The Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, in partnership with the Paradox Science Institute, has launched a US$53,000 essay competition to expand on Schrödinger’s fascination with the connections between quantum theory and biological processes. The competition, which opens for submissions on 23rd June, 2025, asks participants to ponder the question: how quantum is life?

A WashU researcher says “criticality” is the key to understanding how the brain works — and how to keep it free from Alzheimer’s and other diseases.

More pathways than previously thought can lead to optical topological insulators, materials with exciting properties that could have future applications in lasers, imaging devices and more, according to research from the University of Michigan.

In an elegant fusion of art and science, researchers at Rice University have achieved a major milestone in nanomaterials engineering by uncovering how boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) — touted for their strength, thermal stability and insulating properties — can be coaxed into forming ordered liquid crystalline phases in water. Their work, published in Langmuir, the premier American Chemical Society journal in colloid and surface chemistry, was so visually striking it graced the journal’s cover.

Perovskite solar cells have emerged as a lower-cost, higher-efficiency alternative to traditional silicon solar cells due to their material structure and physical flexibility. Their large power conversion efficiency rate makes them well suited to converting lower light sources into energy. In APL Energy, researchers in Taiwan created perovskite solar cells that effectively convert indoor lighting into electrical power. They tuned the bandgap of the composition of the perovskite and their strategy for passivating the perovskite layer, which makes it less susceptible to corrosion, also improved the overall stability.

Researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, have created a specially designed “bottlebrush” polymer that was used to produce a reaction space the size of a single molecule. This space acted as a nanoscale vessel to allow new materials, such as specialty polymers, to be created under highly controlled conditions. The technology has applications in advanced technologies such as drug delivery and remote sensing.