Physics
press releases.

Physics2 Feb 2026

The Spanish Biophysical Society highlights a study by the EHU’s spectroscopy group

Physical Chemistry applies the principles and concepts of physics to understand the basics of chemistry and explain how and why transformations of matter take place on a molecular level. One of the branches of this field focusses on understanding how molecules change in the course of a chemical reaction or process. Understanding the interactions of chiral molecules with water is crucial, given the central role that water plays in chemical and biological processes. Chiral molecules are those that, despite comprising the same atoms, cannot ...

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Physics2 Feb 2026

New SEOULTECH study reveals transparent windows that shield buildings from powerful electromagnetic pulses

Electromagnetic pulses (EMPs)—high-energy-density and ultra-wideband beams of electromagnetic radiation—are generated from sources such as nuclear explosions, high-power electromagnetic pulse devices, and intentional electromagnetic interference. These pulses can infiltrate electronic equipment to significantly incapacitate civilian and military electrical, electronic, and communications infrastructures and undermine command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. In recent years, scientists have explored EMP-shielded exterior glass windows for buildings and transportation systems to address ...

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Physics2 Feb 2026

Reshaping gold leads to new electronic and optical properties

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. Gold plays a crucial role in modern advanced technology thanks to its unique properties. New research now demonstrates that changing the material's physical structure – its morphology – can fundamentally enhance both its electronic behaviour and its ability to interact with light. “This might make it possible to improve the efficiency of chemical reactions such as those used in hydrogen ...

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Physics30 Jan 2026

MANA scientists enable near-frictionless motion of pico- to nanoliter droplets with liquid-repellent particle coating

The precise control of tiny droplets on surfaces is essential for advanced manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and next-generation lab-on-a-chip diagnostics. However, once droplet volume reaches pico- and nanoliter scales, the droplets become extremely sensitive to microscopic surface irregularities, and friction at the solid–liquid interface becomes a major obstacle to smooth transport. Against this backdrop, a study led by Dr. Mizuki Tenjimbayashi and his colleagues at Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA) proposed a novel strategy that involved coating the droplet with a repellent material instead of engineering a perfectly smooth surface. This study published in the journal ACS Nano has ...

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Physics29 Jan 2026

Direct imaging captures the crystalline vibrations of a supersolid made of atoms and light

The 20th century was marked by the discovery of exotic states of matter. First, liquid helium was observed to flow without friction at extremely low temperatures, a phase now known as superfluid. Soon after, it was also discovered that, under appropriate external conditions, some materials can conduct electricity without resistance; these materials were therefore named superconductors. Later, in the 1960s, scientists added the idea of supersolids to the list: in this state of matter, atoms would flow without friction ...

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Physics27 Jan 2026

Spectral slimming for single-nanoparticle plasmons

“Why can’t plasmons achieve quality factors as high as dielectrics?” “Because metals heat up easily—they’re inherently lossy.” This exchange is almost inevitable whenever plasmonic nanostructures come up in a discussion. Now, researchers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and international collaborators have shown that this long-held limitation is not as fundamental as once believed. The research team has demonstrated a powerful new ...

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Physics26 Jan 2026

Why family physicians are leaving comprehensive care

Original Research Why Family Physicians Are Leaving Comprehensive Care Background: Many people in Canada cannot find a regular family physician, partially due to some family physicians leaving comprehensive primary care earlier than planned. This study explored why family physicians in Ontario left comprehensive care and what policy changes they believed could help retain physicians. Researchers conducted a qualitative study using semistructured virtual interviews with 12 family physicians in Ontario who left comprehensive care within the past eight years. What They Found: Family physicians ...

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Physics21 Jan 2026

Velocity gradients key to explaining large-scale magnetic field structure

MADISON — All celestial bodies — planets, suns, even entire galaxies — produce magnetic fields, affecting such cosmic processes as the solar wind, high-energy particle transport, and galaxy formation. Small-scale magnetic fields are generally turbulent and chaotic, yet large-scale fields are organized, a phenomenon that plasma astrophysicists have tried explaining for decades, unsuccessfully. In a paper published January 21 in Nature, a team led by scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have run complex numerical ...

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Physics21 Jan 2026

Heteroatom‑coordinated Fe–N4 catalysts for enhanced oxygen reduction in alkaline seawater zinc‑air batteries

As maritime electrification and blue-energy harvesting accelerate, conventional Pt/C cathodes collapse in natural seawater because chloride ions poison active sites and shift the oxygen-reduction pathway from the desired 4 e⁻ route to the parasitic 2 e⁻ peroxide route. Now, researchers from Central South University and Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, led by Professor Jun Wu and Professor Danlei Li, have unveiled a universal oxidative-polymerization route that axially clamps Fe–N₄ single-atom sites with heteroatoms ...

