Physics World

The fast-charging performance of lithium-ion batteries is strongly influenced by the structure of porous electrodes and its evolution during battery operation. In such electrodes, ionic transport is governed by the electrolyte conductivity as well as by the porosity, tortuosity and thickness of the electrode. The latter parameters undergo both reversible and irreversible changes, induced by the lithiation and delithiation of graphite particles and by the formation of the solid–electrolyte interp

Artificial vision is employed in applications ranging from self-driving cars to advanced robotics. However, most “artificial eyes” do not work well in complex real-world conditions, such as sudden strong glare, dimness or uneven light levels. Such devices also rely on complex and rigid electronic circuitry to adjust their sensitivity to light and on post-algorithmic processing for accurate image recognition. A research team headed up at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of Chin

When electrons are placed in a strong magnetic field and cooled to very low temperatures, they stop behaving independently and instead act as a collective fluid. This is known as a fractional quantum Hall (FQH) system. In this regime, the electrons lose their individual behaviour and act as one correlated system. The strong interactions between them produce quasiparticles called anyons. These are not real particles but effective ones that emerge from the collective behaviour, and they have unusu

Molecules such as glycine, the simplest amino acid, can crystallise into different polymorphs with the same chemical composition but different structures. The two phases of glycine are α-glycine, which forms easily and is stable in bulk conditions, and β-glycine, which is difficult to produce and unstable in the bulk. However, β-glycine is piezoelectric; it generates electricity when compressed or bent and is therefore technologically useful. In this work, the researchers developed a new method

Telltale patterns of antineutrino emissions could reveal whether fusion reactors have been reconfigured to produce material for nuclear weapons, say physicists in the US. Although commercial fusion power plants are still some years away, members of the team at Virginia Tech and Princeton University argue that it is nevertheless useful to develop robust ways of monitoring their output now, to ensure the technology is not misused. “Neutrinos cannot be shielded, their signatures cannot be spoofed a

How do we make good, well-informed decisions? This is the central question of author Helen Pearson’s new book Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works. It examines evidence-based decision-making and compares it with “conventional wisdom and questionable opinion”. Pearson is interested in how we can use scientific reasoning to empower decision-making using empirical evidence, rather than choices based on opinion or public sentiment. Pearson uses human stories and historical narratives

The frequency of extreme weather events can be predicted more accurately than presently possible by combining artificial intelligence (AI) with physical climate modelling, using a protocol called rare-event sampling. That’s the conclusion of a study from researchers in the US and France. The researchers used the approach to model extreme heat events such as the one currently roasting Europe, but they believe it could also be applicable to many other extreme events in climate science. As the glob

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced a new initiative to convert new research into products and industries. The $1.5bn programme, called X-Labs, however, has been criticized by some in the US scientific community given that financing the plan could come via cutting the budgets of current NSF directorates by as much as 30%. The NSF says that the first round of X-Labs funding will focus on two areas – one on quantum sensing and AI-driven computational imaging while the second area w

Fancy some more? Check out our puzzles page. The post Quiz of the week: what are researchers using to detect the motion of silent whales? appeared first on Physics World.

Science fiction has long embraced the idea of travelling backward in time, but the advent of Einstein’s general theory of relativity transformed these ideas from fantasies into potential – albeit contested – realities. In particular, solutions to the equations of general relativity known as closed time-like curves (CTCs) seem to allow a system’s trajectory to return to a previous point in time. Although the existence of CTCs has never been proven, their admissibility within general relativity ha

Like a two-lane highway with one lane empty and the other clogged with traffic, superconducting diodes allow electrons to flow without resistance in one direction while encountering normal, resistive conditions in the other. First demonstrated experimentally in 2020, these devices have considerable potential as platforms for fundamental studies of quantum materials and as building blocks for superconducting electronics. For many applications, being able to control the flow of electricity through

"\n<strong>Traditional versus sonogenetic pacing<\/strong> Left: schematic illustration of the steps for traditional surgical implantation of a cardiac pacemaker. Right: operational workflow of the non-invasive ultrasound pacemaker with sonogenetics. Created in <a href="https:\/\/www.biorender.com\/">BioRender<\/a>. (Courtesy: C Gong <em>et al. <a href="https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41551-026-01673-z">Nat. Biomed. Eng.<\/em> 10

When Ryan Hamerly was a 15-year-old at Boulder High School in Colorado, he spent his summer building a Tesla coil after seeing a classroom demonstration. “I thought that was really, really cool,” he recalls. “I wanted to make one myself, and as a result I ended up studying the theory of electricity and magnetism over one summer.” In hindsight, Hamerly realizes he didn’t use much theory to construct the coil, which became part of a school physics project. “Most of the design was based on th

"<strong>Detecting whale motion<\/strong> Graphic showing a distributed acoustic sensing system that uses fibre-optic cables to help researchers detect ships and whales in the waters near Svalbard. (Courtesy: Léa Bouffaut)"Detecting whale motion Graphic showing a distributed acoustic sensing system that uses fibre-optic cables to help researchers detect ships and whales in the waters near Svalbard. (Courtesy: Léa Bouffaut) A technique currently used to track whale vocalization

Electricity grids need to be carefully balanced, with too low levels of electricity leading to blackouts and too high levels causing damage to grids. Due to the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, it is possible for specific regions (e.g. the north of Germany) to have an excess of electricity, while the power lines do not have enough capacity to transport it to higher demand regions such as cities and industrial areas. This is known as a grid bottleneck. To ke

Quantum computers promise to simulate physical systems far beyond the reach of classical machines. But even quantum algorithms face fundamental limits: no fast-forwarding theorems. These say that if you want to simulate a system for longer, the computational effort increases at least in proportion. In many real algorithms, the situation is even worse than the ideal case. This is because the requirements of accuracy and runtime compound one another, so that running longer and running precisely be

Top quarks are the heaviest known elementary particles. They are produced in pairs with their antiparticle equivalent, the antitop quark. Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) smash protons together at extremely high energies in the hope of producing these top-quark pairs. The minimum energy required to create a pair is known as the production threshold (approximately twice the top mass). Near this threshold, the particles move relatively slowly and, because of the strong nuclear force,

A major astronomy facility in the Andes has begun a 10-year survey of the Southern sky with the aim of creating the most comprehensive, cinematic record of the universe ever made. Based in Cerro Pachón in the Andes, the Vera C Rubin Observatory is named in honour of the US astronomer and dark-matter pioneer Vera Rubin. The observatory contains the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) – the largest camera ever built. Taking almost two decades to build, the 3200 megapixel instrument forms the he

Officials at the CERN particle-physics lab near Geneva have turned off the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for the last time. Over the coming four years, the accelerator complex will be upgraded to prepare for the High-Luminosity LHC (HiLumi LHC) that is set to start operations in 2030. Taking decades to plan and construct, the LHC began circulating its first proton beams in September 2008 garnering attention from the world’s media. Yet days later the accelerator suffered an electrical fault t

**Major spoilers ahead “Human beings have a remarkable ability to accept the abnormal and make it normal,” observes Ryland Grace, the main protagonist of Project Hail Mary, as he floats alone in interstellar space, millions of miles from Earth. And yet there is nothing ordinary about the spectacular film released earlier this year, based on Andy Weir’s bestselling 2021 novel of the same name. With its sweeping plot that spans civilizations and light-years, at its heart, Project Hail Mary is a hu