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A platform for imaging traction forces exerted by moving cells overcomes current reconstruction limitations. This technique has identified unknown migration dynamics of immune cells and resolved traction forces of single and multicellular systems.

Ca₂RuO₄ is a Mott insulator that becomes a metal when a current is passed through it. Now, the changes in its electronic structure are revealed as this transition takes place.

Immune cells are believed not to generate large traction forces during migration. Now, measurements of natural killer cells in dense tissue reveal bursts of large traction forces as they move through narrow pores.

Error-corrected quantum computers require access to so-called magic states to outperform classical devices. Now, a study has shown that coherent errors can drive error-correcting codes into high-magic states that could be a resource for universal quantum computing.

Deflection is one of the options discussed for preventing catastrophic collisions of asteroids with Earth. Now, a megajoule-class X-ray pulse is used to simulate such scenarios, demonstrating that it is a viable strategy at higher interceptor energies.

Coherent noise affecting a random error correcting code is now shown to produce a transition between phases that accumulate and destroy magic.

A tunable SU(2) gauge field has been realized experimentally in a Raman momentum lattice using ultracold atoms. The chiral dynamics of the system have been investigated under different gauge potentials, whose non-Abelian nature was confirmed through observation of the non-Abelian Aharonov–Bohm effect.

Rydberg atoms in optical tweezers are a promising platform for quantum information science. A platform composed of dual-species Rydberg arrays has been realized, offering access to unexplored interaction regimes and crosstalk-free midcircuit control.

The implementation of synthetic Abelian gauge fields in quantum simulators can result in chiral edge currents. The impact of non-Abelian gauge fields on chiral dynamics of ultracold atoms is now explored using a momentum-space lattice technique.

Topological insulators exhibit unidirectional flow of robust electric charge at the edge of the system. Two recent experiments have observed these chiral edge modes in exceptionally controllable settings of ultracold atoms.

Approximate notions of quantum error-correcting codes hold wide importance across quantum information and physics, but are not cohesively understood. Now, general rigorous connections established between approximate quantum error correction and quantum circuit complexity reveal a ‘complexity phase diagram’ for generalized quantum codes — and create a new unifying lens on complex quantum systems.

Dimensionality tuning can control fluctuations and induce complex phase diagrams with multiple orders and transitions among them. Now, experiments demonstrate intertwined vestigial order in the two- to three-dimensional crossover region in a van der Waals magnet.

The mechanism behind the ultrafast insulator-to-metal transition in Mott materials is still not well understood. Now, it is shown that this phase transition propagates along the pathway of a photoinduced compressive strain wave in prototypical V₂O₃.

By measuring terahertz photon echoes, multidimensional spectroscopy demonstrates that interlayer tunnelling in a cuprate superconductor remains largely unaffected by electronic disorder, even near the phase transition.

The collective behaviour of quantum gases strongly depends on the confining dimensionality. Its role in the emergence of a phase transition in a quantum gas of photons has now been explored using a new trapping technique, transitioning from 2D to 1D.

The Fisher information imposes a fundamental limit on the precision with which an unknown parameter can be estimated from noisy data, as Dorian Bouchet explains.

PhD students can face many challenges, such as a lack of confidence in their newly acquired skills or the uncertainty about which career path to choose. We highlight some ways to empower students in their doctoral journey.