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A paper in Science Advances reports a new approach to simultaneously detecting the colour and polarization of light, based on the eyes of mantis shrimps.
As superconducting quantum computing research progresses in industry and academic laboratories, researchers are increasingly aware of the importance of the big picture — a full quantum stack where each layer presents specific and related technical challenges.
Johann Brehmer explains how simulation-based inference is used in particle physics and how tools such as the open-source Python library MadMiner can enhance the capabilities of data analysis.
If graphene and related 2D materials are to be used commercially, buyers need to have confidence in the measured properties of the material they obtain from suppliers. Scientists from international standards committees describe how the first joint ISO/IEC measurement standard, published this month, will help.
Science in Asia is often overlooked in the West. Ayumi Koso draws on her experience as a press officer in Japanese research organizations to offer some simple tips for English-language science communication.
In addition to the different types of review articles Nature Reviews Physics regularly publishes, readers can also find a wealth of comment, opinion and news articles in our pages. Here is a quick guide to our content.
There are a number of lower risk opportunities to invest in quantum technologies, other than quantum computers, but to make the most of them both specialist knowledge and market awareness are required.
Nuclear physics experiments give reaction rates that, via modelling and comparison with primordial abundances, constrain cosmological parameters. The error bars of a key reaction, D(p,γ)3He, were tightened in 2020, revealing discrepancies between different analyses and calling for more accurate measurements of other reactions.
A paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports on how an aquatic worm forms entangled blobs that move collectively, without the need for centralized control or even communication between the worms.
The economic turmoil of 2020 seems likely to continue into 2021, putting economics at the forefront of discussions. But what can physicists learn from economists?
Two new maps of the sky were released in January 2021, as part of efforts to understand the distribution of ordinary matter and dark energy in the Universe.
Advanced metallic alloys can benefit from clusters of dopant atoms and intermetallic particles to improve their performance. Suhas Eswarappa Prameela, Peng Yi, Michael Falk and Tim Weihs discuss how atomic-scale defects can be used to form these clusters and particles.
Filippo Vicentini introduces the open-source Python toolkit NetKet, which implements machine learning methods for the study of quantum many body physics.
An article in Physical Review Letters introduces a quantum algorithm for the simulation of high energy radiative processes in particle collisions, which cannot be fully captured in classical probabilistic simulations.
Over a century after its discovery, the proton still keeps physicists busy understanding its basic properties, but a new generation of experiments may help finally nail down its radius, stability and the origin of its spin.
A paper in Communications Physics reports that cornstarch suspensions flowing down slopes form ripples like water does — but via a completely different mechanism, which involves their unusual rheology.