https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. When light or sound bounces around inside an oddly shaped room, its reflections can quickly become difficult to predict. But new research led by scientists at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) shows that waves can behave very differently when they travel through a special class of materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-chaos-oddly-cavity.html General Physics Mon, 28 Sep 2026 05:00:03 EDT news709561441 Perfection is overrated—at least when it comes to complex systems like the power grid, food webs and advanced materials. For decades, scientists generally assumed that networks function most reliably when their individual components are as similar as possible. But real-world networks are rarely uniform. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-finely-tuned-mess-disorder-networks.html Mathematics Thu, 17 Sep 2026 19:40:04 EDT news708874381 Researchers from Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), Harvard and the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) have developed an innovative method for coupling light non-linearly. This opens up new possibilities for telecommunications and quantum technology. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-nanostructure-linear-conversion-efficient.html Nanophysics Wed, 02 Sep 2026 13:40:08 EDT news707568302 Many materials, both living and engineered, are powered from within. Scientists have thoroughly investigated how such 'active' materials operate, but so far, mostly in circumstances where the curvature of the environment does not play a role. In research published in Physical Review Letters this week, a team of physicists proposes a framework to describe how active materials operate in the presence of curvature. The framework explains striking biological observations and may lead to geometry as a design parameter for new materials. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-surfaces-reshape-materials-localizing-vibrations.html Soft Matter Tue, 18 Aug 2026 17:30:01 EDT news706288381 The strongest glasses have an Achilles' heel that causes them to fail catastrophically when pushed past their limit. They do not bend or stretch, as all damage concentrates into a single plane and the material fails in an instant. This brittleness has long capped the usefulness of high-stability amorphous solids, from bulk metallic glasses to engineered metamaterials. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-particles-stable-glasses-stronger-catastrophic.html Soft Matter Sun, 16 Aug 2026 09:00:01 EDT news705982865 Researchers at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering have developed a new approach to nanoscale 3D printing that improves both speed and fidelity, overcoming a challenge that has limited the technology's broader use in manufacturing. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-pixel-patterns-harness-diffraction-faster.html Nanophysics Mon, 03 Aug 2026 16:20:02 EDT news704985845 An international team of researchers from École Polytechnique, Collège de France and Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) has achieved a world first: the experimental realization of an all-optical photonic time crystal (PTC), a material whose optical properties can be strongly and periodically modulated over ultrafast timescales. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-photonic-crystals-ultrafast-terahertz-range.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 30 Jul 2026 19:40:04 EDT news704645101 Light typically interacts with a material the same way whether it enters through the front or the back—like polarized sunglasses that work the same from either side. Cornell researchers have demonstrated a simple route to breaking that symmetry, opening new possibilities for photonics and quantum information processing. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-simple-semiconductor-front-symmetry.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 27 Jul 2026 16:20:05 EDT news704381282 Materials with magnetic nanostructures have a wide range of potential applications. One area is so-called spintronics, with devices that encode information in magnetic domains. These magnetic bits can be written, read and erased in a more energy-efficient way than bits in current semiconductor devices. Spin textures and magnetic domains in such materials can be investigated using nanoscale magnetic imaging techniques. For example, photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM), coupled with a magnetically sensitive detection mechanism. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-tiny-magnetic-image-spintronic-materials.html Nanophysics Sun, 12 Jul 2026 17:00:03 EDT news702563676 Over the past decade, Professor L. Mahadevan's Soft Math Lab at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) has helped establish how the ancient Japanese paper arts of folding or cutting can be used to inversely design structures that transform dramatically in shape and function. Now, the researchers have created a new class of shape-changing matter, based not on folds or cuts, but linkages—networks of interconnected scissor mechanisms that collapse into lines and deploy into curved surfaces. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-collapsible-scissored-surfaces-trilogy-metamaterial.html General Physics Wed, 24 Jun 2026 15:20:03 EDT news701524441 Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) scientists have used a classic optical phenomenon known as the Poisson spot to create stable patterns of light called optical skyrmions, which are tiny, swirling configurations in the properties of light—akin to the spikes of a hedgehog. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-scientists-optical-skyrmions-century-phenomenon.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 23 Jun 2026 09:40:05 EDT news701425623 Researchers in China recently uncovered a quantum-inspired rule governing how sound is scattered by certain physical properties of a material. Their research, published in Physical Review Letters, may lead to the ability to design materials with optimal, broadband sound blocking. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-newfound-bulky-effective-soundproofing.html General Physics Mon, 08 Jun 2026 13:30:01 EDT news700143119 Heat behaves in predictable ways: a hot cup of coffee cools, a laptop warms your hands, the sun heats Earth. But at scales thousands of times smaller than a human hair, those rules begin to break down, and scientists are learning how to take advantage of that. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-metamaterials-enable-nanoscale-potentially-energy.html Nanophysics Wed, 27 May 2026 17:40:05 EDT news699116822 Researchers have recently found a new way to summon useful structures in magnetic materials using light, heat, and electric fields. This new method, described in a new study published in Physical Review Letters, may lead to more energy-efficient and flexible technologies for data storage and optical devices. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-liquid-crystal-demand-skyrmions-room.html Condensed Matter Wed, 13 May 2026 12:40:02 EDT news697890165 Under a microscope, a bouquet of lollipop-like structures, each smaller than a grain of sand, waves gently in a Petri dish of liquid. Suddenly, they snap together, like the jaws of a Venus flytrap, as a scientist waves a small magnet over the dish. What was previously an assemblage of tiny passive structures has transformed instantly into an active robotic gripper. The lollipop gripper is one demonstration of a new type of soft magnetic hydrogel developed by engineers at MIT and their collaborators at EPFL and the University of Cincinnati. