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Physics
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Physics

Laser correction for short-sightedness is safe and effective for older teenagers

Copenhagen, Denmark: A major study of laser correction for short-sightedness shows that the procedure is as safe and effective in older teenagers as it is in adults, according to research presented today (Tuesday) at the 43rd Congress of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ESCRS). [1] Short-sightedness, or myopia, affects around a third of children and teenagers and research suggests that it is becoming more common. A laser treatment, called photorefractive keratectomy (PRK), is widely used to treat myopia in adults but questions remain over its use in teenagers. The new study was presented by Dr Avinoam Shye, from the Department of Ophthalmology ...

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Physics

Metasurface enables compact and high-sensitivity atomic magnetometer

The powerful light field manipulation capability of metasurfaces offers a novel development perspective for the quantum precision measurement. By applying the phase-gradient metasurface (PGM) to atomic magnetometers (AMs), we have proposed and experimentally demonstrated a new type of compact single-beam elliptically polarized atomic magnetometers (EPAMs). Employing the fabricated chiral beam splitter PGM with high cross-polarization transmittance, a new atomic spin chirality detection method was devised, enabling the ultra-high sensitivity for extremely weak magnetic ...

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Physics

Pinning down protons in water — a basic science success story

New Haven, Conn. — The movement of protons through electrically charged water is one of the most fundamental processes in chemistry. It is evident in everything from eyesight to energy storage to rocket fuel — and scientists have known about it for more than 200 years. But no one has ever seen it happen. Or precisely measured it on a microscopic scale. Now, the Mark Johnson lab at Yale has — for the first time — set benchmarks for how long it takes protons to move through six charged water molecules. The discovery, made possible with a ...

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Physics

Kennesaw State researcher developing electronic nose to detect foodborne illness

The presence of a strong, unpleasant odor in food is an indication that bacteria has contaminated the food past the point of human consumption. However, oftentimes pathogens such as salmonella and E. coli are difficult to detect. Taeyeong Choi, assistant professor of information technology in Kennesaw State University’s College of Computing and Software Engineering, is working on developing an electronic nose (e-nose) to detect abnormalities from their version of the sniff test. His proposed method would not only eliminate the need to “waste” food to discern whether it ...

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Physics

Physicists create a new kind of time crystal that humans can actually see

Imagine a clock that doesn’t have electricity, but its hands and gears spin on their own for all eternity. In a new study, physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder have used liquid crystals, the same materials that are in your phone display, to create such a clock—or, at least, as close as humans can get to that idea. The team’s advancement is a new example of a “time crystal.” That’s the name for a curious phase of matter in which the pieces, such as atoms or other particles, exist in constant motion. The researchers aren’t the first to make a time crystal, but their creation is the first that humans can actually ...

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Physics

Surface plasmon driven atomic migration mediated by molecular monolayer

Highly efficient controlling the individual atomic migration is the basis of the modern atomic manufacturing. Although one-by-one atom migration can be realized precisely by STM technique, such a delicate operation is time consuming and restrictive conditions (e.g., high-vacuum) is required. A research team from the Institute of Modern Optics and the Center for Single Molecule Science at Nankai University, China, has now reported a breakthrough method to achieve efficient atomic migration under room temperature and atmospheric conditions. Their study, titled “Surface Plasmon Driven Atomic Migration Mediated by Molecular Monolayer,” was recently published in PhotoniX. By ...

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Physics

New Barkhausen noise measurement system unlocks key to efficient power electronics

Soft magnetic materials can be easily magnetized and demagnetized, which makes them a key component in electrical power devices, such as generators, transformers, and amplifiers. As power electronics advance toward high-frequency operation, demand is growing for low-loss soft magnetic materials. The efficiency of these materials is fundamentally limited by iron loss, where energy is lost as heat when a varying magnetic field passes through them, as is typical in transformers and generators. Iron loss mainly consists of hysteresis loss, classical eddy current loss, and excess eddy current loss. Among these, excess eddy current loss becomes increasingly dominant ...

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Physics

Telephone vs text message counseling and physical activity among midlife and older adults

About The Study: In this study of short message service (SMS) vs human phone advising, a customizable SMS system produced significant 12-month walking increases for aging Latino/a adults comparable to the significant improvements attained by participants in the human advisors group. These results provide support for such mobile health platforms, which can expand program choices for broader segments of the population. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Abby C. King, PhD, email king@stanford.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.28858) Editor’s ...

