https://phys.org/ en-us Latest news from AMOLF The sensory proteins that control the motion of bacteria constantly fluctuate. AMOLF researchers, together with international collaborators from ETH Zurich and University of Utah, found out that these proteins can jointly switch on and off at the same time. The researchers discovered that this protein network operates at the boundary between order and disorder. The findings are published in Nature Physics on January 29. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-bacterial-brains-brink-disorder.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 29 Jan 2026 15:02:24 EST news688921321 Cells experience many different types of stress, such as starvation or stress caused by too much salt or too high a temperature. Insulin signals respond to such stress signals by sending the protein DAF-16 into the cell nucleus where it activates the stress-specific genes to protect the worm from stress. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-cells-morse-code-rhythms-growth.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 08 Jan 2026 09:00:05 EST news687085071 Cells on the inner surface of the intestine are replaced every few days. But, how does this work? It was always assumed that cells leave the intestinal surface because excess cells are pushed out. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-09-intestinal-surface-cells-weak-neighbors.html Medical research Thu, 04 Sep 2025 14:00:07 EDT news675943152 When you pull something—like a rubber band—you expect it to get longer. But what if it did the opposite? What if it suddenly shrank instead? In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from AMOLF and ARCNL have made this possible. They created structures that snap inward when pulled outward. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-05-countersnapping.html Engineering Mon, 12 May 2025 11:57:03 EDT news666269821 A research team from AMOLF in Amsterdam has created a soft robot that walks, hops, and swims—all without a brain, electronics, or AI. Just soft tubes, air, and some clever physics. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-05-brain-problem-soft-robot-legs.html Robotics Thu, 08 May 2025 14:07:03 EDT news665932021 Concentrating light in a volume as small as the wavelength itself is a challenge that is crucial for numerous applications. Researchers from AMOLF, TU Delft, and Cornell University in the U.S. have demonstrated a new way to focus light on an extremely small scale. Their method utilizes special properties of a photonic crystal and works for a broader spectrum of wavelengths than alternative methods. The researchers published their findings in Science Advances on April 18. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-mechanism-photonic-crystal-chip.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 18 Apr 2025 14:00:04 EDT news664128782 AMOLF researchers, in collaboration with Delft University of Technology, have succeeded in bringing light waves to a halt by deforming the two-dimensional photonic crystal that contains them. The researchers show that even a subtle deformation can have a substantial effect on photons in the crystal. This resembles the effect that a magnetic field has on electrons. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-deformed-crystal.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 24 Apr 2024 10:28:01 EDT news633081897 Researchers at AMOLF, in collaboration with partners from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, have realized a new type of metamaterial through which sound waves flow in an unprecedented fashion. It provides a novel form of amplification of mechanical vibrations, which has the potential to improve sensor technology and information processing devices. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-topological-metamaterial-amplifies-exponentially.html Condensed Matter Wed, 27 Mar 2024 12:00:01 EDT news630753439 With a brief squeeze, you know whether an avocado, peach or tomato is ripe. This is what a soft robot hand also does, for example, during automated harvesting. However, up until now, such a gripper needed sensors in its 'fingers' to determine whether the fruit was ripe enough. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-02-soft-robot-fingers-sensors.html Robotics Tue, 13 Feb 2024 09:32:03 EST news627039121 AMOLF researchers have used the special properties of perovskite semiconductors to develop a simple spray test to demonstrate the presence of lead. Perovskite is a material suitable for use in LEDs and solar cells, for example. A lead-containing surface shines bright green when it is sprayed with the test. This test is 1,000 times more sensitive than existing tests and the researchers found no false positive or false negative results. The study was published on November 27 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-hijack-solar-cell-technology-simple.html Analytical Chemistry Mon, 27 Nov 2023 14:46:04 EST news620318761 75 years ago Claude Shannon, the "father of information theory," showed how information transmission can be quantified mathematically, namely via the so-called information transmission rate. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-algorithm.html General Physics Mon, 30 Oct 2023 12:59:50 EDT news617889587 Predicting the future can be a matter of life or death. Just think, every time you cross the street, you predict whether this is possible without being run over. Experiments show that even single-celled organisms such as bacteria can predict the future. The better bacteria can predict changes in their environment, the greater their chances of survival. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-bacteria-opt-price-to-quality-ratio-future.