Measuring high aspect ratio and composite micro-trenches without damage is critical for advanced microfabrication, yet conventional coherence scanning interferometry often suffers from a low signal-to-noise ratio and limited lateral resolution. A team from Nanjing University of Science and Technology presents FP-CSI, a transmissive near-infrared interferometric modality that combines aperture synthesis from Fourier ptychographic microscopy with quantitative phase recovery of coherence scanning interferometry, enabling robust 3D morphology reconstruction without iterative phase retrieval.

The tidal environment of mangrove forests serves as nurseries for many fish species. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have measured carbon dioxide and oxygen levels in 23 of world’s mangrove areas. The study sends out a warning that these ecosystems are increasingly threatened as sea temperatures continue to rise.

Researchers at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) have developed a new class of synthetic molecules that can capture sulfate, a widespread industrial and environmental contaminant, with unprecedented efficiency in water. The study demonstrates that entangled molecular structures, long considered mainly chemical curiosities, can be deliberately engineered for real-world applications, including water purification, chemical sensing, and environmental monitoring.

Researchers from the Texas Center for Superconductivity (TcSUH) and the department of physics at the University of Houston have broken the temperature record for superconductivity at ambient pressure — a breakthrough that could eventually lead to more efficient ways to generate, transmit and store energy.

Researchers have developed a microscopic 3D-printed optical device that can efficiently combine light from dozens of small semiconductor lasers into a single multimode optical fiber with very low loss. The team demonstrated photonic lanterns that multiplex 7, 19, and 37 multimode VCSEL lasers directly into a fiber while preserving brightness and easing alignment constraints. By enabling scalable incoherent beam combining of many multimode lasers, the technology could simplify and improve high-power laser systems, optical communications, and other photonic applications where efficiently delivering large optical power through fibers is critical.

In Physics of Fluids, researchers model the way snow gathers on a roof based on snowflake size and distribution. The model considers how turbulence can affect recently landed snow and how wind can affect its gathering. Higher wind speeds will interrupt accumulation, reducing depth, but the effects of particle size on accumulation are all heightened under higher wind conditions — larger particles will be more resistant to the wind, and smaller ones will accumulate less.

In Physics of Fluids, researchers develop a computational model of outdoor airflow through trees to study how a tree’s geometry affects the dispersion of its airborne pollen grains. They modeled the porosity of a tree and incorporated an algorithm sensitive to small wind forces, taking into account the force required to detach a pollen grain. They applied their techniques to various known structures, compared the outcomes to real data, and found that the type and topology of a tree can lead to distinct pollen dispersion dynamics.