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Astronomers detect lowest mass dark object ever measured using gravitational lensing

Dark matter is an enigmatic form of matter not expected to emit light, yet it is essential to understanding how the rich tapestry of stars and galaxies we see in the night sky evolved. As a fundamental building block of the universe, a key question for astronomers is whether dark matter is smooth or clumpy, as this could reveal what it is made of. Since dark matter cannot be observed directly, its properties can only be determined by observing the gravitational lensing effect, whereby the light from a more distant object is distorted and deflected by the gravity of the dark object.

“Hunting for dark objects that do not seem to emit any light is clearly challenging,” said Devon Powell at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and lead author of the study. “Since we can’t see them directly, we instead use very distant galaxies as a backlight to look for their gravitational imprints.”

The research is published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Simulations unveil the electrodynamic nature of black hole mergers and other spacetime collisions

Gravitational waves are energy-carrying waves produced by the acceleration or disturbance of massive objects. These waves, which were first directly observed in 2015, are known to be produced during various cosmological phenomena, including mergers between two black holes that orbit each other (i.e., binary black holes).

Individual electrons trapped and controlled above 1 K, easing cooling limits for quantum computing

Researchers from EeroQ, the quantum computing company pioneering electron-on-helium technology, have published a paper, titled “Sensing and Control of Single Trapped Electrons Above 1 Kelvin,” in Physical Review X that details a significant milestone: the first demonstration of controlling and detecting individual electrons trapped on superfluid helium at temperatures above 1 Kelvin. This work was achieved using on-chip superconducting microwave circuits, a method compatible with existing quantum hardware.

Quantum computers today typically require operation at ultra-low temperatures near 10 millikelvin, creating severe challenges in scaling due to heat dissipation. By showing that individual electrons can be trapped and controlled at temperatures more than 100 times higher (above 1 Kelvin), EeroQ’s results open a new pathway toward larger and more practical quantum processors.

The findings also validate long-standing theoretical predictions that electrons on helium can provide exceptionally pure and long-lived qubits, while reducing the extreme cooling demands that limit other approaches.

Schizophrenia is linked to iron and myelin deficits in the brain, neuroimaging study finds

Schizophrenia is a severe and debilitating psychiatric disorder characterized by hallucinations, disorganized speech and thought patterns, false beliefs about the world or oneself, difficulties concentrating and other symptoms impacting people’s daily functioning. While schizophrenia has been the topic of numerous research studies, its biological and neural underpinnings have not yet been fully elucidated.

While some past brain imaging studies suggest that is associated with abnormal levels of and in the brain, the results collected so far are conflicting. Iron is a metal known to contribute to healthy brain function, while myelin is a fatty substance that forms a sheath around nerve fibers, protecting them and supporting their conduction of electrical signals.

Researchers at King’s College London, Hammersmith Hospital and Imperial College London recently set out to further explore the possibility that schizophrenia is linked to abnormal levels of iron and myelin in the brain. Their findings, published in Molecular Psychiatry, uncovered potential new biomarkers of schizophrenia that could improve the understanding of its underlying brain mechanisms.

Quantum fluctuations found hidden beneath classical optical signals in polaritons

When optical materials (molecules or solid-state semiconductors) are embedded in tiny photonic boxes, known as optical microcavities, they form hybrid light-matter states known as polaritons. Most of the optical properties of polaritons under weak illumination can be understood using textbook classical optics. Now researchers from UC San Diego show that this is not the entire story: there are quantum fluctuations lurking underneath the classical signal and they reveal a great deal about the molecules in question.

Their work redefines the foundations of polaritonics by demonstrating that the optical spectra of these light–matter hybrids, long described by classical optics, in fact bear subtle quantum fingerprints.

Exploiting these signatures allows polaritons to act as sensitive probes of their host materials, opening new directions for polaritonic control, precision sensing, and quantum photonic technologies. Beyond optics, these hidden further suggest novel avenues for steering chemical reactivity and advancing polaritonic chemistry.

Genetically encoded biosensor tracks plants’ immune hormone in real time

From willow bark remedies to aspirin tablets, salicylic acid has long been part of human health. It also lies at the heart of how plants fight disease. Now, researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed a pioneering biosensor that allows scientists to watch, for the first time, how plants deploy this critical immune hormone in their battle against pathogens.

Published in Science, Dr. Alexander Jones’s group at the Sainsbury Laboratory, Cambridge University (SLCU) presents SalicS1, a genetically encoded biosensor that can detect and track the dynamics of the plant immune hormone (SA) with exquisite precision inside living plants.

Salicylic acid is a central regulator of plant immunity, triggering defense responses against a huge diversity of invaders. Until now, however, scientists have lacked the tools to measure SA at high enough spatial and to understand how plants balance growth with immune defense.

World’s most sensitive table-top experiment sets new limits on very high-frequency gravitational waves

The world’s most sensitive table-top interferometric system—a miniature version of miles-long gravitational-wave detectors like LIGO—has completed its first science run.

The Quantum Enhanced Space-Time measurement (QUEST) experiment, based in Cardiff University’s School of Physics and Astronomy, aims to uncover the fundamental nature of space-time.

QUEST can measure changes in length 100 trillion times smaller than the width of a human hair and has set a new record for sensitivity in just a three-hour experiment.

Superconductivity distorts crystal lattice of topological quantum materials

Superconductors (materials that conduct electricity without resistance) have fascinated physicists for more than a century. While conventional superconductors are well understood, a new class of materials known as topological superconductors has attracted intense interest in recent years.

These superconductors have been reported to be capable of hosting Majorana quasiparticles, exotic states that could change the field of fault-tolerant quantum computing. Yet many of the fundamental properties of these novel bulk topological superconductors remain relatively unknown, leaving open questions about how their unusual electronic states interact with the underlying .

In a new study conducted by Professor Guo-qing Zheng, along with Kazuaki Matano, S. Takayanagi, K. Ito of Okayama University and Professor H. Nakao of High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), published in Physical Review Letters on August 22, 2025, the researchers report that the doped topological insulator CuxBi2Se3 undergoes tiny but spontaneous distortions in its crystal lattice as it enters the superconducting state.

Tiny engine runs hotter than the sun to probe the frontiers of thermodynamics

Scientists have created the world’s hottest engine running at temperatures hotter than those reached in the sun’s core. The team from King’s College London and collaborators believe their platform could provide an unparalleled understanding of the laws of thermodynamics on a small scale, and provide the foundation for a new, efficient way to compute how proteins fold—the subject of last year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Outlined in Physical Review Letters, the engine is a very small, microscopic particle suspended at a low pressure using . This electric trap is called a Paul Trap. The researchers can exponentially increase the heat of the trapped particle by applying a noisy voltage to one of the electrodes levitating it.

While traditionally engines have been associated with motors, in science their definition is much simpler—engines convert one form of energy to . Here, that is heat to movement.

Nanoscale X-ray imaging reveals bulk altermagnetism in MnTe

Magnetic materials have been known since ancient times and play an important role in modern society, where the net magnetic order offers routes to energy harvesting and data processing. It is the net magnetic moment of ferromagnets that has so far been key to their applications, with an alternative type of magnetic material, the antiferromagnet, deemed “useless” by their discoverer Louis Néel in his Nobel Prize lecture.

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in antiferromagnets, which offer a number of exciting advantages for technologies including robust order and ultrafast dynamics—however with the challenge that they are hard to detect and manipulate electrically.

The recent discovery of a new type of magnetic order—the altermagnet—has overturned this view: by combining antiferromagnetic ordering with ferromagnet-like properties such as spintronic effects, they promise a multitude of advantages for future applications.

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