Saving the Titanic: the science of icebergs and unsinkable ships

30 Jan 2026 Margaret Harris

Out of the depths: Multiple unsinkable metal tubes linked together in a raft formation could be the basis for the ships, buoys, and floating platforms of the future. (Courtesy: University of Rochester photo / J Adam Fenster)

When the Titanic was built, her owners famously described her as “unsinkable”. A few days into her maiden voyage, an iceberg in the North Atlantic famously proved them wrong. But what if we could make ships that really are unsinkable? And what if we could predict exactly how long a hazardous iceberg will last before it melts?

These are the premises of two separate papers published independently this week by Chunlei Guo and colleagues at the University of Rochester, and by Daisuke Noto and Hugo N Ulloa of the University of Pennsylvania, both in the US. The Rochester group’s paper, which appears in Advanced Functional Materials, describes how applying a superhydrophobic coating to an open-ended metallic tube can make it literally unsinkable – a claim supported by extensive tests in a water tank. Noto and Ulloa’s research, which they describe in Science Advances, likewise involved a water tank.

 

Extra carbon in the atmosphere may disrupt radio communications

02 Dec 2025 Isabelle Dumé

Radio waves in the ionosphere. Photo of the Earth with radio waves, depicted in purple, flowing across it. HF and VHF waves travel through the ionosphere, but a phenomenon called sporadic-E can interfere with these frequencies. (Courtesy: Huixin Liu/Kyushu University)

Higher levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth’s atmosphere could harm radio communications by enhancing a disruptive effect in the ionosphere. According to researchers at Kyushu University, Japan, who modelled the effect numerically for the first time, this little-known consequence of climate change could have significant impacts on shortwave radio systems such as those employed in broadcasting, air traffic control, and navigation.

“While increasing CO2 levels in the atmosphere warm the Earth’s surface, they actually cool the ionosphere,” explains study leader Huixin Liu of Kyushu’s Faculty of Science. “This cooling doesn’t mean it is all good: it decreases the air density in the ionosphere and accelerates wind circulation. These changes affect the orbits and lifespan of satellites and space debris and also disrupt radio communications through localized small-scale plasma irregularities.”

On Calderon-Zygmund type estimates for nonlocal PDE, Armin Schikorra

On Calderon-Zygmund type estimates for nonlocal PDE, Armin Schikorra

 

New sensor uses topological material to detect helium leaks

26 Jan 2026 Isabelle Dumé

Cylinders and tubes: The structure of the helium detection device was inspired by the Japanese bamboo-weaving technique known as Kagome-biki. This triangular structure (shown in detail on the left) helps users determine the locations of helium leaks in 2D space. (Courtesy: Wang et al.)

A new sensor detects helium leaks by monitoring how sound waves propagate through a topological material – no chemical reactions required. Developed by acoustic scientists at Nanjing University, China, the innovative, physics-based device is compact, stable, accurate, and capable of operating at very low temperatures.

Helium is employed in a wide range of fields, including aerospace, semiconductor manufacturing, medical applications, and physics research. Because it is odourless, colourless, and inert, it is essentially invisible to traditional leak-detection equipment such as adsorption-based sensors. Specialist helium detectors are available, but they are bulky, expensive, and highly sensitive to operating conditions.

 

Schrödinger cat state sets new size record

05 Feb 2026 Isabelle Dumé

Massively quantum: The University of Vienna’s Multi-Scale Cluster Interference Experiment (MUSCLE), where researchers detected quantum interference in massive nanoparticles. (Courtesy: S Pedalino / Uni Wien)

Classical mechanics describes our everyday world of macroscopic objects very well. Quantum mechanics is similarly good at describing physics on the atomic scale. The boundary between these two regimes, however, is still poorly understood. Where, exactly, does the quantum world stop and the classical world begin?

Researchers in Austria and Germany have now pushed the line further towards the macroscopic regime by showing that metal nanoparticles made up of thousands of atoms clustered together continue to obey the rules of quantum mechanics in a double-slit-type experiment. At over 170 000 atomic mass units, these nanoparticles are heavier than some viroids and proteins – a fact that study leader Sebastian Pedalino, a PhD student at the University of Vienna, says demonstrates that quantum mechanics remains valid at this scale and alternative models are not required.

 

Is our embrace of AI naïve, and could it lead to an environmental disaster?

26 Jan 2026

Johan Hansson says it is dangerous to treat artificial intelligence as a magic wand and thinks researchers should create their own AI tools that they can control better

Jumping on the bandwagon Despite the potential benefits of artificial intelligence are we being too quick to embrace the technology? (Courtesy: Shutterstock/khunkorn Studio)

According to today’s leading experts in artificial intelligence (AI), this new technology is a danger to civilization. A statement on AI risk published in 2023 by the US non-profit Center for AI Safety warned that mitigating the risk of extinction from AI must now be “a global priority”, comparing it to other societal-scale dangers such as pandemics and nuclear war. It was signed by more than 600 people, including the winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize for Physics and the so-called “Godfather of AI,

 

Shining a laser light on a material produces subtle changes in its magnetic properties

21 Jan 2026 Isabelle Dumé

Creating novel magnetic structures: (left to right) Team members Lauren Riddiford, Aleš Hrabec, and Jeffrey Brock in the cleanroom at Park Innovaare, near PSI. (Courtesy: Paul Scherrer Institute PSI / Mahir Dzambegovic)

Researchers in Switzerland have identified an unexpected new application of an optical technique commonly employed in silicon chip manufacturing. By shining a focused laser beam onto a sample of material, a team at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and ETH Zürich showed that it was possible to change the material’s magnetic properties on a scale of nanometres – essentially “writing” these magnetic properties into the sample in the same way as photolithography etches patterns onto wafers. The discovery could have applications in novel forms of computer memory and in fundamental research.

In standard photolithography – the workhorse of the modern chip manufacturing industry – a light beam passes through a transmission mask and projects an image of the mask’s light-absorption pattern onto a (usually silicon) wafer. The wafer is covered with a photosensitive polymer, known as a resist. Changing the light intensity alters the exposure level in the resist-coated material, enabling the fabrication of finely detailed structures.