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. Our body contains an intricate system of tiny vessels through which blood, water and other molecules flow. When the size of the pipes shrinks to the nanoscale, where only a few molecules can fit side by side, the classical laws of physics governing the behavior of water are influenced by the atomic structure of the walls. "It's not that classical hydrodynamics breaks down, but rather that it gets mixed with the condensed matter physics of the solid walls," says Nikita Kavokine, tenure-track assistant professor and leader of the EPFL Quantum Plumbing Lab. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-quantum-molecular-plumbing-nanofluidics.html Condensed Matter Mon, 22 Jun 2026 10:00:01 EDT news701338983 Silicon chips have powered computing for half a century. Increasingly, they are also becoming platforms to read and manipulate biology at scale—recording from many neurons, reading many DNA sequences and now synthesizing DNA. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-semiconductor-chip-dna-sequences-enzymatic.html Biotechnology Wed, 17 Jun 2026 11:47:12 EDT news700915316 Researchers from the University of Cambridge and GlitterinTech, a startup founded by the same research group, have unveiled a fundamentally new type of optical spectrometer that delivers laboratory-grade precision in a device small enough to be embedded in portable and wearable technologies. By rethinking how spectra are measured and processed, the team has demonstrated a spectrometer costing only around $10, operating at a centimeter scale, and capable of applications ranging from industrial quality control to real-time health care monitoring. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-spectrometer-chip-real-chemical-wearables.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 08 Jun 2026 17:40:04 EDT news700146465 Control of heat transport in nanostructures is of central importance for numerous modern technologies—from high-performance computer chips that need to be cooled to energy converters—and is a highly active area of research. While great progress has been made in recent years in understanding how heat transport can be influenced by nanostructuring, it was previously unclear whether the replacement of a single atom in a molecule could measurably alter phonon transport—i.e. heat transport through lattice vibrations. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-atom-substitution-successfully-tunes-molecular.html Nanophysics Thu, 02 Apr 2026 17:20:01 EDT news694360621 Today's nearly $70 billion U.S. biofuels economy is powered by two technology toolboxes. Biochemical technologies—used to produce around 17 billion gallons of ethanol annually—leverage microorganisms to convert plant biomass sugars into alcohols, other biofuels, or chemicals. Chemical technologies, the second toolbox, use catalysts to turn biomass and wastes into similar target products. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-cells-chemicals-enzymes.html Biotechnology Fri, 27 Mar 2026 22:30:01 EDT news693835350 Researchers from the University of Jyväskylä and Aalto University have developed a new method based on laser modification, which allows metal-organic materials to be grown locally one molecule-thick layer at a time. The method enables the precise construction of films of different shapes and offers new ways to modify the properties of materials for various applications. The study was published in the journal ACS Nano. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-laser-graphene-enables-molecule-thick.html Nanomaterials Wed, 25 Mar 2026 17:50:01 EDT news693676921 Scientists have created the first microlasers capable of detecting individual molecules and even single atomic ions, a breakthrough that could significantly advance early disease diagnosis and molecular-scale medical testing. Researchers at the University of Exeter's Living Systems Institute have published their work in Nature Photonics. The paper opens up new possibilities for microlaser biosensing technology, including "lab-on-a-chip" technology capable of instant medical testing and diagnosis. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-microlasers-capable-individual-molecules-ions.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 25 Mar 2026 06:00:05 EDT news693565580 Animal studies often fail to predict human tissue responses to new drugs or newly developed therapies. Besides generating tremendous costs for clinical studies, it also raises significant ethical concerns. Therefore, novel approaches to mimicking natural human environments like vascular system growth control, are broadly developed to deliver a reproducible model to test novel drugs. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-magnetic-fields-lab-grown-blood.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 19 Mar 2026 18:50:02 EDT news693147081 Accurately measuring small shifts in biological markers, like proteins and neurotransmitters, or harmful chemicals in the water supply, can identify critical problems before they have a chance to impact patients or the environment. While some existing sensors can monitor the microscopic matter behind these issues, they often have limitations. A primary example is a device known as a field-effect transistor—a tiny component that controls the flow of electrical current in a system—that struggles to remain stable when exposed to liquid. