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. Cells are like metropolises, home to millions of molecular residents. If one were to stand atop a high-rise, trying to identify most of its inhabitants would seem an impossible task. Even with the sophisticated imaging tools currently available to scientists, it is challenging to zoom in on specific molecules and view them with a high degree of detail. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ai-proteins-scientists-cells.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:20:06 EDT news703498960 Quantum materials, materials with properties that are governed by the laws of quantum mechanics, have proved to be highly promising for the development of ultra-efficient electronic devices, quantum processors, highly precise sensors and various other technologies. Reliably controlling these materials' quantum phases would be highly advantageous, as it would enable engineers to tailor and optimize their properties for specific applications. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-quantum-hall-stripes-2d-materials.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 12 Jun 2026 07:00:03 EDT news700304463 The task of gently transporting a microscopic particle from one point to another along a winding path, and then bringing it back using nothing more than a single, compact chip is a challenge we set out to address in our new study, now published in Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-optical-metaconveyors-enable-programmable-nanomanipulation.html Nanophysics Wed, 13 May 2026 18:00:02 EDT news697800686 The nature of quantum particles has long puzzled scientists. While single-particle interference suggests that a photon can behave like a spread-out wave, a whole photon is only ever detected in one specific place. Traditional interpretations of quantum mechanics often address this by suggesting the particle is in a superposition of being here and there at the same time. However, this tells us only where the particle is when it is measured, not where the particle physically is when no detector is present. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-experimental-evidence-photons-multiple-paths.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 26 Mar 2026 18:00:03 EDT news693752759 Quantum technologies, devices and systems that process, store, detect, or transfer information leveraging quantum mechanical effects, have the potential to outperform classical technologies in a variety of tasks. An ongoing quest within quantum engineering is the realization of a so-called quantum internet: a network conceptually analogous to today's internet, in which distant nodes are linked through shared quantum resources, most notably quantum entanglement. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-ultra-thin-metasurface-generate-quantum.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 03 Feb 2026 07:50:05 EST news689252662 Mid- and far-infrared birefringent crystals are key functional materials for polarization control, laser technologies, and infrared photonics. However, existing materials generally suffer from limited infrared transparency, an intrinsic trade-off between large birefringence and wide transmission windows, and challenges in optical characterization due to restricted crystal dimensions. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-scientists-high-hg-based-crystal.html Condensed Matter Thu, 29 Jan 2026 14:42:22 EST news688920121 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 A German-French team of physicists from TU Dortmund University, University of Würzburg, and Le Mans Université has succeeded in launching shear hypersound pulses with exceptionally large amplitudes in metal halide perovskites using pulsed optical excitation. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-physicists-explore-optical-hypersound-pulses.html Condensed Matter Fri, 21 Nov 2025 11:20:02 EST news682944486 Scientists have unveiled a new approach to detecting gravitational waves in the milli-Hertz frequency range, providing access to astrophysical and cosmological phenomena that are not detectable with current instruments. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-approach-gravitational-milli-hz-frontier.html Astronomy Thu, 02 Oct 2025 19:00:01 EDT news678617116 As fast as modern electronics have become, they could be much faster if their operations were based on light, rather than electricity. Fiber optic cables already transport information at the speed of light; to do computations on that information without translating it back to electric signals will require a host of new optical components. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-memory-chiral-photonic-device-enables.html General Physics Wed, 28 May 2025 15:34:53 EDT news667665287 In the realm of general relativity, black holes are well-known for their ability to trap light and matter by bending spacetime, creating a point of no return. While black holes have fascinated scientists and the public alike, another concept, the white hole, has remained more theoretical. A white hole is thought to be the reverse of a black hole, expelling light and matter rather than absorbing them. Now, a team of researchers has designed a novel optical device with intriguing similarities with both these elusive cosmic phenomena. