Browse Physics

Some ecological communities may be acutely sensitive to the survival of certain key species, thanks to the details of the species’ interdependence, according to simulations.

Controlling the surface termination of a material with a large spin-orbit effect could provide a way to select a particular spin state for spintronic devices.

A thin metal slab known as a superlens, which focuses light more sharply than its wavelength, could have an even higher resolution imaging rapidly varying electromagnetic fields.

Theorists consider the experimental signature of a quantum spin ice.

Numerical simulations are revealing general properties of jammed states of matter.

Experimentalists simulate the effects of spin-orbit coupling in ultracold Fermi gases, paving the way for the creation of new exotic phases of matter.

Theorists explain how a new generation of laser tractor beams can manipulate nanoparticles with unprecedented dexterity and precision.

Experiments can see how motor proteins direct the movements of the cell’s cytoskeleton in a fluctuating environment.

A new metamaterial mirror comes with a control knob that varies the direction of the reflected light.

A new self-assembly process creates nanowires of germanium without the metal catalyst required in earlier experiments.

Proposed measurements of arrays of pulsars could reveal the secrets of how supermassive black holes form, behave, and evolve.

Two separate experiments have demonstrated the fast transport of trapped ions using trapping potentials that trace out the path for the ions to follow.

A proposed explanation for puzzling features on the Moon involving small-scale magnetic fields has now been verified with a scaled-down version in the lab.

Drug gradients may give bacteria an evolutionary boost towards antibiotic resistance.

Quantum repeaters, devices that have been proposed for transporting encrypted information, could help collect light from distant telescopes in large area arrays.

Single-molecule microscopy reveals the nature of the chemical bonds between a large organic molecule and a metallic surface.

Terahertz radiation can control electron transport through quantum dots.

Two collaborations at the Tevatron have combined data from their searches for the Higgs boson and report evidence of a new particle decaying into heavy quark pairs. This could be the first experimental evidence that the same mechanism that gives mass to the carriers of the weak force also underlies the mass of quarks.

A laboratory analog of solar plasma offers a new tool in the search for the origin of coronal heating.

Researchers find the source of an epidemic using relatively little information. Their technique could also help authorities track down contamination in water systems or locate problems in electrical grids.