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 09 Oct 2023 11:50:37 EDT news616071033 Corrugated plastic turns out to be exemplary of a new class of "multistable" metamaterials that can reversibly change shape. This insight can lead to new applications, from robots to medical devices. Physicists Anne Meeussen (previously AMOLF/Leiden University, now Harvard University) and Martin van Hecke (AMOLF/Leiden University) describe these materials in a Nature article that was published on 20 September 2023. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-09-corrugated-plastic-principle-programmable-materials.html Engineering Wed, 20 Sep 2023 11:00:01 EDT news614251557 AMOLF researchers discovered that stem cells first specialize into a functional cell and then move to their proper location—rather than the other way around. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-stem-cells-identity.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 18 Aug 2023 14:00:02 EDT news611567557 AMOLF researcher Christiaan Van Campenhout has found a new, simple method to create a material with a regular pattern of crystalline bands. The pattern formed by the crystals is not a coincidence. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-low-tech-high-tech-materials.html Materials Science Wed, 02 Aug 2023 07:50:12 EDT news610181406 Routing signals and isolating them against noise and back-reflections are essential in many practical situations in classical communication as well as in quantum processing. In a theory-experimental collaboration, a team led by Andreas Nunnenkamp from the University of Vienna and Ewold Verhagen based at AMOLF, Amsterdam, has achieved unidirectional transport of signals in pairs of "one-way streets." This research published in Nature Physics opens up new possibilities for more flexible signaling devices. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-dual-carriageways-possibilities-flexible-devices.html Quantum Physics Thu, 13 Jul 2023 11:01:03 EDT news608464861 Researchers at AMOLF, University of Pennsylvania, and City University of New York (CUNY) created a nanostructured surface capable of solving equations using light. This discovery opens exciting new opportunities in the field of analog processing based on optical metasurfaces. AMOLF Ph.D. student Andrea Cordaro and his co-authors published their findings in Nature Nanotechnology on January 12, 2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-01-mathematics.html Nanophysics Mon, 16 Jan 2023 09:43:28 EST news593084605 With a new model, AMOLF researchers reveal how single-celled organisms like bacteria coordinate growth, cell division and DNA replication. Bacteria reproduce via growth and cell division. During each cycle of growth and division, the so-called cell cycle, the cell needs to copy all cellular components exactly once. https://phys.org/news/2022-11-reproduction-coli-bacteria.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 07 Nov 2022 10:10:49 EST news587038245 A smartly designed pressure valve allows soft robots to respond to their environment without the need for computer control, reveal AMOLF researchers in their article in the journal Matter. That brings robots with natural movements and tactile responses similar to those of living organisms one step closer to reality. Such developments render soft robots more suitable for exploring rough and unknown terrain or for medical applications. https://techxplore.com/news/2022-07-responsive-soft-robots-sputtering-ketchup.html Robotics Fri, 08 Jul 2022 11:00:01 EDT news576316396 For signals barely larger than the noise in a system, measurement is generally a trade-off between speed and precision. Averaging over several measurements reduces the influence of noise but takes (a lot of) time. That could change with a revolutionary new measurement method, devised by AMOLF researchers Kevin Peters and Said Rodriguez. Their idea is based on a non-linear optical resonator, explains Rodriguez: "In this sensor, faster measurement actually produces a stronger signal." The theoretical elaboration of this new measurement method is published in Physical Review Letters today, June 27, 2022. For an experimental exploration, collaborations are being sought with companies seeking to make fast and precise measurements with light. https://phys.org/news/2022-06-faster-averaging.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 28 Jun 2022 08:57:07 EDT news575625425 Using a network of vibrating nano-strings controlled with light, researchers from AMOLF have made sound waves move in a specific irreversible direction and attenuated or amplified the waves in a controlled manner for the first time. This gives rise to a lasing effect for sound. To their surprise, they discovered new mechanisms, so-called "geometric phases," with which they can manipulate and transmit sound in systems where that was thought to be impossible. "This opens the way to new types of (meta)materials with properties that we do not yet know from existing materials," says group leader Ewold Verhagen who, together with shared first authors Javier del Pino and Jesse Slim, publishes the surprising results on June 2 in Nature. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-discovery-mechanisms.html General Physics Wed, 01 Jun 2022 11:00:06 EDT news573206505 Silicon solar cells have proven to be a top photovoltaic technology, as they use earth abundant raw materials (i.e. Si) and perform with high efficiency. However, they are based on thick, rigid and heavy wafers and can therefore only be installed in a limited number of places. One of the ways to overcome this disadvantage is to use thin membranes instead. This will reduce the amount of Si by more than 99% (dramatically saving in raw materials) and also make the cells flexible and lightweight. As such, these cells can be easily integrated into buildings, urban architecture and even small everyday gadgets. The problem is that such thin Si membranes cannot absorb light as efficiently. In fact, only 25% of the sunlight is absorbed and you can even see through them. https://phys.org/news/2022-03-efficiencies-thin-photovoltaic-cells.