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-graphene-sensors-stay-stable-liquids.html Nanomaterials Tue, 17 Mar 2026 17:10:01 EDT news692981281 At a potluck, you ate the best chocolate chip cookie—golden-brown, thick and chewy. Unfortunately, you don't know who made the cookie to get the recipe from, so you decide to recreate it. Using forward design principles, you might randomly choose a recipe from dozens of options, bake and observe the resulting cookies. If they are too thin, you might start over with a new recipe, add more flour or chill the dough longer and make a new batch. An alternative method is to start from the cookie characteristics you want and ask: What recipe and baking settings will produce that type of cookie? This method is called inverse design. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-inverse-pathway-custom-functional-polymers.html Polymers Tue, 17 Mar 2026 09:00:07 EDT news692956417 The COVID-19 pandemic brought messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines to the forefront of global health care. After their clinical trial stages, the first COVID-19 mRNA vaccine was administered on 8 December 2020 and mathematical models suggest that mRNA vaccines prevented at least 14.4 million deaths from COVID-19 in the first year alone. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-dna-origami-vaccine-rivals-mrna.html Bio & Medicine Wed, 11 Mar 2026 19:40:01 EDT news692459881 Physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder have demonstrated a new kind of vacuum ultraviolet laser that is 100 to 1,000 times more efficient than existing technologies of its kind. The researchers say the device could one day allow scientists to observe phenomena currently out of reach for even the most powerful microscopes—such as following fuel molecules in real time as they undergo combustion, spotting incredibly small defects in nanoelectronics and more. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-compact-vacuum-ultraviolet-laser-nanotechnology.html Nanophysics Wed, 11 Mar 2026 16:00:03 EDT news692462339 Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have created a chip-scale device that can dynamically control the "handedness" of light as it passes through—also known as its optical chirality—with a simple twist of two specially designed photonic crystals. The study is published in the journal Optica. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-bilayer-photonic-crystals-dynamically-tune.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 11 Mar 2026 15:30:06 EDT news692460662 Imagine a "smart fluid" whose internal structure can be rearranged just by changing temperature. In a new study published in Matter, researchers report a way to overcome a long-standing limitation in a class of "smart fluids" called nematic liquid crystal microcolloids, allowing for reconfigurable self-assembly of micrometer-sized particles dispersed in a nematic liquid crystal host. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-smart-fluid-reconfigured-temperature.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 17 Feb 2026 12:20:23 EST news690553201 As commercial interest in quantum technologies accelerates, entrepreneurial minds at the University of Waterloo are not waiting for opportunities—they are creating them. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-stealth-quantum-sensors-possibilities-gps.html Quantum Physics Mon, 19 Jan 2026 19:00:03 EST news688040582 Counterfeit or low-quality products—such as olive oil made from dyed rapeseed oil—are often difficult or impossible to identify at a glance. A mobile gas chromatography sensor system is now being developed to help detect falsely labeled products directly on site. Three Fraunhofer institutes are working together to create an affordable, easy-to-use device that enables even non-experts to perform rapid, on-the-spot assessments. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-rapid-site-food-fraud.html Analytical Chemistry Mon, 05 Jan 2026 10:07:26 EST news686829994 Tiny tubes of carbon that emit single photons from just one point along their length have been made in a deterministic manner by RIKEN researchers. Such carbon nanotubes could form the basis of future quantum technologies based on light. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-fabricating-photon-sources-carbon-nanotubes.html Nanophysics Thu, 25 Dec 2025 12:20:04 EST news685793946 Miniaturization ranks as the driving force behind the semiconductor industry. The tremendous gains in computer performance since the 1950s are largely due to the fact that ever smaller structures can be manufactured on silicon chips. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-world-tiniest-emitting-diodes.html Nanophysics Mon, 24 Nov 2025 11:01:05 EST news683204462 Photonic quantum processors, devices that can process information leveraging quantum mechanical effects and particles of light (photons), have shown promise for numerous applications, ranging from computations and communications to the simulation of complex quantum systems. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-quantum-photonic-chip-emitting-molecules.