboratory has led the world in trying to understand one of the most frustrating barriers that faces variational quantum computing: the barren plateau. /news/2025-06-quantum-problem-barren-plateau.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 12 Jun 2025 10:19:41 EDT news668942365 In a new study, physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder have used a cloud of atoms chilled down to incredibly cold temperatures to simultaneously measure acceleration in three dimensions—a feat that many scientists didn't think was possible. /news/2025-06-quantum-device-atoms-3d.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Wed, 11 Jun 2025 14:18:04 EDT news668870281 Quantum materials exhibit remarkable emergent properties when they are excited by external sources. Functional applications of these properties rely heavily on their tunability in real time. However, these excited states decay rapidly once the excitation is removed, limiting their practical applications. /news/2025-06-quantum-state-lifetimes-laser-triggered.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 05 Jun 2025 13:08:01 EDT news668347675 In the nanometer range (billionth of a meter), interactions occur between light and matter that do not happen on larger scales. As such, so-called nanophotonic materials have unique optical properties that open up a whole range of technical possibilities. /news/2025-05-ultrathin-resonators-standard-efficient.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 29 May 2025 12:09:11 EDT news667739344 Statistical mechanics is one of the pillars of modern physics. Ludwig Boltzmann (1844–1906) and Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903) were its primary formulators. They both worked to establish a bridge between macroscopic physics, which is described by thermodynamics, and microscopic physics, which is based on the behavior of atoms and molecules. /news/2025-05-generalization-statistical-mechanics-regularize-theory.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 27 May 2025 15:02:03 EDT news667576921 Besides particles like sterile neutrinos, axions and weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), a leading candidate for the cold dark matter of the universe are primordial black holes—black holes created from extremely dense conglomerations of subatomic particles in the first seconds after the Big Bang. /news/2025-05-primordial-black-holes-today-dark.html Astronomy Fri, 23 May 2025 10:20:01 EDT news667213170 When two-dimensional electron systems are subjected to magnetic fields at low temperatures, they can exhibit interesting states of matter, such as fractional quantum Hall liquids. These are exotic states of matter characterized by fractionalized excitations and the emergence of interesting topological phenomena. /news/2025-05-fermionic-neural-network-ground-state.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 22 May 2025 09:50:25 EDT news667126215 A serendipitous observation in a Chemical Engineering lab at Penn Engineering has led to a surprising discovery: a new class of nanostructured materials that can pull water from the air, collect it in pores and release it onto surfaces without the need for any external energy. /news/2025-05-accidentally-class-nanostructured-materials-passively.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 21 May 2025 16:10:06 EDT news667062601 A study by Dartmouth researchers proposes a new theory about the origin of dark matter, the mysterious and invisible substance thought to give the universe its shape and structure. They say the hypothetical force shaping the universe sprang from particles that rapidly condensed, like steam into water. /news/2025-05-dark-fast-particles-heavy-theory.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Wed, 14 May 2025 10:58:05 EDT news666439082 The "afterglow" of the universe is an important piece of evidence for the Big Bang. This background radiation also provides important answers to the question of how the first galaxies were able to form. Researchers at the Universities of Bonn, Prague and Nanjing calculate that the strength of this radiation has probably been overestimated up to now. If the results prove to be accurate, it would call into question the theoretical foundation of the standard model of cosmology. /news/2025-05-early-galaxies-contribute-afterglow-universe.html Astronomy Fri, 09 May 2025 15:59:42 EDT news666025177 Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have uncovered an unexpected interface layer that may be hindering the performance of superconducting qubits, the building blocks of quantum computers. /news/2025-05-scientists-reveal-hidden-interface-superconducting.html Superconductivity Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 06 May 2025 10:00:04 EDT news665743815 MIT physicists have captured the first images of individual atoms freely interacting in space. The pictures reveal correlations among the "free-range" particles that until now were predicted but never directly observed. Their findings, published today in the journal Â鶹ÒùÔºical Review Letters, will help scientists visualize never-before-seen quantum phenomena in real space. /news/2025-05-physicists-snap-images-free-range.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Mon, 05 May 2025 10:15:04 EDT news665658902 Interdisciplinary teams across the Quantum Systems Accelerator (QSA) are using innovative approaches to push the boundaries of superconducting qubit technology, bridging the gap between today's NISQ (Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum) systems and future fault-tolerant systems capable of impactful science applications. /news/2025-05-superconducting-qubits-enable-quantum-simulations.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Fri, 02 May 2025 03:00:01 EDT news665370816 A research team at Tohoku University's Advanced Institute for Materials Research (WPI-AIMR) has developed a new technique to rapidly and accurately determine the charge state of electrons confined in semiconductor quantum dots—fundamental components of quantum computing systems. The method is based on Bayesian inference, a statistical framework that estimates the most likely state of a system using observed data. /news/2025-05-bayesian-inference-enables-rapid-quantum.