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-swipe-magnet-microscopic-magno-bots.html Nanophysics Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:00:03 EDT news696587647 For some time, researchers have assumed that solid materials could gain more useful properties by making their microscopic components more active. Now, a team led by Jack Binysh at the University of Amsterdam has found that this idea doesn't always hold. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-response-materials.html General Physics Sat, 25 Apr 2026 13:00:03 EDT news695900124 Acoustic metamaterials are a fast-evolving family of materials which manipulate sound waves in ever more advanced ways. Now, a team led by Changqing Xu at Nanjing Normal University in China has engineered an acoustic metamaterial, a "ghost tunnel": a structure which acts as a near-perfect waveguide for sound entering through its ends, while being essentially invisible to waves incident on its sides. The results, published in Physical Review Letters, could open new avenues for manipulating sound waves in complex signal environments. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-ghost-tunnels-staying-invisible.html General Physics Mon, 13 Apr 2026 10:20:06 EDT news695290653 In a new Nature Physics publication, University of Amsterdam researchers introduce human-made materials that spring to life. These 'metamaterials' don't just learn to change shape, but can autonomously adapt their shape-changing strategy, perform reflex actions and move around like living systems do. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-metamaterial-chains-hinge.html General Physics Tue, 07 Apr 2026 14:20:05 EDT news694780502 The electronic and magnetic properties of two-dimensional materials both have strong potential for technological applications. Researchers have long assumed that they are distinct phenomena, but Illinois Grainger engineers have demonstrated that they share a mathematical language. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-magnetic-graphene-equations-massless-electron.html Nanophysics Sun, 08 Mar 2026 13:20:03 EDT news692027599 Leiden physicists Daniela Kraft and Julio Melio have created soft structures that can take on different shapes without any external drive in their lab. They present their research on microscale metamaterials in Nature—a breakthrough that opens the door to smart, reconfigurable materials and microscopic robots. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-world-microscopic-scale-metamaterials.html General Physics Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:40:01 EST news691247370 Smartphone cameras are becoming smaller, yet photos are becoming sharper. Korean researchers have elevated the limits of next-generation smartphone cameras by developing a new image sensor technology that can accurately represent colors regardless of the angle at which light enters. The team achieved this by utilizing a "metamaterial" that designs the movement of light through structures too small to be seen with the naked eye. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-metamaterial-image-sensor-oblique.html Optics & Photonics Sat, 21 Feb 2026 16:00:01 EST news690731362 When light passes through materials, it typically changes direction and bends in predictable ways. This change in direction, known as refraction, is caused by a change in the speed of light as it enters a new medium. In some rare cases, however, light bends differently, specifically in the opposite direction, and this is known as negative refraction. This unusual change in direction can be leveraged to develop a wide range of advanced technologies, including advanced imaging systems and small optical devices. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-nanoengineers-chip-excitonic-hyperlens.html Nanophysics Tue, 17 Feb 2026 07:30:02 EST news690456579 By changing the physical structure of gold at the nanoscale, researchers can drastically change how the material interacts with light—and, as a result, its electronic and optical properties. This is shown by a study from Umeå University published in Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-reshaping-gold-electronic-optical-properties.html Nanophysics Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:46:38 EST news689265961 With an advanced technology known as angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), scientists are able to map out a material's electron energy-momentum relationship, which encodes the material's electrical, optical, magnetic and thermal properties like an electronic DNA. But the technology has its limitations; it doesn't work well under a magnetic field. This is a major drawback for scientists who want to study materials that are deployed under or even actuated by magnetic fields. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-clearer-critical-materials-refrigerator-magnets.html Condensed Matter Mon, 02 Feb 2026 13:00:55 EST news689259601 A nanostructure made of silver and an atomically thin semiconductor layer can be turned into an ultrafast switching mirror device that may function as an optical transistor—with a switching speed around 10,000 times faster than an electronic transistor. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-ultrafast-atomically-thin-semiconductors-rapid.html Nanophysics Wed, 21 Jan 2026 14:35:57 EST news688228502 Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have optimized and 3D-printed helix structures as optical materials for terahertz (THz) frequencies, a potential way to address a technology gap for next-generation telecommunications, non-destructive evaluation, chemical/biological sensing and more. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-3d-helixes-thz-optical-materials.html Condensed Matter Mon, 15 Dec 2025 14:10:33 EST news685030196 Inspired by the Japanese art of kirigami, a team of scientists from the University of Amsterdam have developed a material that can reflect different colors of light, depending on how it is stretched. The results were recently published in the journal ACS Photonics. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-chameleon-nanomaterial-mechanical-strain.html Nanophysics Fri, 05 Dec 2025 11:43:40 EST news684157381 Researchers have been developing computers that deploy light (photons) rather than electricity to power storage and calculations. These light-based computers have the potential to be more energy efficient than traditional computers while also running calculations at greater speeds. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-gyromorphs-combine-liquid-crystal-traits.html Condensed Matter Thu, 06 Nov 2025 16:17:03 EST news681668221 Inspired by an artist's stencils, researchers have developed atomic-level precision patterning on nanoparticle surfaces, allowing them to "paint" gold nanoparticles with polymers to give them an array of new shapes and functions. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-atom-scale-stencil-patterns-nanoparticles.html Nanomaterials Wed, 15 Oct 2025 15:36:03 EDT news679761361 In science and engineering, it's unusual for innovation to come in one fell swoop. It's more often a painstaking plod through which the extraordinary gradually becomes ordinary. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-3d-metamaterials-harness-complex-geometry.html General Physics Tue, 14 Oct 2025 16:23:29 EDT news679677803