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-optical-device-mimics-black-white.html General Physics Tue, 15 Apr 2025 14:53:03 EDT news663947582 Chiral-structural-color materials produce color through microscopic structures that interact with light rather than through pigmentation or dyes. Some beetle exoskeletons, avian feathers, butterfly wings, and marine organisms feature these structures naturally, producing iridescent or polarization-dependent colors. Over the last 10–15 years, scientists have made progress in developing artificial chiral-structural-color materials. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-polymer-microdomes-reveal-tunable-chiral.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 27 Feb 2025 12:40:03 EST news659882402 Two heads are better than one, as the saying goes, and sometimes two instruments, ingeniously recombined, can accomplish feats that neither could have done on its own. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-microscope-reveals-full-3d-molecular.html Molecular & Computational biology Sat, 22 Feb 2025 03:07:04 EST news659416015 Terahertz (THz) waves, situated between the microwave and infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, have drawn considerable attention over the past two decades. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-scientists-device-modulate-polarization-thz.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 23 Jan 2025 11:03:03 EST news656852581 Skyrmions, recognized for their intricate spin configurations, have captivated researchers as topological quasiparticles with vast potential in data storage and information technology. Recently, optical skyrmions—light-based counterparts of these quasiparticles—have emerged as a promising avenue for developing advanced optical systems with unique topological properties. https://phys.org/news/2024-12-flexible-metafiber-device-generate-optical.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 09 Dec 2024 17:30:01 EST news652977902 The interactions between quantum spins underlie some of the universe's most interesting phenomena, such as superconductors and magnets. However, physicists have difficulty engineering controllable systems in the lab that replicate these interactions. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-floquet-tunes-ultracold-molecule-interactions.html Quantum Physics Thu, 12 Sep 2024 16:49:04 EDT news645378541 Optical waves propagating through air or multi-mode fiber can be patterned or decomposed using orthogonal spatial modes, with far-ranging applications in imaging, communication, and directed energy. Yet the systems that perform these wavefront manipulations are cumbersome and large, restricting their utilization to high-end applications. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-3d-microscale-photonic-lantern-opportunities.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 03 Jun 2024 23:00:02 EDT news636644102 The future of optical communications just got brighter. In a development reported in Advanced Photonics, researchers from Nanjing University have introduced iso-propagation vortices (IPVs), a novel concept that offers a solution to a long-standing challenge faced by scientists and engineers: how to increase information processing capacity while overcoming the limitations of traditional vortex beams. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-iso-propagation-vortices-optical-multiplexing.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 20 May 2024 10:10:07 EDT news635418601 Unconventional superconducting states are states of superconductivity rooted in physical processes that do not conform with the conventional theory of superconductivity, namely Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer (BCS) theory. These states are characterized by close interactions between magnetism and superconductivity. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-spontaneous-emergence-1d-superconducting-stripes.html Superconductivity Mon, 08 Apr 2024 09:39:39 EDT news631787972 In contrast to conventional mirrors, light can be reflected on surfaces known as metasurfaces without changing its polarization. This phenomenon has now been proven by physicists at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL). The discovery enables circulating light to be used to reliably detect chiral molecules. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-physicists-concept-chiral-molecules.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 31 Jan 2024 11:18:02 EST news625922281 By analyzing the data from the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS), astronomers from the Christ University in Bangalore, India, have serendipitously discovered a new ring galaxy, which received designation DES J024008.08-551047.5 and may belong to the rare class of polar ring galaxies. The finding was reported in a paper published August 29 on the pre-print server arXiv. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-galaxy-indian-astronomers.html Astronomy Tue, 05 Sep 2023 09:10:01 EDT news613123109 Precise control of light is a crucial requirement in optical imaging, sensing, and communication. Traditional lenses employed for the purpose have limitations, necessitating more precise and compact solutions. To address this need, researchers have developed metalenses, ultrathin lenses constructed from nanomaterials that are smaller in size than the wavelength of light. These sub-wavelength elements provide the means to manipulate light waves with exceptional precision, facilitating a precise control of the amplitude, phase, polarization, and direction of light waves. