Over the past decade, numerous physics studies have explored how oscillating electric fields produced by lasers or microwave sources can be used to dynamically alter the properties of materials on demand. In a new study featured in Nature Physics, two researchers at...
The Beijing Spectrometer III (BESIII) collaboration, a large team of researchers from universities worldwide conducting particle physics studies has recently reported the first observation of the leptonic decay D+→τ+ντ. This observation, presented in a paper published...
Cell motility, the spontaneous movement of cells from one location to another, plays a fundamental role in many biological processes, including immune responses and metastasis. Recent physics studies have gathered new evidence suggesting that mammalian cells do not...
A quasiparticle is a disturbance or excitation (e.g. spin waves, bubbles, etc.) that behaves as a particle and could therefore be regarded as one. Long-range interactions between quasiparticles can give rise to a 'drag,' which affects the fundamental properties of...
Lightning is a unique and fascinating phenomenon that has been studied for centuries. Although we now have a better understanding of this naturally occurring spectacle, many of its secrets are yet to be uncovered.
Supersolids, solid materials with superfluid properties (i.e., in which a substance can flow with zero viscosity), have recently become the focus of numerous physics studies. Supersolids are paradoxical phases of matter in which two distinct and somewhat antithetical...
A team of researchers at Université Côte d'Azur and Centre Scientifique de Monaco has recently carried out a study aimed at better understanding the near-surface swimming patterns of bacteria. Their paper, published in Nature Physics, could shed some light on how...
In quantum physics, some of the most interesting effects are the result of interferences. Decoherence, or loss of coherence, occurs when a quantum system eventually loses the ability to produce interferences, due to external noise or coupling to a larger and...
Researchers at Weizmann Institute of Science and Cinvestav recently carried out a study testing the theory of Hawking radiation on laboratory analogues of black holes. In their experiments, they used light pulses in nonlinear fiber optics to establish artificial event...
Researchers at Technische Universität Darmstadt have recently demonstrated the defect-free assembly of versatile target patterns of up to 111 single-atom quantum systems. Their findings, outlined in a paper published in Physical Review Letters, could drive...