ʬ Supersymmetry, Grand Unification and String Theory Documentary Lecture...

ʬ Supersymmetry, Grand Unification and String Theory Documentary Lecture...

ER=EPR | Leonard Susskind

ER=EPR | Leonard Susskind

Supersymmetry & Grand Unification: Lecture 10

Supersymmetry & Grand Unification: Lecture 10

Supersymmetry & Grand Unification: Lecture 9

Supersymmetry & Grand Unification: Lecture 9

Supersymmetry & Grand Unification: Lecture 8

Supersymmetry & Grand Unification: Lecture 8

Supersymmetry & Grand Unification: Lecture 7

Supersymmetry & Grand Unification: Lecture 7

Supersymmetry & Grand Unification: Lecture 6

Supersymmetry & Grand Unification: Lecture 6

Supersymmetry & Grand Unification: Lecture 5

Supersymmetry & Grand Unification: Lecture 5

Supersymmetry & Grand Unification: Lecture 3

Supersymmetry & Grand Unification: Lecture 3

Supersymmetry & Grand Unification: Lecture 2

Supersymmetry & Grand Unification: Lecture 2

Supersymmetry & Grand Unification: Lecture 1

Supersymmetry & Grand Unification: Lecture 1

Why BIG BANG Was Not the Beginning? Richard Feynman on the Start of Univ...

Why BIG BANG Was Not the Beginning? Richard Feynman on the Start of Univ...

Feynman Explains Why You’re Wrong About How Magnets Work (Full Documentary)

Feynman Explains Why You’re Wrong About How Magnets Work (Full Documentary)

Can the Universe Be Explained in 3 Hours? Feynman’s Ultimate Deep Dive |...

Can the Universe Be Explained in 3 Hours? Feynman’s Ultimate Deep Dive |...

Understanding Gravity with Richard Feynman

Understanding Gravity with Richard Feynman

Lost In Space Forever - Part 2

Lost In Space Forever - Part 2

Lost In Space Forever - Part 1

Lost In Space Forever - Part 1

How Fast Is It - Chapter 6 - Gravitational Lensing (4K)

How Fast Is It - Chapter 6 - Gravitational Lensing (4K)

The Plank Length: The Smallest Possible Thing Ever

The Plank Length: The Smallest Possible Thing Ever

QED: Photons-Corpuscles of Light (Richard Feynman 1/ 4)

QED: Photons-Corpuscles of Light   (Richard Feynman 1/ 4)

Richard Feynman's Story of Particle Physics - 1973 Lecture

Richard Feynman's Story of Particle Physics - 1973 Lecture

QED: Electrons and their Interactions (Richard Feynman 3/4)

QED: Electrons and their Interactions (Richard Feynman 3/4)

God's Existence - Documentary

God's Existence - Documentary

The Origin of Life - Creation Documentary

The Origin of Life - Creation Documentary

God of Wonders - Creation Documentary / Бог на чудесата Бг суб

God of Wonders - Creation Documentary / Бог на чудесата Бг суб

Creation is a Scientific Fact - Documentary

Creation is a Scientific Fact - Documentary

Where Does the Evidence Lead - Creation Documentary / Къде водят доказат...

Where Does the Evidence Lead - Creation Documentary / Къде водят доказат...

Darwin's Dilemma - Creation Documentary / Дилемата на Дарвин Бг Субс

Darwin's Dilemma - Creation Documentary / Дилемата на Дарвин Бг Субс

Darwin's Deadly Legacy - Documentary

Darwin's Deadly Legacy - Documentary

Icons of Evolution - Documentary

Icons of Evolution - Documentary

Expelled - No Intelligence Allowed - Documentary

Expelled - No Intelligence Allowed -  Documentary

Creation is Scientific Fact - Proof of God

Creation is Scientific Fact - Proof of God

Archaeological Evidence for the Biblical tale of the Execution of Jesus

Archaeological Evidence for the Biblical tale of the Execution of Jesus

The Age of The Earth - Creation Science Seminar

The Age of The Earth - Creation Science Seminar

Creation is a Scientific Fact - Documentary

Creation is a Scientific Fact - Documentary

The Accuracy of The Scripture - Creation Science Seminar

The Accuracy of The Scripture - Creation Science Seminar

 

