News & Comment

The Leidenfrost effect — in which droplets levitate above hot surfaces — is well-known, but the ultimate fate of the evaporating droplets is unexplored. New experiments show that droplets either fly away or explode, depending on their initial size and purity.

Women remain under-represented in science, and in particular in physics. Effective action to remedy this situation should be based on rigorous analysis of high-quality data.

The percentage of women in post-graduate physics positions has stalled just below 20%. The most precipitous drop in women’s representation occurs between high school and university; however, women at all career stages struggle with ongoing cultural burdens and obstacles.

The Event Horizon Telescope collaboration has released images and data showing the dark shadow of the supermassive black hole at the centre of galaxy Messier 87. This release is the result of years of development in instrumentation and data processing.

Three studies in Nature Astronomy uncover unexpected atmospheric and geological phenomena on Saturn’s moon Titan.

Data show that apart from their prize-winning work, the careers of Nobel laureates follow the same patterns as those of the majority of scientists.

We examine the arguments for and against building the next big particle collider and explore the technologies for different future particle accelerator projects.

Oliver Brüning and Lucio Rossi discuss an upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), which aims to significantly increase the luminosity.

Steinar Stapnes discusses the Compact Linear Collider, a linear accelerator that could be built in three stages at CERN.

Edda Gschwendtner and Patric Muggli discuss the concept of plasma wakefield acceleration and its potential for future particle colliders and other applications.

XinChou Lou describes the plans for the Circular Electron Positron Collider, a large accelerator complex that would be built in China.

Michael Benedikt and Frank Zimmermann describe the Future Circular Collider, a proposed collider-based research infrastructure that can be realized in successive steps.

In this month’s Editorial we explore the status of global nuclear research and industry post-Fukushima and find positive developments.

Shinichiro Michizono describes the International Linear Collider, a proposed 250 GeV electron–positron collider using superconducting radiofrequency technology.

Calculations show that contrary to the commonly accepted idea, sound waves carry a tiny negative mass and create a gravitational field that is associated with it.

New experiments on swarms of Caenorhabditis elegans reveal that the worm can form a dynamical network that can be understood using active matter physics, and controlled using genetic manipulation.

How the mass of super-Earths affects mantle convection is a key question for understanding rocky exoplanet structure and thermal dynamics. New material models based on ab initio mineral calculations characterize convection, with implications for magnetism, planetary cooling, atmospheric composition and habitability.

Paul Howarth discusses the current challenges and opportunities in nuclear research and development.

Reviews take a lot of work and involve many people. Here is a short story illustrating the process from idea to publication and all the players.

New simulations of DNA suggest that its surprising flexibility on short length scales can be predicted from the crookedness of its structure.