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New sensor uses topological material to detect helium leaks

Diagram showing white cylinders arranged in a triangular pattern and connected by white tubes. A series of three smaller diagrams shows the device from different angles and the location of gas inlets.

Anyon physics could explain coexistence of superconductivity and magnetism

Calculations explain curious properties of some 2D materials

A theoretical physicist’s journey through the food and drink industry

Theoretical physicist Rob Farr retraces his career journey in the food industry

Research headlines

Transparent and insulating aerogel could boost energy efficiency of windows

Tiny pores block heat while transmitting light

Photograph of a person peering through a window that contains the new aerogel material

Scientists explain why ‘seeding’ clouds with silver iodide is so efficient

New characterization of the material's surface reveals how an atom-level rearrangement aids the formation of ice crystals and promotes precipitation

A person in a laboratory suffused with dim red light

Slow spectroscopy sheds light on photodegradation

Technique reveals how organic materials accumulate charge

Photo of the slow spectroscopy experiment

‘Patchy’ nanoparticles emerge from new atomic stencilling technique

Multipurpose structures could find use in targeted drug delivery, catalysis, microelectronics and tissue engineering

Image showing a variety of patterned patchy nanoparticles with new shapes and properties. They're brightly coloured against a black background

New cylindrical metamaterials could act as shock absorbers for sensitive equipment

Topological kagome tubes isolate vibrations to one end, keeping the other end safe

Image of the 3D printed kagome tube, which is white and features a repeating structure

Twistelastics controls how mechanical waves move in metamaterials

New technique could deliver reconfigurable phononic devices with myriad applications

Videos

Eco chic: clothing made from trees, inspired by spiders

Innovation in diamond applications from Element Six

Bristol print innovators make a strong impression

Researchers at the Centre for Print Research

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**Pioneers of 2D metals win the Physics World 2025 Breakthrough of the Year**

Researchers describe their success with five metals as the “tip of the iceberg”

How to make 2D metals: Guangyu Zhang on his team’s award-winning research

This podcast features a winner of the Physics World 2025 Breakthrough of the Year

Photo of Guangyu Zhang speaking at an event

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Semiconductor laser pioneer Susumu Noda wins 2026 Rank Prize for Optoelectronics

Noda made breakthroughs in the development of the Photonic Crystal Surface Emitting Laser

Designing better semiconductor chips: NP hard problems and forever chemicals

We report from the Heidelberg Laureate Forum

Unlocking the potential of 2D materials: graphene and much more

This podcast features Antonio Rossi at the Italian Institute of Technology

Chip-integrated nanoantenna efficiently harvests light from diamond defects

Nearly all light emitted by nitrogen-vacancy centres can be collected, providing a boost for these room-temperature quantum technology platforms

Single-phonon coupler brings different quantum technologies together

Waveguide-style approach promises to pair the versatility of phononic quantum technologies with the tight control of photonic ones

An illustration showing how vibrations in one side of the splitter become coupled to the other side. The two waveguides are shown as long, narrow purple blocks that overlap for part of their length. In the area of overlap, a big blue-and-yellow wave envelope that enters the picture via one waveguide is split into two smaller-magnitude wave envelopes travelling through both waveguides.

Wearable UVA sensor warns about overexposure to sunlight

Device is flexible and transparent to visible light

Illustration showing the operation of the UVA detector

Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi win the 2025 Nobel Prize for Chemistry

Trio honoured for their work on metal-organic frameworks

Sosumo Kitagwa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi

Is materials science the new alchemy for the 21st century?

Honor Powrie pays tribute to the work of materials scientists

Nike running shoe containing auxetic material

Kirigami-inspired parachute falls on target

New system does not need to drift to avoid turbulence

Three researchers with their new parachute

How the slowest experiment in the world became a fast success

Stefan Hutzler and Louise Bradley explain how they turned the famous pitch-drop experiment into an outreach activity

A bell jar covers a funnel containing dark viscous material, a thermometer and a petri dish

Quantum gas keeps its cool

New measurements on Bose–Einstein condensate could help us better understand how objects transition from being quantum and ordered to classical and chaotic

Quantum fluid instability produces eccentric skyrmions

New finding advances our understanding of complex topological quantum systems and could help in the development of next-generation memory and storage devices

The swirling patterns in Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night”

‘Breathing’ crystal reversibly releases oxygen

New topotactic oxide material could be used in some clean energy technologies including fuel cells

A special type of crystal with oxygen-breathing abilities

Broadband wireless gets even broader thanks to integrated transmitter

Device can process signals at frequencies ranging from below 1 GHz to more than 100 GHz

Image showing a model city with various data transmission use cases highlighted. Base stations used to cover rural areas use sub-6G frequencies. Various base stations used in ultra-dense areas use microwave wavelengths. Satellite and vehicle-to-everything communications use millimetre wavelength. Holographic and remote surgery uses sub-THz to THz wavelengths. A set of circuits and signals at the bottom of the diagram shows how signals become noisier with conversion from one band to another.

Super sticky underwater hydrogels designed using data mining and AI

Researchers combine machine learning with data mining methods to create a record-breaking underwater adhesive hydrogel

Highest-resolution images ever taken of a single atom reveal new kind of vibrations

Images are the first experimental evidence of long-predicted low-energy atomic vibrations called moiré phasons in twisted 2D materials

Set of three images, one showing specks of light in an orderly array against a dark background (the atoms in the material) and two showing different-shaped clouds of fuzzy dots (the atoms alone)

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Related events

Condensed matter | Workshop From Adaptive to Active Wetting Dynamics 16—20 February 2026 | Dresden, Germany
Materials | Public event Winter Tribology Fair 2026 20 February 2026 | London, UK
Education and outreach | Forum From Now to Next: Empowering Early Career Researchers 27 February 2026 | London, UK

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