The Curiosity Mars rover detected many organic compounds, including ones not seen before on the red planet, such as nitrogen- and sulfur-bearing molecules similar to the building blocks of life on Earth.

Photonic circuits are key tools for information processing but scaling them usually requires many optical layers. We demonstrate a programmable free-space photonic platform performing a wide class of translation-invariant, high-dimensional transformations using only three layers. Encoding information in structured light, we realize quantum-walk dynamics over large lattices, distributing a single input into thousands of outputs. The approach supports operation with single photons, highlighting free-space optics as a promising route toward scalable photonic information processing.

The Giant Magellan Telescope and Coquimbo Regional Government Sign Strategic Partnership to Strengthen Chile’s Astronomy Industry

A new satellite-based analytical framework enables accurate estimation of crop sowing and emergence dates at the field scale. 

In the era of precision cosmology, research often means big science: large observatories, highly complex instruments, international collaborations and substantial funding. Yet even in such an advanced field, progress is still possible — including in the search for elusive dark matter — through more agile approaches, driven by small teams and young researchers, supported by institutions and a good dose of ingenuity. In a paper just published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (JCAP), a group of then-undergraduate students from the University of Hamburg built a cavity detector to search for axions — among the most promising candidates for dark matter — and set new experimental limits on their properties. The result was achieved with relatively limited resources, showing that even small-scale experiments can make a meaningful contribution to one of the most open challenges in modern physics.