Researchers used a specially engineered form of polarized light to enhance the perception of Boehm's brushes in about a dozen healthy volunteers. 

A team of researchers, led by engineers at Penn State, has combined approaches from two rapidly growing fields of quantum physics to develop a specialized quantum material that may lay the foundation to powering devices capable of transporting and grouping electrical signals and quantum states in ways not traditionally achievable without relying on optical or engineered systems.

Electromagnetic (EM) wave absorbers with strong attenuation over a broad frequency range are critical for radiation protection and military stealth. However, magnetic alloys with high dissipation capacity remain challenging to achieve satisfactory impedance matching and enhanced high-frequency magnetic loss due to the scarcity of rational design for the distribution and size of magnetic particles. Herein, we design Prussian blue analogue (PBA) derived FeCo magnetoelectric composite nanocages by confinement engineering, achieving strong absorption capacity of -47.4 dB and broad bandwidth of 7.10 GHz at a small thickness of 1.9 mm. This work not only sheds light on the fabrication of FeCo magnetoelectric composite nanocages as efficient and wideband EM wave absorbers, but also propose a confinement engineering strategy for rational design of functional nanocomposites in multiple fields such as electromagnetics, electronics and optoelectronics.

Researchers have developed a programmable, multi-responsive soft actuator based on MXene materials that can reversibly deform under humidity, light, and magnetic fields. By introducing micro-ridge structures into a bilayer MXene/paraffin wax composite, the actuator enables controllable and complex shape transformations, offering new possibilities for soft robotics and intelligent devices.

Two years after the stratospheric flight of the Sunrise III solar observatory, the mission’s first results are released today. Sunrise III has captured observational data of unprecedented quality from the Sun’s visible surface and lower atmospheric layers. The data contain new information, such as on tornados in the solar plasma or on the processes occurring before and during a solar flare. During the flight, the Sun displayed its full repertoire: quiet regions, eruptions, sunspots, and more.

Researchers show how epithelial tissues exhibit slow-moving glass-like behaviour despite their fast-paced biological activity, resolving a long-standing mystery.

Researchers at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, have developed a new method that makes the oxidation of alcohols easier to control and more sustainable. Alcohol oxidation is important both for synthetic chemistry and for sustainable energy applications. Thermal processes are usually used for this purpose; in other words, the activation energy that must be overcome for the reaction is supplied in the form of heat, and oxidation takes place using oxygen under pressure. Together with the Max Planck Institute für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim, Germany, the Bochum team has now combined this approach with an electrocatalytic process that uses electricity from sustainable sources as an additional driving force. The group led by Prof. Dr. Martin Muhler, Prof. Dr. Ferdi Schüth and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schuhmann describes the method in the journal “Angewandte Chemie” on 18 June 2026.