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Enhancing the Quantum Oscillation Toolbox

A new experiment probes the quantum geometry of electronic wave functions involved in a nonlinear Hall response.

The transport properties of quantum materials often vary periodically with the strength of an applied magnetic field. These quantum oscillations have long provided physicists with an indispensable tool for extracting subtle, otherwise-inaccessible information on electronic phases of matter [1]. Now an experiment by Jinrui Zhong of the Beijing Institute of Technology and his colleagues has revealed a novel kind of quantum oscillation in moiré systems [2]. These are materials made from stacked monolayers that are twisted with respect to each other to create, in effect, atomic lattices with much wider unit cells. The experiment pointed to a special mechanism for facilitating the novel periodic fluctuations: the emergence of so-called Brown-Zak fermions.

Bidirectional manipulation of gate-free quantum electronic states via semiconductor interface engineering

A recent study published in Nature Communications demonstrates precise control over electron spatial arrangement in two directions simultaneously—without any applied voltage—through interface engineering between semimetal bismuth (Bi) thin films and two-dimensional semiconductor MoS₂

Researchers found that in the horizontal direction, the Moiré potential generated by small-angle twisted bilayer MoS₂ confines electrons to specific sites; in the vertical direction, tuning the bismuth film thickness modulates the electron effective mass, enabling switching between two distinct configurations—thinner films favor electron clustering into a trimer (molecular-like bonding) arrangement, while thicker films drive electrons apart into a periodic Kagome-like configuration.

Requiring no external voltage to induce electron confinement, this material system offers a critical foundation for developing charge qubits and ultra-low-power devices, potentially opening new design pathways for next-generation quantum computing and energy-efficient semiconductor chips.

Abstract algebra unlocks distinguishable states for quantum systems

Researchers around the world are racing to develop new quantum-based systems for sensing, communication, computing and control that have the promise of outperforming traditional systems. Creating stable, measurable, distinguishable quantum states—which would be the heart of any such system—is a daunting task.

Quantum states possess unique properties that can be exploited to develop novel information-processing systems. Two key properties, stability and distinguishability, are hard to achieve, however. Extracting information from a quantum system depends on the distinguishability of quantum states, an intrinsic property associated with a property known as orthogonality. Nevertheless, no two Gaussian states (a widely studied class of quantum states) are orthogonal, and this yields an unavoidable error when attempting to distinguish them.

In addition, present quantum devices tend to remain stable only for a fraction of a second and require complex protocols to distinguish states. Now, researchers at MIT and the University of Ferrara have found a new approach for creating easily distinguishable states that could help enable the development of these new quantum-based devices.

Bacteria reveal ‘glue’ protein that fastens antibiotic-resistant outer membrane to cell wall

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame and collaborators have discovered a key process in how the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria attaches to the cell wall, advancing the understanding of how these bacteria frequently develop resistance to antibiotics.

The research, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, was carried out in the laboratory of Shahriar Mobashery, Navari Professor of Life Sciences in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, with structural aspects of the study performed by Juan A. Hermoso of the Institute of Physical Chemistry “Blas Cabrera” in Madrid, Spain. The researchers discovered that the protein PA2854 performs the reaction that keeps the outside layers, or envelope, of gram-negative bacteria connected to each other.

Mobashery and collaborators studied the process in Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa), a ubiquitous antibiotic-resistant bacterium commonly affecting people with cystic fibrosis. P. aeruginosa, like other gram-negative bacteria including E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Salmonella, is shielded by a three-layer biological envelope that prevents many antibiotics from penetrating and damaging the bacteria. Gram-positive bacteria do not have an outer membrane and are generally more susceptible to antibiotics.

Brain-computer interface enables independent, accurate communication for man living with ALS

A new study demonstrates that a person with severe paralysis caused by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) can use a brain-computer interface (BCI) at home to communicate, work and interact with the digital world—without the need for researcher support. Published in Nature Medicine, the results mark a significant step toward delivering practical assistive technology for people with severe speech and motor impairments.

The BCI system was developed at UC Davis, in collaboration with colleagues at Brown University and Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute. It is equipped with advanced decoding algorithms that translate neural signals into text (speech BCI) and enable cursor control (movement BCI). It allows full interaction with a personal computer.

The brain-computer interface is designed to restore communication and computer control by decoding neural activity linked to attempted speech and movement. Although recent advances have achieved high accuracy in research settings, real-world adoption has been limited by two key challenges: independent at-home use and reliable long-term performance.

