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HTTPS://BOOKS.BY/BOOKSINTERNATIONAL IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN MY BOOKS, YOU CAN ALSO BUY THEM.

 

CERN upgrade to LHCb experiment threatened by UK funding cuts

09 Feb 2026 Michael Banks

A major upgrade to the LHCb experiment at CERN is unlikely to go ahead if cuts are not reversed. (Courtesy: Brice, Maximilien/CERN)

A major upgrade to the LHCb experiment at CERN is under threat after the UK did not commit any further contributions towards the project. The decision by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to defund the plan means that, unless the decision is overturned, the experiment will now likely finish operation in 2033.

LHCb is one of the four large experiments based at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. It specializes in measuring the parameters of charge-parity (CP) violation in the interactions of b- and c-hadrons, studies that help explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe.

 

Giant barocaloric cooling effect offers a new route to refrigeration

17 Feb 2026 Isabelle Dumé

Chilling effect: Dissolving ammonium thiocyanate in water is a highly endothermic process and contributes to the barocaloric cycle demonstrated in this experiment. (Courtesy: B Li)

A new cooling technique based on dissolution barocaloric cooling could provide an environmentally friendly alternative to existing refrigeration methods. With a cooling capacity of 67 J/g and an efficiency of nearly 77%, the method developed by researchers from the Institute of Metal Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences can reduce the temperature of a sample by 27 K in just 20 seconds – far more than is possible with standard barocaloric materials.

 

Metasurfaces create super-sized neutral atom arrays for quantum computing

06 Feb 2026 Isabelle Dumé

Atom tamers. Top left: Schematic of how a metasurface shapes a single beam of light into multiple tightly focused beams in a single step. These beams form a series of optical tweezers to trap individual atoms into arrays with arbitrary geometry. Bottom left: Statue of Liberty pattern, assembled out of atoms trapped in metasurface-generated optical tweezers. Right: Image of a 600 × 600 array with 360,000 optical tweezers, generated with an especially designed and fabricated optical metasurface. (Courtesy: Will and Yu labs, Columbia University)

A new way of creating arrays of ultracold neutral atoms could make it possible to build quantum computers with more than 100,000 quantum bits (qubits) – two orders of magnitude higher than today’s best machines. The approach, demonstrated by physicists at Columbia University in the US, uses optical metasurfaces to generate the forces needed to trap and manipulate atoms. According to its developers, this method is much more scalable than traditional techniques for generating arrays of atomic qubits.

“Neutral atom arrays have become a leading quantum technology, notably for quantum computing, where single atoms serve as qubits,” explains atomic physicist Sebastian Will, who co-led the study with his Columbia colleague Nanfang Yu. “However, the technology available so far to make these arrays limits array sizes to about 10,000 traps, which corresponds to a maximum of 10,000 atomic qubits.”

 

Electric field treatment restores movement to rats with spinal injuries

04 Jul 2025 Tami Freeman

Safe and effective. An ultrathin implant placed directly on the spinal cord delivers a carefully controlled electrical current across the injured area. This electrical field treatment improved recovery in rats with spinal cord injuries, enabling them to regain movement and sensation. (Courtesy: University of Auckland)

Damage to the spinal cord can disrupt communication between the brain and body, with potentially devastating effects. Spinal cord injuries can cause permanent loss of sensory, motor, and autonomic functions, or even paralysis, and there’s currently no cure. To address this inadequacy, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and the University of Auckland in New Zealand have developed an ultrathin bioelectric implant that improved movement in rats with spinal cord injuries.

The implant works by delivering a low-frequency pulsed electric field (EF) across the injury site – an approach that shows promise in promoting regeneration of axons (nerve fibres) and improving outcomes.

Implanted electrodes provide intuitive control of the prosthetic hand

 

FROM PHYSICSWORLD.COM 20/2/2026

Implanted electrodes provide intuitive control of the prosthetic hand

04 Feb 2026 Tami Freeman

Functional assessment: A study participant performs the Coffee Task using a myoelectric prosthetic hand controlled by implanted electrodes and with wrist rotation control. (Courtesy: J. Neural. Eng. 10.1088/1741-2552/ae36d2)

Loss of a limb can significantly impact a person’s independence and quality-of-life, with arm amputations particularly impeding routine daily activities. Prosthetic limbs can restore some lost function but often rely on surface electrodes with low signal quality. A research team at the University of Michigan has now shown that implanted electrodes could provide more accurate and reliable control of hand and wrist prostheses.

Today, most upper-limb prostheses are controlled using surface electrodes placed on the skin to detect electrical activity from underlying muscles. The recorded electromyography (EMG) signals are then used to classify different finger and wrist movements. Under real-world conditions, however, these signals can be compromised by inconsistent electrode placement, changes in limb volume, sweat exposure, and artefacts from user movements.

 

New quantum-enabled proteins could improve biosensing

12 Feb 2026

Biotech researchers First author Gabriel Abrahams and senior author Harrison Steel are part of a team at the University of Oxford developing magneto-sensitive fluorescent proteins. (Courtesy: Olivia Gaskin)

A new class of biomolecules, called magneto-sensitive fluorescent proteins (MFPs), could improve the imaging of biological processes within living cells and potentially underpin innovative therapies.

The fluorescent proteins commonly used in biological studies respond only to light shining on them. But because that light gets scattered by tissues, there are inaccuracies in determining exactly where the resulting fluorescence originates. By contrast, the MFPs created by a team led by Harrison Steel, head of the Engineered Biotechnology Research Group at the University of Oxford in the UK, fluoresce partly in response to highly predictable magnetic fields and radio waves that pass through biological tissues without deflection. Sensor schematic. An MFP excited by blue light emits green fluorescence, the intensity of which can be modulated by applying appropriate magnetic or radiofrequency fields. (Courtesy: Gabriel Abrahams)