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Pick of the Week

Coffee with a splash of physics: how to make the most out of your brew

Coffee pouring out of an espresso machine into a small white cup

Quiz of the week: how far can new tiny knotted fibre leap into the air?

Have you been keeping up to date with physics news? Try our short quiz to find out

researcher holding a tiny knotted robot with tweezers

Trading places: meet the physicists-turned-analysts who are driving the frontiers of finance

From academia to algorithms, physicists in quantitative finance explain how their careers evolved

Research updates

Researchers print structural colour with an inkjet printer

Image printed with structural colour ink

The weirdness of quantum contextuality is not a bug – it’s a feature

Illustration showing a person's hand adding a red puzzle piece labelled "contextuality" to a blue one labelled "magic states" and a purple one labelled "entanglement"

AI could help human scientists pick promising research topics

An AI-generated knowledge network of technical terms. It looks like a mostly green inkblot splatter, with purple edges (representing less well-connected terms) and yellow and red splodges (representing better-connected terms) in the interior. Some labels are visible. For example, "mechanical property" and "particle size" are in the well-connected interior, while terms such as "peierls stress" and "dynamic recrystallization" are out on the edges.

Evidence for a ‘forbidden range’ of black hole masses emerges in gravitational wave observations

Stars in this range may form a long-predicted type of supernova instead

Darkness can travel faster than light

Discovery of superluminal correlations within 2D hexagonal boron nitride could advance super-resolution electron microscopy

Bat-inspired drone can navigate through dense fog and dodge obstacles

New low-power robot works using echolocation and could find applications in search and rescue missions in difficult-to-access spaces

Hyperuniformity can be altered by ‘weighting’ many-particle systems

Calculations reveal the richness of systems that have crystal-like and liquid-like properties

Newton’s law describes gravity on cosmological scales, galaxy clusters reveal

Observations appear to rule out MOND, but not everyone agrees

Tantala 3D integrated circuits deliver a rainbow of laser light

Devices could help miniaturize laser-based technologies

Jobs hub

Access the latest physics careers advice

Latest news

Report highlights challenges and opportunities for UK medical physics

Medical physicists examine MRI brain scan

People
News

Researchers express ‘grave concern’ over attacks on Iranian institutions and science

damage at Isfahan University of Technology

Dark energy survey unveils the largest 3D map of the universe

The latest opinion and reviews

Why patents are so vital for the quantum economy

Illustration of quantum and business concepts

How pictures can help school students learn quantum physics

Muhammad Sabieh Anwar describes a new way to engage students in quantum physics

Teacher oversees a pupil drawing on a blackboard

The dark heart of the lithium-ion battery revolution

James Dacey reviews The Elements of Power: a Story of War, Technology and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth by Nicolas Niarchos

Physics World podcasts

Oppenheimer unfiltered: rare recordings released to the public

Quantum sensors benefit from miniaturized ultrahigh vacuum

Proteins on manuscript reveal how Renaissance medicines were made

Explore our two regular podcast series! Physics World Weekly looks at the latest events and headlines in physics, as well as featuring short interviews with scientists and our team of journalists. Physics World Stories takes a more in-depth look at a topic.

Explore more of our recent articles

Tiny knotted fibre leaps into the air like a springtail bug

The fibre robot could find applications in agriculture and reforestation

Caffeine kick: can you solve our crossword on coffee physics?

Try our quick crossword about the physics of coffee

Pouring water from a small black kettle onto coffee in a filter over a glass jug

In food physics, connection and collaboration are ingredients for a thriving IOP community

Joe McEntee looks at the contributions of the food physics group of the Institute of Physics

dozens of identical biscuits on a conveyor belt with gloved hands reaching over from either side

The Physics World 2026 Particle and Nuclear Briefing is out now

Find out more about plans for the next major particle collider as well as careers in the nuclear industry

Ask me anything: Gwenaëlle Lefeuvre ‘Not everyone is built to be a specialist and there is nothing wrong with that’

Gwenaëlle Lefeuvre is the network coordinator for Photonics Bretagne, an innovation hub supporting the photonics ecosystem in Brittany, France

End-to-end dosimetry audit for SRS/SBRT: optional or mandatory at the beginning of the journey?

Join the audience for a live webinar at 2 p.m. BST/4 p.m. EEST on 17 June 2026 with RTsafe

Quiz of the week: at what temperature did researchers find a new critical point in water?

Have you been keeping up to date with physics news? Try our short quiz to find out

Conceptual image showing a bright neon red laser beam striking a glass of water. Inside the water glass are little ball-and-stick models of water molecules. The glass is divided into dark and light blue regions, representing the two liquid phases of supercooled water. On the side of the glass opposite the laser beam, the water is bursting outward.

Study reveals the physics behind nature’s pointed tips

Mechanical wear thought to be behind the shape of tips, rather than an evolutionary mechanism

Word wave puzzle no.3

Can you work out the word in this puzzle?

The dirtiest words in fusion and fission

Back-to-back events focusing on different forms of nuclear energy reveal sharp differences in mood as well as language taboos, as Margaret Harris reports

Photo of Charles Oppenheimer, Najat Mokhtar and Vijay Vaitheeswaran on stage at the Nuclear Summit in London. They're all wearing business suits and several rows of heads are in the foreground

Shining a light on central African physics

Victoria Merriman reports back from a Global Physics Summit satellite event in Dschang, Cameroon

Participants at the Global Physics Summit satellite event in Cameroon, April 2026

Meta-design: language models generate novel quantum experiments

Researchers stretch the limits of how far artificial intelligence can contribute to scientific discovery

Featured employer

Physics World Jobs offers a range of opportunities for jobseekers with a background in physics or engineering. At all stages of your career, we can help find the job for you

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

For more than 60 years, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has applied science and technology to make the world a safer place. Its defining responsibility is ensuring the safety, security and reliability of the nation’s nuclear deterrent

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Featured webinar

Tune into online presentations that allow expert speakers to explain novel tools and applications

From bunkers to bright spaces: the future of smart shielded radiosurgery treatment rooms

Join the audience for a live webinar at 4 p.m. GMT/5 p.m. CET on 31 March 2026

Discover how smart shielding enables bright, modern radiosurgery rooms beyond traditional bunker designs

Sponsored by Elekta

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Featured event

Stay up to date with the latest international conferences, symposia and exhibitions for interdisciplinary scientists working across academic research and industry

Innovations in Applied Mechanics 2026

23—26 September 2026 | London, UK

Innovations in Applied Mechanics brings together two previous, highly successful conferences MPSVA – Modern Practice in Stress and Vibration Analysis and DAMAS – International Conference on Damage Assessment in Structures to present research findings in stress analysis, vibration dynamics and structural damage assessment with the intention of providing directed focus on the state-of-the-art in theoretical and experimental methodology.

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