Liquid cooling technology for semiconductor chips is 10 times more efficient than previous record

AI data centers are power-hungry. Not only do artificial intelligence computations consume enormous amounts of electricity, but a significant amount of energy is also required to cool the semiconductor chips that heat up during operation. As AI chips continue to deliver higher performance, the amount of heat they generate increases rapidly. As a result, conventional air cooling and external copper heat spreaders are approaching their practical limits. To address this challenge, a KAIST research team has developed an ultra-high-efficiency liquid-cooling technology that cools semiconductor chips from within.

A joint research team led by Professor Sung Jin Kim of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Professor Ikjin Lee of the School of AI and Computing has developed a highly efficient liquid-cooling technology that directly cools high-heat-flux semiconductor chips using room-temperature water. The researchers achieved this by embedding liquid-cooling channels, thinner than a human hair, directly inside a silicon semiconductor chip. The paper is published in the journal Energy Conversion and Management.

The team successfully maintained the chip temperature below 100° C (212° F) even under extreme heat-generation conditions exceeding 2,000 watts per square centimeter (W/cm2).

Passive quantum error correction doubles qubit lifetime, reaching break-even point

A team of U.S. researchers has designed a passive quantum error correction technique that enables qubits to correct their own errors. Demonstrated by Shruti Shirol and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the protocol transforms the inevitable dissipation of energy in qubit systems from a hindrance into an advantage, offering a promising route toward practical quantum computing outside the lab. The research has been published in Physical Review X.

As the building blocks of quantum computers, qubits aren’t limited to being either a 0 or a 1, like the classical bits that computers use today. Instead, they can exist in quantum superpositions of these states, offering new ways of storing and processing information.

However, these states are notoriously fragile. As they interact with vibrations and impurities in their surroundings, they can easily be destroyed, resulting in energy being dissipated from the system. To date, this poses one of the biggest roadblocks to building quantum computers in realistic settings outside the lab.

Clinician–scientists identify brain network linked to deadliest childhood brain cancer

A human brain network associated with survival in children with diffuse midline glioma (DMG), the deadliest childhood brain cancer, has been identified by UCL clinician-scientists, raising the possibility of entirely new treatment approaches. The researchers found that DMG tumors seem to exploit the brain’s existing neural circuitry to drive tumor growth and progression. Tumors that were more strongly connected to this network were associated with significantly shorter patient survival.

The study, published in Nature, builds on pioneering work in the field of cancer neuroscience, which shows that brain tumors, including DMG, dynamically interact with the otherwise healthy brain.

The study was led by Dr. Jai Sidpra and Dr. Valentina Lind, medical students enrolled in the MBPhD Program within the UCL Division of Medicine and senior author Professor Darren Hargrave’s group at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health.

Beyond frozen snapshots, protein ‘breathing’ comes into view with combined imaging methods

Advances in structural biology have allowed scientists to determine molecular structures with atomic-level detail, sometimes yielding static snapshots that do not reflect the dynamism of proteins. However, these motions are often crucial for biological function. Researchers from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), together with international collaborators, have now combined several methods to shed light on how proteins “breathe” and how some experimental techniques freeze their motion. The findings—which could boost protein design approaches and improve AI-based structural prediction tools—are published in Nature Chemistry.

Despite serving as structural biology’s central pillar for more than half a century, protein crystallography has yielded static molecular structures—like still frames from a video—far from the buzzing life inside cells.

“How much can these ‘frozen snapshots’ of protein structures really tell us about their true biological functions and bustling molecular environments?” asks Lea Becker, the study’s first author and a Ph.D. student in Professor Paul Schanda’s group at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA).

Quasi-1D material unlocks electric control of charge waves beyond standard limits

The ability to control the movement of negatively charged particles (i.e., electrons) is central to the functioning of all modern electronic devices. This control is typically attained using a gate, an electrode via which an applied electric field alters a material’s electrical properties.

In many electronic devices, the effectiveness of electrical gating depends on a device’s capacitance (i.e., a measure of how much electric charge can be induced or stored for a given voltage). Recently, however, electronics engineers have been exploring the potential of new materials that exhibit unusual collective electron behaviors, which could be leveraged to surpass the gating performance of contemporary electronics.

Researchers at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and University of California, Riverside (UCR) recently demonstrated the potential of a new quasi-one-dimensional (1D) quantum material, showing that it can dramatically enhance the electrical control of collective electronic states known as charge density waves (CDWs).

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