Volume 19 Issue 8, August 2023

The lone genius narrative is harmful to science and will not help humans settle in space.

Physics of Life research in the UK is transforming scientific insight and translational impact. Here I discuss its disruptive potential and barriers to interdisciplinary research through the lens of the activities of one of its pioneers, Tom McLeish.

Imposing PT-symmetry and pseudo-Hermitian symmetry on an electric circuit with non-reciprocal couplings results in a complex morphology of degenerate eigenvalues that might yield new possibilities in sensing and dynamical engineering.

Generating and controlling noncollinear spin textures is a promising route towards developing next-generation logic architectures beyond CMOS. Now, these spin textures can be engineered in twisted magnetic two-dimensional materials.

Amorphous gel structures are present in our everyday lives in the form of food, cosmetics, and biological systems. Experiments now show that their formation cannot be explained within the framework of equilibrium physics.

A biomolecular motor exploits a rigid-to-flexible transition of a protein tether, which allows thermal fluctuations to draw together vesicle membranes. This entropic motor helps traffic material into and around cells.

The two-component bacterial MinDE protein system is the simplest biological pattern-forming system ever reported. Now, it establishes a mechanochemical feedback loop fuelling the persistent motion of liposomes.

An experimental platform comprising two disordered superconductors separated by a thermally conducting electrical insulator represents a controllable physical system of interdependent networks. This system is modelled by thermally coupled networks of Josephson junctions. This platform could provide insights into theoretical multiscale phenomena, such as cascading tipping points or self-organized branching processes.

Repeated firing of vortex rings into a water tank is shown to create an isolated blob of confined turbulence — perfect for studying the nature of turbulence and its interface with quiescence. Moreover, using coherent vortex rings to feed the turbulence allows the controlled injection of conserved quantities such as helicity.

Rapid proton capture nucleosynthesis stalls at waiting-point nuclides, including ⁶⁴Ge. Precision mass measurements in the vicinity of this nuclide influence state-of-the-art calculations of X-ray bursts from accreting neutron stars.

A characteristic feature of non-Hermitian systems is an exceptional point at which eigenvalues and eigenstates coalesce. They also support richer degeneracies—a swallowtail catastrophe—that reveals transitions among three different types of singularity.

Engineering the frequency spectrum of systems of multiple quantum emitters is the key for many quantum technologies. A cavity quantum electrodynamics experiment now demonstrates the real-time frequency modulation of cavity-protected polaritons.

Semiconductor qubits can benefit from existing industrial methods, but there are challenges in coupling qubits together. A hybrid superconductor–semiconductor qubit that couples to superconducting qubit devices may overcome these issues.

Probabilistic error cancellation could improve the performance of quantum computers without the prohibitive overhead of fault-tolerant error correction. The method has now been demonstrated on a device with 20 qubits.

Normally, quantum operations are thought of as being applied in a particular order, but it is possible to create superpositions of different orders. An experiment now demonstrates this indefinite causal order may give an advantage for quantum sensing.

Random spin models play a key role in our understanding of disorder and complex many-body systems. Two all-to-all interacting, disordered models have now been realized using a cavity quantum electrodynamics platform.

The direct observation of spin Berry curvature, an important aspect of non-trivial band topology, has not been achieved in quantum materials. Now it is observed in a bilayer Kagome metal.

The observation of unidirectional electron–phonon coupling in a kagome lattice material suggests a strong link between superconductivity and the nematic state in that class of materials.

A moiré potential may play a role in determining the magnetic properties of a two-dimensional homo or heterostructure. Now, non-collinear spin structures are observed in twisted double bilayer CrI₃, providing a platform to engineer unusual magnetic textures.

Phase transitions during which electrons recover their Dirac nature are shown to produce a spin resonance response that allows the characterization of spin and valley couplings in twisted bilayer graphene.

Interdependent networks display many interesting properties, but have not been studied in laboratory experiments because of the lack of a platform that manifests appropriate couplings. Now, a network of disordered superconductors accomplishes this.

Dynamic arrest in amorphous gels has so far been ascribed to glass transition. Now, experiments reveal a hierarchical structural ordering in dilute colloidal gels driven by the local potential energy, making this type of gel distinct from amorphous glasses.

Colloidal gels consist of particles embedded in a fluid. It is now found that a gel’s viscoelastic spectrum, relating mechanical properties and deformation frequencies, can be understood by modelling these gels as networks of fractal viscoelastic units, connected hierarchically.

ATPases can cyclically convert free energy into mechanical work. Now, it is shown that the GTPase Rab5 can also perform mechanical work as part of a two-component molecular motor with the tethering protein EEA1.

Turbulence is generated in a quiescent environment using vortex rings as building blocks.

In the crustacean Parhyale hawaiensis, the analysis of the dynamics of fourfold tissue ordering reveals cell divisions as the underlying mechanism.

Through a mechanochemical feedback loop involving Min proteins of Escherichia coli, liposomes start to move, which may help to design motile artificial cells.

Radionuclides have a myriad of applications, ranging from nuclear energy to environmental studies. Carine Michotte illustrates the importance of radionuclide metrology for nuclear medicine.