Physics World Instrumentation & Vacuum Briefing 2026

Welcome to the 2026 Physics World Instrumentation and Vacuum and Briefing.

Highlights include Florence Concepcion of UK-based Aquark talking about its mission to cut the size and energy consumption of ultrahigh vacuum systems, while Impulsonics co-founder Luke Cox explains how its system uses ultrasound to gently separate living cells.

Another entrepreneur featured is Brian Pogue, co-founder of US firm DoseOptics, which has a system to detect the faint Cherenkov light emitted when a radiotherapy beam strikes a patient’s skin, allowing it to be monitored in real time and so avoid healthy areas of the body.

Also covered in the briefing is the development of a new compact, free electron laser driven by a laser plasma accelerator, which has been used to create a beam of muons. And finally, don’t miss Ben Stein’s look at SI units, which might be the bedrock of metrology but have some amusing quirks and curiosities.

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You can open a simple PDF of the magazine here and download it to read offline.

Or you can read the articles in HTML format on the website.