CERN team solves decades-old mystery of light nuclei formation

13 Jan 2026

Light nuclei: Illustration of how deuterons can be produced from a high-energy collision. A delta particle emerging from the collision decays into a proton and a pion. The proton then undergoes nuclear fusion with a neutron to form a deuteron. (Courtesy: CERN)

When particle colliders smash particles together, the resulting debris cloud sometimes contains a puzzling ingredient: light atomic nuclei. Such nuclei have relatively low binding energies, and they would normally break down at temperatures far below those found in high-energy collisions. Somehow, though, their signature remains. This mystery has stumped physicists for decades, but researchers in the ALICE collaboration at CERN have now solved it. Their experiments showed that light nuclei form via a process called resonance-decay formation – a result that could pave the way towards searches for physics beyond the Standard Model.

 

Twistelastics controls how mechanical waves move in metamaterials

07 Nov 2025 Isabelle Dumé

How it works: Researchers use twisted surfaces to manipulate mechanical waves, enabling new technologies for imaging, electronics, and sensors. (Courtesy: A Alù)

By simply placing two identical elastic metasurfaces atop each other and then rotating them relative to each other, the topology of the elastic waves dispersing through the resulting stacked structure can be changed – from elliptic to hyperbolic. This new control technique, developed by physicists at the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center in the US, operates over a broad frequency range and has been dubbed “twistelastics”. It could allow for advanced reconfigurable phononic devices with potential applications in microelectronics, ultrasound sensing, and microfluidics.

 

Threads of fire: uncovering volcanic secrets with Pele’s hair and tears

17 Feb 2025 James Dacey

Volcanoes are awe-inspiring beasts. They spew molten rivers, towering ash plumes, and – in rarer cases – delicate glassy formations known as Pele’s hair and Pele’s tears. These volcanic materials, named after the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes and fire, are the focus of the latest Physics World Stories podcast, featuring volcanologists Kenna Rubin (University of Rhode Island) and Tamsin Mather (University of Oxford).

Pele’s hair is striking: fine, golden filaments of volcanic glass that shimmer like spider silk in the sunlight.

 

Quantum fluids mix like oil and water

30 Oct 2025 Ali Lezeik 

Progression of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability: Initially, an applied force (grey arrows) destabilizes the fluid interface between spin-up (blue) and spin-down (yellow) sodium atoms. The interface then develops nominally sinusoidal modulations, where counterflowing currents in the two fluids (coloured arrows) induce vorticity at the interface (black symbols). The modulations subsequently acquire characteristic mushroom or spike shapes before dissolving into a turbulent mixture. (Courtesy: Taken from Science Advances 11 35, 10.1126/sciadv.adw9752, licensed under CC BY-NC)

Researchers in the US have, for the first time, replicated a well-known fluid-dynamics process called the Rayleigh–Taylor instability on a quantum scale. The work opens the hydrodynamics of quantum gases to further exploration and could even create a new platform for understanding gravitational dynamics in the early universe.

If you’ve ever tried mixing oil with water, you’ll understand how the Rayleigh–Taylor instability (RTI) can develop. Due to their different molecular structures and the nature of the forces between their molecules, the two fluids do not mix well. After some time, they separate, forming a clear interface between oil and water.

 

Shapiro steps spotted in ultracold bosonic and fermionic gases

12 Jan 2026

Stepping up Artist’s impression of how an analogue to a Josephson junction is created and modulated using lasers and an ultracold gas. (Courtesy: Technology Innovation Institute (UAE)

Shapiro steps – a series of abrupt jumps in the voltage–current characteristic of a Josephson junction that is exposed to microwave radiation – have been observed for the first time in ultracold gases by groups in Germany and Italy. Their work on atomic Josephson junctions provides new insights into the phenomenon and could lead to a standard for chemical potential.