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 28 Mar 2022 12:14:37 EDT news567688474 Following a single protein inside the cavity of a GroEL chaperone for the first time, researchers at AMOLF led by professor Sander Tans discovered how protein folding can be accelerated. Amino acid chains are pulled inside the open cavity of the chaperone, where they collapse on top of themselves and fold. The findings have implications for our understanding of cellular protein control and folding diseases. The research is published this week in Science Advances. https://phys.org/news/2022-03-imaging-proteins.html Biotechnology Tue, 08 Mar 2022 08:27:12 EST news565950425 In an international collaboration, AMOLF researchers have theoretically described and experimentally observed spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) in two laser-driven coupled optical cavities. SSB is a universal phenomenon that occurs in many physical systems. It is at the heart of the laser, superconductivity, and the Higgs mechanism, for example. In the case of laser-driven systems like optical cavities, it was not yet understood how SSB occurs. Because laser-driven systems are always in a state imposed by the laser, the nature and manifestation of SSB is completely different from other systems. https://phys.org/news/2022-02-teams-collaborate-symmetry.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 07 Feb 2022 15:19:11 EST news563469544 AMOLF researchers, collaborating with researchers from the Erasmus MC, have discovered a genetic mechanism that ensures that a nerve cell retains its identity once it has differentiated. This concerns a neuron in the worm C. elegans that can detect salt. Its identity is activated by a genetic switch during the cell's development. Jeroen van Zon and his colleagues have discovered how it is possible that this switch never spontaneously switches off again. The research was published in the scientific journal eLife. https://phys.org/news/2022-01-elegans-accidentally-ability-salt.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 10 Jan 2022 15:30:59 EST news561051055 Ph.D. student Marloes Bistervels from the Self-Organizing Matter research group at AMOLF has managed to use light to very precisely control the formation of nanocomposites in the shape of corals and vases. By illuminating a solution of the right ingredients with UV light, she can control where, when and which structures arise at the micrometer scale. Today, she published her findings in the scientific journal Advanced Materials. https://phys.org/news/2021-12-light-controlled-spontaneous-growth-nanostructures.html Nanophysics Fri, 17 Dec 2021 11:10:05 EST news558960258 The chemical industry consumes a lot of energy, not only to initiate reactions but also to separate products from by-products. In a promising emerging field of research, scientists worldwide are trying to use nanoscale antennas to capture and concentrate light into tiny volumes in order to initiate chemical reactions more efficiently and sustainably. https://phys.org/news/2021-10-tuning-chemical-reactions.html Nanomaterials Mon, 04 Oct 2021 14:51:44 EDT news552577902 Signals can be amplified by an optimum amount of noise, but stochastic resonance is a fragile phenomenon. Researchers at AMOLF were the first to investigate the role of memory for this phenomenon in an oil-filled optical microcavity. The effects of slow non-linearity (i.e. memory) on stochastic resonance were never considered before, but these experiments suggest that stochastic resonance becomes robust to variations in the signal frequency when systems have memory. This has implications in many fields of physics and energy technology. In particular, the scientists numerically show that introducing slow nonlinearity in a mechanical oscillator harvesting energy from noise can increase its efficiency tenfold. They have published their findings in Physical Review Letters on May 27th. https://phys.org/news/2021-05-scientists-unravel-noise-assisted-amplification-memory.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 27 May 2021 17:00:02 EDT news541235123 Researchers from AMOLF's Soft Robotic Matter group have shown that a group of small autonomous, self-learning robots can adapt easily to changing circumstances. They connected these simple robots in a line, after which each individual robot taught itself to move forward as quickly as possible. The results were published today in the scientific journal PNAS. https://techxplore.com/news/2021-05-self-learning-robots-full-steam.html Robotics Mon, 10 May 2021 15:00:02 EDT news539860148 In solar cells, about two third of the energy of sunlight is lost. Half of this loss is due to a process called 'hot carrier cooling' where high energy photons lose their excess energy in the form of heat before being converted to electricity. Scientists at AMOLF have found a way to manipulate the speed of this process in perovskites by applying pressure to the material. This paves the way for making perovskites more versatile, not only for use in solar cells but also in a variety of other applications, from lasers to thermoelectric devices. The researchers will publish their study in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters on 23 April. https://phys.org/news/2021-04-perovskites-pressure-hot-electrons-cool.html Materials Science Fri, 23 Apr 2021 13:01:18 EDT news538401662