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.

 

Cavity-based X-ray laser delivers high-quality pulses

31 Jan 2026 Hamish Johnston

How XFELO works. Electron pulses (blue beam) enter the undulator (row of silver bars) at the top left. X-ray pulses (red beam) are created in the undulator and then reflected back and forth by mirrors. (Courtesy: European XFEL)

Physicists in Germany have developed a new type of X-ray laser that uses a resonant cavity to enhance the output of a conventional X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL). Their proof-of-concept design delivers X-ray pulses that are more monochromatic and coherent than those from existing XFELs.

In recent decades, XFELs have delivered monochromatic, coherent X-ray pulses for a wide range of scientific applications, including physics, chemistry, biology, and materials science.

Despite their name, XFELs do not work like conventional lasers. In particular, there is no gain medium or resonator cavity. Instead, XFELs rely on the fact that when a free electron is accelerated, it will emit electromagnetic radiation. In an XFEL, pulses of high-energy electrons are sent through an undulator, which deflects the electrons back and forth. These wiggling electrons radiate X-rays at a specific energy. As the X-rays and electrons travel along the undulator, they interact in such a way that the emitted X-ray pulse has a high degree of coherence.

 

Using AI boosts scientific productivity and career prospects, finds study

04 Feb 2026

Lab bot: AI chatbots are increasingly being used as collaborators in day-to-day research, from experiment planning and literature synthesis to mathematical reasoning and data analysis. (Courtesy: Shutterstock/Anggalih Prasetya)

Using artificial intelligence (AI) increases scientists’ productivity and impact but collectively leads to a shrinking of research focus. That is according to an analysis of more than 41 million research papers by scientists in China and the US, which finds that scientists who produce AI-augmented research also progress faster in their careers than their colleagues who do not (Nature 649 1237).

The study was conducted by James Evans, a sociologist at the University of Chicago, and his colleagues, who analysed 41.3 million papers listed in the OpenAlex dataset, published between 1980 and 2025. They examined papers in physics and five other disciplines: biology, chemistry, geology, materials science, and medicine.