In 1962, Brian Josephson of the University of Cambridge calculated that, if two superconductors were separated by a thin insulating barrier, the phase difference between their wavefunctions should induce quantum tunneling, leading to a current at zero potential difference.

 

Peer review in the age of artificial intelligence

18 Sep 2025 Hamish Johnston

It is Peer Review Week, and the theme for 2025 is “Rethinking Peer Review in the AI Era”. This is not surprising given the rapid rise in the use and capabilities of artificial intelligence. However, views on AI are deeply polarized for reasons that span its legality, efficacy, and even its morality.

A recent survey by IOP Publishing – the scientific publisher that brings you Physics World – reveals that physicists who peer-review are divided over whether AI should be used in the process.

 

Quantum information theory sheds light on quantum gravity

08 Jan 2026 Hamish Johnston

This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast features Alex May, whose research explores the intersection of quantum gravity and quantum information theory. Based at Canada’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, May explains how ideas being developed in the burgeoning field of quantum information theory could help solve one of the most enduring mysteries in physics – how to reconcile quantum mechanics with Einstein’s general theory of relativity, creating a viable theory of quantum gravity.

 

Quantum metrology at NPL: we explore the challenges and opportunities

14 Jan 2026 Sponsored by National Physical Laboratory

This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast features a conversation with Tim Prior and John Devaney of the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), which is the UK’s national metrology institute.

Prior is NPL’s quantum programme manager, and Devaney is its quantum standards manager. They talk about NPL’s central role in the recent launch of NMI-Q, which brings together some of the world’s leading national metrology institutes to accelerate the development and adoption of quantum technologies.

 

Photonics West explores the future of optical technologies

14 Jan 2026 Sponsored by Photonics West exhibitors

SPIE Photonics West sees the global optics and photonics community come together to present and discuss the latest industry trends and research breakthroughs

Photonics focus Researchers, innovators, engineers, and business leaders from around the globe are heading to San Francisco to attend the largest annual conference and exhibition in optics and photonics. (Courtesy: iStock/bluejayphoto)

The 2026 SPIE Photonics West meeting takes place in San Francisco, California, from 17 to 22 January. The premier event for photonics research and technology, Photonics West features more than 100 technical conferences covering topics such as lasers, biomedical optics, optoelectronics, quantum technologies, and more.

In addition to the conferences, Photonics West also offers 60 technical courses and a new Career Hub with a co-located job fair. There are also five world-class exhibitions featuring over 1500 companies and incorporating industry-focused presentations, product launches, and live demonstrations. The first of these is the BiOS Expo, which begins on 17 January and examines the latest breakthroughs in biomedical optics and biophotonics technologies.

 

Quantum state teleported between quantum dots at telecoms wavelengths

14 Jan 2026 Isabelle Dumé

Collaboration: Physicists from research groups at the Universities of Stuttgart, Saarbrücken, and Dresden are conducting an experiment on quantum teleportation. Left to right: Tobias Bauer, Marlon Schäfer, Caspar Hopfmann, Stefan Kazmaier, Tim Strobel and Simone Luca Portalupi. (Courtesy: Julian Maisch)

Physicists at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, have teleported a quantum state between photons generated by two different semiconductor quantum dot light sources separated by several metres. Though the distance involved in this proof-of-principle “quantum repeater” experiment is small, team members describe it as a prerequisite for future long-distance quantum communication networks.

“Our result is particularly exciting because such a quantum Internet will encompass these types of distant quantum nodes and will require quantum states that are transmitted among these different nodes,” explains Tim Strobel, a PhD student at Stuttgart’s Institute of Semiconductor Optics and Functional Interfaces (IHFG) and the lead author of a paper describing the research.