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 01 May 2025 09:52:03 EDT news665311921 Quasicrystals, exotic states of matter characterized by an ordered structure with non-repeating spatial patterns, have been the focus of numerous recent physics studies due to their unique organization and resulting symmetries. Among the quasicrystals that have sparked significant interest among the physics community are so-called quantum quasicrystals, which are comprised of bosons (i.e., subatomic particles that have spin in integer values, such as 0, 1, 2, and so on, and can occupy the same quantum state simultaneously). /news/2025-04-physics-theory-energy-quantum-quasicrystals.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Fri, 25 Apr 2025 06:50:01 EDT news664708518 Asymmetric interactions between molecules may serve as a stabilizing factor for biological systems. A new model by researchers in the Department of Living Matter Â鶹ÒùÔºics at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) reveals the regulatory role of non-reciprocity. /news/2025-04-asymmetric-molecular-interactions-secret.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 22 Apr 2025 15:44:34 EDT news664555470 Researchers from the Institute of Modern Â鶹ÒùÔºics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have proposed a key indicator that may reveal the emergence of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) by analyzing particle "fingerprints" generated in heavy-ion collisions. /news/2025-04-particle-emission-ratios-window-evolution.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Plasma Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 22 Apr 2025 10:04:03 EDT news664535041 When an electric current passes through some materials, it generates a voltage perpendicular to the direction in which the current is flowing and of an applied magnetic field. This physical phenomenon, known as the anomalous Hall effect, has been linked to the intrinsic properties of some materials. /news/2025-04-mathematical-modulates-anomalous-hall-angle.html Condensed Matter Mon, 21 Apr 2025 11:09:21 EDT news664452556 Quasicrystals (QCs) are fascinating solid materials that exhibit an intriguing atomic arrangement. Unlike regular crystals, in which atomic arrangements have an ordered repeating pattern, QCs display long-range atomic order that is not periodic. Due to this 'quasiperiodic' nature, QCs have unconventional symmetries that are absent in conventional crystals. /news/2025-04-frontier-spintronics-antiferromagnetic-quasicrystals-unveiled.html Condensed Matter Fri, 11 Apr 2025 05:00:10 EDT news663500101 Quantum computers promise to outperform today's traditional computers in many areas of science, including chemistry, physics, and cryptography, but proving they will be superior has been challenging. The most well-known problem in which quantum computers are expected to have the edge, a trait physicists call "quantum advantage," involves factoring large numbers, a hard math problem that lies at the root of securing digital information. /news/2025-04-quantum-edge.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 10 Apr 2025 08:50:01 EDT news663493723 Magnesium is a common chemical element, an alkaline earth metal, which is highly chemically reactive and is very light (even lighter than aluminum). Magnesium is abundant in plants and minerals and plays a role in human physiology and metabolism. In the cosmos, it is produced by large aging stars. /news/2025-03-magnesium-superconductor-2d-limit.html Condensed Matter Superconductivity Tue, 01 Apr 2025 08:20:01 EDT news662636519 Scientists have long sought to unravel the mysteries of strange metals—materials that defy conventional rules of electricity and magnetism. Now, a team of physicists at Rice University has made a breakthrough in this area using a tool from quantum information science. Their study, published recently in Nature Communications, reveals that electrons in strange metals become more entangled at a crucial tipping point, shedding new light on the behavior of these enigmatic materials. The discovery could pave the way for advances in superconductors with the potential to transform energy use in the future. /news/2025-03-quantum-entanglement-reveals-strange-metals.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Sat, 29 Mar 2025 06:55:27 EDT news662450067 More than 80 years ago, Erwin Schrödinger, a theoretical physicist steeped in the philosophy of Schopenhauer and the Upanishads, delivered a series of public lectures at Trinity College, Dublin, which eventually came to be published in 1944 under the title "What is Life?" /news/2025-03-physicist-revisits-limits-life-schrdinger.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Fri, 28 Mar 2025 14:00:01 EDT news662284801 What happens when a quantum physicist is frustrated by the limitations of quantum mechanics when trying to study densely packed atoms? At EPFL, you get a metamaterial, an engineered material that exhibits exotic properties. /news/2025-03-quantum-atoms-acoustics.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 25 Mar 2025 12:57:57 EDT news662126269 Two scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered a new phase of matter while studying a model system of a magnetic material. /news/2025-03-ice-physicists-phase-magnetic-material.html Condensed Matter Tue, 25 Mar 2025 09:39:04 EDT news662114341 Biomolecular condensates are shifting blobs in our cells that organize cellular matter. They are distinct molecular communities made of DNA, RNA and proteins that "condense" molecules to key locations, yet they frequently defy description. Partly this is because they are so small, they cannot be measured using traditional microscopes. /news/2025-03-biomolecular-silly-putty-high-res.html Bio & Medicine Nanophysics Fri, 14 Mar 2025 11:35:03 EDT news661170901 Using the Multi-frequency High Field Electron Spin Resonance Spectrometer at the Steady-State High Magnetic Field Facility (SHMFF), researchers observed the first-ever Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) of a two-magnon bound state in a magnetic material. The facility is in the Hefei Institutes of Â鶹ÒùÔºical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and includes a research team from Southern University of Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Renmin University of China, and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization. /news/2025-03-boseeinstein-condensation-magnon-bound-state.html Condensed Matter Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 13 Mar 2025 12:00:03 EDT news661086002 A team of researchers led by Colorado State University graduate student Luke Wernert and Associate Professor Hua Chen has discovered a new kind of Hall effect that could enable more energy-efficient electronic devices. /news/2025-03-kind-hall-effect-physicists-reveal.html Condensed Matter Thu, 13 Mar 2025 08:56:53 EDT news661075006