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Physics

Advances in electrospun nanofiber composites for physical, physiological, and biofluid signal monitoring

A research team led by Si Cheng from Soochow University and collaborators have provided a comprehensive review of electrospun nanofiber-based composite materials for wearable electronic skin (E-skin) applications. Published in Nano-Micro Letters, the study highlights how electrospinning technology and composite design strategies are shaping next-generation flexible sensors for monitoring human physical, physiological, and body fluid signals. Why Electrospun Nanofibers Matter Electrospun nanofibers combine high surface area, tunable porosity, mechanical flexibility, and breathability, making ...

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Physics

Something from nothing: Physicists model vacuum tunnelling in a 2D superfluid

In 1951, physicist Julian Schwinger theorized that by applying a uniform electrical field to a vacuum, electron-positron pairs would be spontaneously created out of nothing, through a phenomenon called quantum tunnelling. The problem with turning the matter-out-of-nowhere theory into Star Trek replicators or transporters? Enormously high electric fields would be required—far beyond the limits of any direct physical experiments. As a result, the aptly named Schwinger effect has never been seen. Now theoretical physicists at the University of British Columbia (UBC) have described a parallel effect in a more manageable system. In their model, ...

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Physics

Chung-Ang University researchers reveal strange dynamics of nanoparticle growth and shrink

Nanoparticles have diverse applications in modern science and industry, powering technologies like quantum-dot displays, nanocatalysts and drug delivery. Their unique physicochemical properties, which can be tuned by changing their size and shape, make them highly attractive. However, despite extensive research, the exact mechanisms and dynamics of monodisperse, or uniformly sized, nanoparticle formation and growth remain poorly understood. The classical nucleation theory (CNT), based on the Gibbs-Thomson equation, has been the primary framework for understanding nanoparticle ...

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Physics

New research makes first broad-spectrum antiviral

NEW YORK, August 27, 2025 — Researchers at the Nanoscience Initiative at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) have made a breakthrough in the fight against viral diseases. Their study, published in the journal Science Advances, offers a promising path toward the development of the world’s first broad-spectrum antiviral (BSA), which could be deployed against a wide range of deadly viruses, including future pandemic threats. Unlike bacterial infections, which doctors often begin immediately treating with broad-spectrum antibiotics while they work to determine the specific bacteria, viral infections ...

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Physics

Electrons reveal their handedness in attosecond flashes

We have all been familiar since childhood with the fact that our left and right hands are identical in structure but not in shape. They are mirror images of each other. In everyday life, this means that a left-handed glove does not fit on the right hand. This “handedness” is also a fundamental property of matter: similar to our hands, many molecules exist in two mirror-image versions, which, despite looking confusingly similar, are actually not identical. Chemists call this chirality. The distinction between right- and left-handed chiral molecules ...

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Physics

New material design strategy unlocks magnetic tunability in quasicrystal approximants

In stoichiometric compounds (compounds with fixed ratios of elements), the elemental ratios are dictated by chemical stability, which constrains how much the composition, and consequently the number of valence electron-per-atom (e/a) ratio, can be adjusted. Tuning e/a has been proved to be a promising strategy to architecture magnetic properties in many intermetallic compounds, especially those with complex structures including quasicrystals (QCs) and their structurally related approximant crystals (ACs). Owing to their structural complexity, their electronic properties are sensitive to the number of valence electron-per-atom (e/a). Stoichiometric ...

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Physics

Melanie Cocco named as next Editor-in-Chief of Biophysical Reports

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – August 25, 2025 Contact: Leann Fox, Director of Advocacy and Public Affairs lfox@biophysics.org | (240) 290-5606 Melanie Cocco Named as Next Editor-in-Chief of Biophysical Reports BETHESDA, MD – The Biophysical Society is pleased to announce that Melanie Cocco of the University of California, Irvine has been named as the new Editor-in-Chief of Biophysical Reports, the Society’s high-quality, forward-looking gold open access journal. The journal published its first articles in 2021, ...

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Physics

Wired by nature: Precision molecules for tomorrow's electronics

Organic chemistry, the chemistry of carbon compounds, is the basis of all life on Earth. However, metals also play a key role in many biochemical processes. When it comes to “marrying” large, heavy metal atoms with light organic compounds, nature often relies on a specific group of chemical structures: porphyrins. These molecules form an organic ring; in its center, individual metal ions such as iron, cobalt, or magnesium can be “anchored”. The porphyrin framework forms the basis for hemoglobin in human blood, photosynthetic chlorophyll in plants, and numerous ...