 

Hybrid deep-learning model eases brachytherapy planning

19 Dec 2025 Tami Freeman

CTV segmentation test: Target contouring in two example slices of a patient’s CT scan, using BCTVNet and 12 comparison models. Red and green contours represent the ground truth and the model predictions, respectively. Each image is annotated with the corresponding Dice similarity coefficient. (Courtesy: CC BY 4.0/Mach. Learn.: Sci. Technol. 10.1088/2632-2153/ae2233

Brachytherapy – a cancer treatment that destroys tumours using small radioactive sources implanted inside the body – plays a critical role in treating cervical cancer, offering an important option for patients with inoperable locally advanced disease. Brachytherapy can deliver high radiation doses directly to the tumour while ensuring nearby healthy tissues receive minimal dose, but its effectiveness relies on accurate delineation of the treatment target. A research team in China is using a hybrid deep-learning model to help with this task.

Planning brachytherapy treatments requires accurate contouring of the clinical target volume (CTV) on a CT scan, a task that’s traditionally performed manually.

 

Reinforcement learning could help airborne wind energy take off

07 Jan 2026 Sponsored by EPL

Sophisticated control mechanisms: Airborne wind energy systems generate electricity from devices that soar through the sky like birds, in contrast to conventional, Earth-bound turbines, but controlling them is a challenge. (Courtesy: iStock/David Steinbrede)

When people think of wind energy, they usually think of windmill-like turbines dotted among hills or lined up on offshore platforms. But there is also another kind of wind energy, one that replaces stationary, earthbound generators with tethered kites that harvest energy as they soar through the sky.

This airborne form of wind energy, or AWE, is not as well developed as the terrestrial version, but in principle it offers several advantages. Power-generating kites are much lighter than ground-based turbines, reducing both their production costs and their impact on the landscape.

 

Chess960 still results in white having an advantage, finds study

08 Jan 2026 Michael Banks

Queen’s gambit: New research finds that the standard game of chess can give an advantage to white – regardless of where the back pieces are placed (courtesy: istock/gedzun)

Chess is a seemingly simple game, but one that hides incredible complexity. In the standard game, the starting positions of the pieces are fixed, so top players rely on memorizing a plethora of opening moves, which can sometimes result in boring, predictable games. It’s also true that playing as white and therefore going first offers an advantage.

In the 1990s, former chess world champion Bobby Fischer proposed another way to play chess to encourage more creative play.

 

Medical physics and biotechnology: highlights of 2025

27 Dec 2025 Tami Freeman

(Courtesy: Shutterstock/Anton Khrupin Art; iStock/berya113)

This year saw Physics World report on a raft of innovative and exciting developments in medical physics and biotech. These included novel cancer therapies using low-temperature plasma or laser ablation, intriguing new devices such as biodegradable bone screws and a pacemaker smaller than a grain of rice, and neural engineering breakthroughs, including an ultrathin bioelectric implant that improves movement in rats with spinal cord injuries and a tiny brain sensor that enables thought control of external devices. Here are a few more research highlights that caught my eye.

Vision transformed

One remarkable device introduced in 2025 was an eye implant that restored vision to patients with incurable sight loss. In a clinical study led by the University of Bonn, participants with age-related macular degeneration had a tiny wireless implant inserted under their retina. Used in combination with specialized glasses, the system restored the ability to read in 27 of 32 participants, followed up a year later. Learning to read again Study participant Sheila Irvine, a patient at Moorfields Eye Hospital, training with the PRIMA device. (Courtesy: Moorfields Eye Hospital)

We also described a contact lens that enables wearers to see near-infrared light without night vision goggles, reported on a fascinating retinal stimulation technique that enabled volunteers to see colours never before seen by the human eye, and chatted with researchers in Hungary about how a tiny dissolvable eye insert they are developing could help astronauts suffering from eye conditions.

 

Watching how grasshoppers glide inspires new flying robot design

09 Jan 2026 Michael Banks

Flight of the grasshopper. Work on how grasshoppers glide could lead to new ways to extend the flight time of insect-sized robots. (Courtesy: Princeton University/Sameer A Khan/Fotobuddy)

While much insight has been gleaned from how grasshoppers hop, their gliding prowess has mostly been overlooked. Now, researchers at Princeton University have studied how these gangly insects deploy and retract their wings, which has inspired a new approach to flying robots.

