Active cell contraction drives hole nucleation, fracture and crack propagation in a tissue monolayer through a process reminiscent of dewetting thin films.

Many recent experiments have stored quantum information in bosonic modes, such as photons in resonators or optical fibres. Now an adaptation of the classical spherical codes provides a framework for designing quantum error correcting codes for these platforms.

Protein transport across the nuclear membrane is regulated by the nuclear pore complex. Experiments now show that the rates of nuclear transport rely on the presence of locally mechanically soft regions of the transported proteins.

Laser-driven proton acceleration experiments achieve energies of up to 150 MeV with particle yields that are relevant for applications such as radiobiology.

Cells can form a rotating doublet. This rotation is driven by the symmetry breaking of myosin polarization in the cortices of the two cells.

A Dirac quantum spin liquid phase is predicted to have a continuum of fractionalized spinon excitations with a Dirac cone dispersion. A spin continuum consistent with this picture has now been observed in neutron scattering measurements.

Thousands of Iranians study at German universities every year, but many struggle with the German academic system. Here, we offer some advice.

Bart Verberck uses the musical cent as a pretext to touch on some of the intricacies of musical tuning systems.

Eighty years on from the publication of Erwin Schrödinger’s interdisciplinary analysis on the origin of order in living organisms — What is Life? — we look at how physicists and biologists are approaching the topic today.