News & Comment

Orit Peleg describes how a blend of models and experiments are revealing new insights about the intricate physics of firefly swarms.

Environmental concerns and rising energy costs are causing leadership of accelerator facilities to consider the impact of the magnets used. How do permanent magnets — which don’t use electricity to operate — stack up?

Reproducibility is known to be one of the biggest issues facing science today — but what is less discussed is its connection to science’s environmental impact, as experiments that aren’t replicable still consume resources. Joanna Marshall-Cook and Martin Farley describe processes that can both improve sustainability in science and help tackle the reproducibility crisis.

Vertebrate hearing uses mechanosensory cells operating near an oscillatory instability. Physics reveals how this mechanism might have evolved from ‘chance and necessity’.

As we close volume 5 of Nature Reviews Physics, here are some highlights of the past year.

More than half the world’s population lives in cities, which are hotter than rural areas. Jan Carmeliet and Dominique Derome explain what physics modelling can show about how cities get hot, and how to cool them.

Andrew Daley discusses how analogue quantum simulation brought different physics subdisciplines, theorists and experimentalists together.

On the 75th anniversary of quantum electrodynamics, Chad Orzel reflects on the parallel work that led to the synthesis of the theory.

Sarah Williams discusses the pressing need to involve the younger generations in the current discussions and decisions about future big projects in particle physics.

In November, we celebrate the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who and challenge our readers with a quiz to spot the real physics terms amid the science fiction.

Today’s hopes and fears related to the use of AI systems echo familiar concerns about nuclear technology. What can be learned from the dual mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency to promote and control nuclear technologies?

Twenty-five years after the proposal of a jamming phase diagram, Andrea Liu and Sidney Nagel discuss how linking jammed granular materials with glasses helps us understand the physics of many systems.

High-school students are all too aware of climate change, but often aren’t taught how their physics lessons can help them understand the problem and its solutions. Melissa Lord shares tips on how to bridge the gap.

Two recent studies report on progress in using 2D materials for photonic waveguides.

Making physics environmentally sustainable requires changes at all levels — individual, institutional and systemic — and all physicists have the chance to act, regardless of career stage. What needs to happen, and how can you get involved?

20 years ago, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to to Vitaly Ginzburg, Alexei Abrikosov and Anthony Leggett.

40 years ago the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and William Alfred Fowler.

60 years ago the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Eugene Wigner, J. Hans D. Jensen and Maria Goeppert Mayer.

80 years ago, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Otto Stern.

100 years ago, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Robert Millikan.