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Physics21 Jan 2026

Mix of different types of physical activity may be best for longer life

Regularly doing a mix of different types of physical activity may be best for prolonging the lifespan, but the associations aren’t linear, pointing to a possible optimal threshold effect, suggests research published in the open access journal BMJ Medicine. Variety rather than simply doing more of the same, is linked to a lower risk of death irrespective of total quantity, the findings show, although an active lifestyle is still important in its own right, emphasise the researchers. While physical activity has consistently been associated with better physical and mental health and a lower risk of death, ...

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Physics20 Jan 2026

Auburn Physics PhD student earns prestigious DOE Fellowship

Auburn, AL — Jessica Eskew, a PhD student in the Department of Physics at Auburn University, has been awarded a highly competitive Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Fellowship to conduct fusion energy research at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility in San Diego. Eskew is advised at Auburn by Dr. Evdokiya Kostadinova, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics whose research focuses on plasma physics, magnetic confinement, and energetic particle transport. Her mentorship reflects Auburn Physics’ growing strength in plasma and fusion research, ...

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Physics20 Jan 2026

Stanford University’s Guosong Hong announced as inaugural recipient of the SPIE Biophotonics Discovery’s Impact of the Year Award

BELLINGHAM, WA, USA – January 19, 2026 – SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, is celebrating the inaugural Biophotonics Discovery's Impact of the Year Award as well as its first recipient, Stanford University Associate Professor of materials science and engineering, Guosong Hong. Hong was officially honored at the Biophotonics Focus: Light-Based Technologies for Reproductive, Maternal, and Neonatal Health plenary during SPIE Photonics West on Sunday evening. Hong is being honored in the technology development category for “significantly advancing the field of biophotonics,” ...

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Physics16 Jan 2026

A view into the innermost workings of life: First scanning electron microscope with nanomanipulator inaugurated in hesse at Goethe University

FRANKFURT. With a so-called cryo plasma-FIB (Plasma Focused Ion Beam) scanning electron microscope with nanomanipulator, the Goethe University in Frankfurt (Germany) is expanding its research infrastructure with a powerful instrument. The microscope was inaugurated today at the Buchmann Institute for Molecular Life Sciences on the Riedberg Campus – as the first of its kind in Hesse and one of only a few in all of Germany. The large-scale instrument works with a focused plasma ion beam, which can be used to prepare tiny sections from biological cells – so-called nanobiopsies with dimensions in the nanometer range. The decisive advantage ...

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Physics14 Jan 2026

Work hours, stress, and burnout among resident physicians

About The Study: In this cross-sectional nationwide study of resident physicians in high-burnout specialties, longer work hours were associated with higher stress and self-perceived competency, but not with burnout. This suggests that work hours alone may not explain high burnout levels in residency; a more comprehensive approach beyond work hour restrictions is needed to support resident well-being in training. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Sydney F. Tan, MD, email stan75@wisc.edu. To access the embargoed ...

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Physics13 Jan 2026

World's largest physics conference to be held in Denver and online this March

More than 14,000 physicists from around the world will convene to present groundbreaking research at the American Physical Society’s Global Physics Summit. The conference will be held in person in Denver and online everywhere March 15-20. Scientific program The scientific program includes more than 12,000 individual presentations on new research in astrophysics, particle physics, quantum information science, biological physics, energy research, and more. For more information, search the scientific program. All times are in Mountain time. Hybrid format The Global Physics Summit will have both in-person and online experiences. The in-person ...

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Physics9 Jan 2026

Dynamically reconfigurable topological routing in nonlinear photonic systems

Topological photonics has emerged as a powerful paradigm for achieving robust light transport that is immune to imperfections, disorder, and structural defects. By harnessing principles from condensed matter physics, topological photonic systems support edge modes that guide light along boundaries without backscattering — a feature that has significant implications for resilient optical communication and information processing. However, most demonstrations of topological photonics have been confined to linear and static settings, where the transport pathways are fixed once the device is fabricated. This rigidity presents a major limitation for practical ...

