Physicists have used a new optical centrifuge to control the rotation of molecules suspended in liquid helium nano-droplets, bringing them a step closer to demystifying the behaviour of exotic, frictionless superfluids. It’s the first demonstration of controlled spinning inside a superfluid—researchers can now directly set the direction and frequency of the molecule’s rotation, which is vital in studying how molecules interact with the quantum environment at various rotational frequencies.

Scientists have created 3D printed surfaces featuring intricate textures that can be used to bounce unwanted gas particles away from quantum sensors, allowing useful particles like atoms to be delivered more efficiently, which could help improve measurement accuracy.

Scientists in Scotland have shown that a type of laser already similar to the one currently used in routine eye surgery could one day help surgeons remove unwanted tissues, such as tumours, with unprecedented accuracy.

A new study by researchers and students at the University of Plymouth has shown that living walls – structures housing flowers and plants fitted to the outside of new and old buildings – can significantly enhance the biodiversity within urban environments

Accurate atmospheric temperature profiles are vital for weather forecasting and climate monitoring, yet existing methods face trade-offs between physical consistency and computational efficiency. 

Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz have developed a method which gives access to the valuable raw materials formate and hydrogen from the waste product glycerol. Formates are the salts of formic acid and are widely used in the chemical industry, while hydrogen can serve, for example, as an energy carrier to power vehicles. The new method can be operated with sustainable electricity and does not produce CO₂. The results of the research have been recently published by the team in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.

Initially stacked benzene layers increase their fluorescent color change drastically when exposed to pressure, suggesting new ways to create the pressure sensors used in the mechanical and medical industries.

This study introduces a custom-designed NV quantum sensing based microscopy for high-sensitivity microscopic magnetic imaging (MMI) of individual Chang'e-5 lunar regolith grains, achieving the first direct observation of surface magnetic field distributions at the single-particle scale. Overcoming the limitations of traditional orbital magnetometry (kilometer-scale) and macroscopic bulk rock-magnetic measurements (e.g., VSM), our approach realizes the separation and identification of magnetic signals at the micro- to nanoscale. Results indicate that native irons in basalt clasts exhibits weak and directionally uniform magnetism, suggesting it records the lunar paleomagnetic field during magma cooling; in contrast, carriers such as nanophase iron and Fe-Ni alloys in breccia grains, as well as crack-associated magnetic “stripe” features, display distinct magnetic signals reflecting the influence of multiple geological processes, including meteorite impacts and space weathering. Overall, this study advances lunar magnetic detection to the single-particle microscopic level, providing direct evidence for understanding the origin of lunar magnetic anomalies and the magnetic field evolution history, offering a new microscopic perspective for lunar and planetary science.