Light’s hidden properties save quantum information from the chaos of bad weather
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 26-Oct-2026 06:16 ET (26-Oct-2026 10:16 GMT/UTC)
By sending quantum information through a storm, researchers at The University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, have shown that the information in light can be kept completely intact, even though the light itself was completely warped beyond recognition.
Three-dimensional atomic arrangements in nanoscale regions are essential information for the development of nanoscale devices and novel functional materials. Until now, however, there has been no method for observing them directly. In this study, the researchers developed an atom-holography microscope that measures a hologram from the region irradiated with a finely focused electron beam and performs holographic reconstruction to directly visualize the three-dimensional atomic arrangement. Because the microscope enables three-dimensional atomic arrangements in nanoscale regions to be measured anywhere, it is expected to be useful in the analysis of nanoscale devices and the development of novel functional materials.
To determine a protein’s structure, researchers often must crystallize it first. Coaxing proteins into forming crystals is tedious, unreliable and difficult to control. New method uses DNA to pull proteins into precisely engineered crystals. Strategy overturns assumption that flexible building blocks cannot produce perfectly ordered crystals.