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-image-quality-broadband-achromatic-polarization-insensitive.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 25 Jul 2023 15:44:03 EDT news609518641 Researchers at Columbia Engineering have developed a new class of integrated photonic devices—"leaky-wave metasurfaces"—that can convert light initially confined in an optical waveguide to an arbitrary optical pattern in free space. These devices are the first to demonstrate simultaneous control of all four optical degrees of freedom, namely, amplitude, phase, polarization ellipticity, and polarization orientation—a world record. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-leaky-wave-metasurfaces-interface-free-space-optical.html Nanophysics Mon, 08 May 2023 13:10:24 EDT news602770220 Already used in computers and MRI machines, superconductors—materials that can transmit electricity without resistance—hold promise for the development of even more advanced technologies, like hover trains and quantum computing. Yet, how superconductivity works in many materials remains a mystery that limits its applications. https://phys.org/news/2022-11-superconductivity-newly-discovered-kagome-metals.html Superconductivity Mon, 07 Nov 2022 16:04:03 EST news587059441 Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light have managed for the first time to create a unidirectional device that significantly increases the quality of a special class of transmitted signals in optical communications: optical vortices. https://phys.org/news/2022-10-breakthrough-optical-transmission-one-way-street.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 20 Oct 2022 10:46:03 EDT news585481562 Brown dwarfs are known as "failed stars," owing to the lack of central hydrogen burning. They bridge the gap between planets and stars. Some brown dwarfs are found to maintain kilogauss magnetic fields and produce flaring radio emissions, similar to aurora on magnetized planets in solar system, arousing astronomers' curiosities about their field properties and dynamics. https://phys.org/news/2022-07-statistical-analysis-radio-flaring-brown-dwarf.html Astronomy Fri, 08 Jul 2022 11:17:23 EDT news576497841 For two weeks in June 2020, a massive dust plume from Saharan Africa crept westward across the Atlantic, blanketing the Caribbean and Gulf Coast states in the U.S. The dust storm was so strong, it earned the nickname "Godzilla." https://phys.org/news/2021-05-record-shattering-trans-atlantic-storm.html Earth Sciences Wed, 26 May 2021 13:14:34 EDT news541253670 Graph representations can solve complex problems in natural science, as patterns of connectivity can give rise to a magnitude of emergent phenomena. Graph-based approaches are specifically important during quantum communication, alongside quantum search algorithms in highly branched quantum networks. In a new report now published on Science Advances, Max Ehrhardt and a team of scientists in physics, experimental physics and quantum science in Germany introduced a hitherto unidentified paradigm to directly realize excitation dynamics associated with three-dimensional networks. To accomplish this, they explored the hybrid action of space and polarization degrees of freedom of photon pairs inside complex waveguide circuits. The team experimentally explored multiparticle quantum walks on complex and highly connected graphs as testbeds to pave the way to explore the potential applications of fermionic dynamics in integrated photonics. https://phys.org/news/2021-03-exploring-complex-graphs-three-dimensional-quantum.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 16 Mar 2021 10:00:01 EDT news535107338 Macrophages—immune cells that both fight infections and fix the damage they cause—are often placed into two categories: those that increase inflammation (known as "M1") to attack, and those that decrease inflammation to begin the healing process ("M2"). https://phys.org/news/2021-01-closer-immune-cells.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 21 Jan 2021 07:51:29 EST news530437574 Advanced optoelectronics require materials with newly engineered characteristics. Examples include a class of materials named metal-halide perovskites that have tremendous significance to form perovskite solar cells with photovoltaic efficiencies. Recent advances have also applied perovskite nanocrystals in light-emitting devices. The unusually efficient light emission of cesium lead-halide perovskite may be due to a unique excitonic fine structure made of three bright triplet states that minimally interact with a proximal dark singlet state. Excitons are electronic excitations responsible for the emissive properties of nanostructured semiconductors, where the lowest-energy excitonic state is expected to be long lived and hence poorly emitting (or 'dark'). https://phys.org/news/2021-01-multidimensional-coherent-spectroscopy-reveals-triplet.html Nanophysics Tue, 19 Jan 2021 09:30:04 EST news530177034