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Physics8 Jan 2026

More data, more sharing can help avoid misinterpreting “smoking gun” signals in topological physics

In topological condensed matter physics, where major discoveries could hold big implications for fields like information technology, the reliability of such discoveries could be greatly enhanced by taking several steps, like presenting larger sets of data, say Sergey Frolov and colleagues. Their insights are based in part on four original experiments they did that correspond to either theory predictions or published work. “Overall,” write the authors, “although replication crises are typically perceived to be a problem in fields less quantitative than physics, the overemphasis on smoking- gun claims has the potential to affect the reliability of findings irrespective of field.” ...

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Physics8 Jan 2026

Team discovers unexpected oscillation states in magnetic vortices

Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) have uncovered previously unobserved oscillation states – so-called Floquet states – in tiny magnetic vortices. Unlike earlier experiments, which required energy-intensive laser pulses to create such states, the team in Dresden discovered that a subtle excitation with magnetic waves is sufficient. This finding not only raises fundamental questions in basic physics but could also eventually serve as a universal adapter bridging electronics, spintronics, and quantum devices. The team reports its results ...

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Physics8 Jan 2026

Groundbreaking mapping: how many ghost particles all the Milky Way’s stars send towards Earth

They’re called ghost particles for a reason. They’re everywhere – trillions of them constantly stream through everything: our bodies, our planet, even the entire cosmos – without us noticing. These so-called neutrinos are elementary particles that are invisible, incredibly light, and interact only rarely with other matter. The weakness of their interactions makes neutrinos extremely difficult to detect. But when scientists do manage to capture them, they can offer extraordinary insights into the universe. Neutrinos ...

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Physics8 Jan 2026

Coffee as a staining agent substitute in electron microscopy

To ensure that the tissue structures of biological samples are easily recognisable under the electron microscope, they are treated with a staining agent. The standard staining agent for this is uranyl acetate. However, some laboratories are not allowed to use this highly toxic and radioactive substance for safety reasons. A research team at the Institute of Electron Microscopy and Nanoanalysis (FELMI-ZFE) at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) has now found an environmentally friendly alternative: ordinary espresso. Images of the samples treated with it were of equally good quality as images of comparative samples, which were prepared with uranyl ...

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Physics6 Jan 2026

Researchers create shape-shifting, self-navigating microparticles

Researchers at CU Boulder have created tiny, microorganism-inspired particles that can change their shape and self-propel, much like living things, in response to electrical fields. One day, these shape-shifting “active particles” could be used as microrobots that deliver medications inside the human body, particularly in areas that are hard for drugs to reach on their own, or for building large-scale dynamic materials that are responsive and self-healing. The findings are described ...

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Physics6 Jan 2026

Electrons lag behind the nucleus

One of the great successes of 20th-century physics was the quantum mechanical description of solids. This allowed scientists to understand for the first time how and why certain materials conduct electric current and how these properties could be purposefully modified. For instance, semiconductors such as silicon could be used to produce transistors, which revolutionized electronics and made modern computers possible. To be able to mathematically capture the complex interplay between electrons and atomic nuclei and their motions in a solid, physicists ...

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Physics5 Jan 2026

Worms as particle sweepers

When observing small worms under a microscope, one might observe something very surprising: the worms appear to make a sweeping motion to clean their own environment. Physicists at the University of Amsterdam, Georgia Tech and Sorbonne Université/CNRS have now discovered the reason for this unexpected behavior. Brainless sweeping When centimeter-long aquatic worms, such as T. tubifex or Lumbriculus variegatus, are placed in a Petri dish filled with sub-millimeter sized sand particles, something surprising happens. Over time, the worms begin to spontaneously clean up their surroundings. They sweep particles ...

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Physics1 Jan 2026

EAST Tokamak experiments exceed plasma density limit, offering new approach to fusion ignition

Researchers working on China's fully superconducting Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) have experimentally accessed a theorized "density-free regime" for fusion plasmas, achieving stable operation at densities well beyond conventional limits. The results, reported in Science Advances on January 1, provide new insights into overcoming one of the most persistent physical obstacles on the path toward nuclear fusion ignition. The study was co-led by Prof. ZHU Ping from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Associate Prof. YAN Ning from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science ...

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Physics23 Dec 2025

Innovative techniques enable Italy’s first imaging of individual trapped atoms

Researchers at the ArQuS Laboratory of the University of Trieste (Italy) and the National Institute of Optics of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-INO) have achieved the first imaging of individual trapped cold atoms in Italy, introducing techniques that push single-atom detection into new performance regimes. By combining intense, microsecond-scale fluorescence pulses with fast re-cooling, the team demonstrated record-speed, low-loss imaging of individual ytterbium atoms—capturing clear single-atom signals in just a ...

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