Typical insect-inspired robot designs are often based on bees and flies. They feature constant flapping motion, yet that requires a lot of power, so the robots either carry heavy batteries or are tethered to a power supply.

Grasshoppers, however, are able to jump and glide as well as flap their wings, and while they are not the best gliding insect, they have another trick as they are able to retract and unfurl their wings.

 

Bidirectional scattering microscope detects micro- and nanoscale structures simultaneously

09 Jan 2026 Isabelle Dumé

Two techniques in one Conceptual illustration of the bidirectional quantitative scattering microscope, which detects both forward and backward scattered light from cells. This dual detection enables visualization of structures ranging from whole-cell morphology to nanoscale particles. (Courtesy: Horie et al 2025)

A new microscope that can simultaneously measure both forward- and backward-scattered light from a sample could enable researchers to image micro- and nanoscale objects simultaneously. The device could be used to observe structures as small as individual proteins, as well as the environment in which they move, say the researchers at the University of Tokyo who developed it.

“Our technique could help us link cell structures with the motion of tiny particles inside and outside cells,” explains Kohki Horie of the University of Tokyo’s department of physics, who led this research effort.

 

RFID-tagged drug capsule lets doctors know when it has been swallowed

15 Jan 2026 Tami Freeman

RFID tagged drug delivery. The capsule is coated with materials that block RF signal transmission (top left). Once swallowed, this coating breaks down, releasing medication along with the RF antenna (top right, bottom left). Importantly, the materials are bioresorbable (bottom right). (Courtesy: the researchers)

Taking medication as and when prescribed is crucial for it to have the desired effect. But nearly half of people with chronic conditions don’t adhere to their medication regimes, a serious problem that leads to preventable deaths, drug resistance, and increased healthcare costs. So how can medical professionals ensure that patients are taking their medicine as prescribed?

A team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a solution: a drug capsule containing an RFID tag that uses radiofrequency (RF) signals to confirm it has been swallowed, then bioresorbs into the body.

“Medication non-adherence remains a major cause of preventable morbidity and cost, but existing ingestible tracking systems rely on non-degradable electronics,” explains project leader Giovanni Traverso. “Our motivation was to create a passive, battery-free adherence sensor that confirms ingestion while fully biodegrading, avoiding long-term safety and environmental concerns associated with persistent electronic devices.”

The device – named SAFARI (smart adherence via Faraday cage and resorbable ingestible) – incorporates an RFID tag with a zinc-foil RF antenna and an RF chip, along with the drug payload, inside an ingestible gelatin capsule. The capsule is coated with a mixture of cellulose and molybdenum particles, which blocks the transit of any RF signals.SAFARI capsules Photos of the capsules with (left) and without (right) the RF-blocking coating. (Courtesy: Mehmet Say)

Once swallowed, however, this shielding layer breaks down in the stomach. The RFID tag (which can be preprogrammed with information such as dose metadata, manufacturing details, and a unique ID) can then be wirelessly queried by an external reader, which returns a signal from inside the body confirming that the medication has been ingested.

 

Solar storms could be forecast by monitoring cosmic rays

14 Jan 2026

Mercurial measurement Researchers have used data from a non-scientific detector aboard BepiColombo to study the effect of the Sun on cosmic rays. (Courtesy: NASA)

Using incidental data collected by the BepiColombo mission, an international research team has made the first detailed measurements of how coronal mass ejections (CMEs) reduce cosmic-ray intensity at varying distances from the Sun. Led by Gaku Kinoshita at the University of Tokyo, the team hopes that their approach could help improve the accuracy of space weather forecasts following CMEs.

CMEs are dramatic bursts of plasma originating from the Sun's outer atmosphere. In particularly violent events, this plasma can travel through interplanetary space, sometimes interacting with Earth's magnetic field to produce powerful geomagnetic storms.