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 24 Nov 2025 06:30:02 EST news682865851 A research team from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has developed a fully automated "Digital Colony Picker" (DCP). This device identifies and retrieves high-performance microbial clones by simultaneously monitoring their growth and metabolite production—eliminating the need for culture plates, sampling needles, or manual picking. The study was published in Nature Communications on Oct. 10. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-ai-powered-digital-colony-picker.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 15 Oct 2025 09:25:03 EDT news679739101 Light is fast, but travels in long wavelengths and interacts weakly with itself. The particles that make up matter are tiny and interact strongly with each other, but move slowly. Together, the two can combine into a hybrid quasiparticle called a polariton that is part light, part matter. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-playbook-polaritons-quasiparticles-power-optical.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 10 Oct 2025 11:00:12 EDT news679161482 Recently, the iGaN Laboratory led by Professor Haiding Sun at the School of Microelectronics, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), together with the team of academician Sheng Liu from Wuhan University, has successfully developed the world's first miniaturized ultraviolet (UV) spectrometer chip and realized on-chip spectral imaging. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-miniaturized-ultraviolet-spectrometer-chip.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 06 Oct 2025 09:54:52 EDT news678963281 A team of scientists from the University of Chicago, the University of California Berkeley, Argonne National Laboratory, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has developed molecular qubits that bridge the gap between light and magnetism—and operate at the same frequencies as telecommunications technology. The advance, published today in Science, establishes a promising new building block for scalable quantum technologies that can integrate seamlessly with existing fiber-optic networks. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-molecular-qubits-communicate-telecom-frequencies.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 02 Oct 2025 17:02:04 EDT news678643321 In a recent Nature study, scientists have demonstrated an electrically driven perovskite laser using a dual-cavity design, addressing a challenge that has persisted in the field for over a decade. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-scientists-electrically-driven-perovskite-laser.html Optics & Photonics Sun, 28 Sep 2025 10:00:01 EDT news678107757 Is life possible—or has it ever been possible—on other planets? The (Origin of) Life Marker Chip (LMCOOL) seeks the answer. This innovative chip is being developed by a Dutch consortium led by TU Delft. UT researcher Jurriaan Huskens and his team are going to make the optical sensor selective for the required biomarkers. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-small-chip-grand-mission-extraterrestrial.html Astrobiology Tue, 23 Sep 2025 10:50:04 EDT news677843210 Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered new materials and a new process that could advance the ever-escalating quest to make smaller, faster and affordable microchips used across modern electronics—in everything from cellphones to cars, appliances to airplanes. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-circuits-invisible-naked-eye-technique.html Nanomaterials Thu, 11 Sep 2025 05:00:01 EDT news676783109 A University of Colorado Denver engineer is on the cusp of giving scientists a new tool that can help them turn sci-fi into reality. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-quantum-tool-gamma-ray-lasers.html Quantum Physics Wed, 23 Jul 2025 09:10:05 EDT news672480271 A new method for combining magnetic elements with semiconductors—which are vital materials for computers and other electronic devices—was unveiled by a research team led by the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-boost-semiconductors-magnetic-atoms-materials.html Nanophysics Tue, 22 Jul 2025 07:57:35 EDT news672389849 Photo-induced force microscopy began as a concept in the mind of Kumar Wickramasinghe when he was employed by IBM in the early years of the new millennium. After he came to the University of California, Irvine in 2006, the concept evolved into an invention that would revolutionize research by enabling scientists to study the fundamental characteristics of matter at nanoscale resolution. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-revolutionizing-photo-microscopy-globe-celebrated.html General Physics Mon, 14 Jul 2025 10:10:01 EDT news671703676 When the Empire State Building was constructed, its 102 stories rose above midtown one piece at a time, with each individual element combining to become, for 40 years, the world's tallest building. Uptown at Columbia, Oleg Gang and his chemical engineering lab aren't building Art Deco architecture; their landmarks are incredibly small devices built from nanoscopic building blocks that arrange themselves. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-3d-material-dna.html Bio & Medicine Wed, 09 Jul 2025 06:48:05 EDT news671262482