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Physics

New laser “comb” can enable rapid identification of chemicals with extreme precision

Cambridge, MA – Optical frequency combs are specially designed lasers that act like rulers to accurately and rapidly measure specific frequencies of light. They can be used to detect and identify chemicals and pollutants with extremely high precision. Frequency combs would be ideal for remote sensors or portable spectrometers because they can enable accurate, real-time monitoring of multiple chemicals without complex moving parts or external equipment. But developing frequency combs with high enough bandwidth for these applications has been a challenge. ...

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Physics

Wrinkles in atomically thin materials unlock ultraefficient electronics

HOUSTON – (Aug. 21, 2025) – Wrinkles can be an asset — especially for next-generation electronics. Rice University scientists have discovered that tiny creases in two-dimensional materials can control electrons’ spin with record precision, opening the path to ultracompact, energy-efficient electronic devices. If most devices today use the charge of electrons flowing through silicon to process and encode information, future computing may instead harness spin — a quantum property of electrons that takes on either an “up” or “down” value. Computing with spin could overcome the limitations of current silicon-based technology, reducing ...

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Physics

Researchers use photonic origami to fold glass into microscopic 3D optical devices

WASHINGTON — Researchers have developed a technique to fold glass sheets into microscopic 3D photonic structures directly on a chip — a process they call photonic origami. The method could enable tiny, yet complex optical devices for data processing sensing and experimental physics. “Existing 3D printers produce rough 3D structures that aren’t optically uniform and thus can’t be used for high-performance optics,” said research team leader Tal Carmon from Tel Aviv University in Israel. “Mimicking the way a pinecone’s scales bend outward to release ...

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Physics

Transforming the tip of a mechanical pencil lead into a high-quality electron beam source

Tsukuba, Japan—Nanocarbon materials with pointed geometries, such as graphene and carbon nanotubes, are considered promising candidates as sources for field emission electrons. However, their practical application remains limited due to difficulties in controlling the orientation and arrangement of these materials. In this study, the researchers focused on commercially available pencil leads, which contain appropriate amounts of graphite flakes (graphite powder) and are naturally aligned along the axial direction. The fracture surface ...

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Physics

High-frequency molecular vibrations initiate electron movement

Whether in solar cells or in the human eye: whenever certain molecules absorb light, the electrons within them shift from their ground state into a higher energy, excited state. This results in the transport of energy and charge, leading to charge separation and eventually to the generation of electricity. An international team of scientists led by Dr Antonietta De Sio and Prof. Dr. Christoph Lienau from the Ultrafast Nano-Optics research group at the University of Oldenburg, Germany, has now observed the earliest steps of this process in a complex dye molecule. As ...

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Physics

Alien aurora: Researchers discover new plasma wave in Jupiter’s aurora

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (08/19/2025) — Researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have made a groundbreaking discovery by observing and analyzing the first new type of plasma wave in Jupiter’s aurora. This research helps us understand “alien aurora” on other planets, which in turn teaches us more about how Earth’s magnetic field protects us from the sun’s harmful radiation. The research is published in Physical Review Letters, a peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary, high-impact scientific journal. The observation is based on data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which made a historic low ...

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Physics

Intrinsic HOTI-type topological hinge states in photonic metamaterials

Topological insulators (TIs) have fundamentally reshaped our understanding of materials by introducing robust boundary states arising from bulk topological invariants. Extending this paradigm, higher-order topological insulators (HOTIs), characterized by boundary states of dimension at least two lower than the bulk, have attracted significant attention. However, conventional HOTI realizations mainly rely on discrete, lattice-engineered tight-binding models, which constrain their experimental accessibility ...

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Physics

As the atmosphere changes, so will its response to geomagnetic storms

Rising concentrations of carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere will change the way geomagnetic storms impact Earth, with potential implications for thousands of orbiting satellites, according to new research led by scientists at the US. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR). Geomagnetic storms, caused by massive eruptions of charged particles from the surface of the Sun that buffet Earth’s atmosphere, are a growing challenge for our technologically dependent society. The storms temporarily increase the density of the upper atmosphere and therefore the drag on satellites, ...

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Physics

Biophysical Society announces the results of its 2025 elections

ROCKVILLE, MD – Enrique M. De La Cruz has been elected President-elect of the Biophysical Society (BPS). He will assume the office of President-elect at the 2026 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California. De La Cruz is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Rutgers University-Newark College of Arts and Sciences and a PhD in Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In addition to his commitment to research, De La Cruz has dedicated significant time and energy ...

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