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Quantum teleportation could reduce photon loss in long-distance communications

Quantum technologies, which leverage the principles of quantum mechanics, have been found to outperform their classical counterparts on specific tasks. Among other things, past studies have highlighted the potential of quantum systems that can enable long-distance communication, using photons (i.e., particles of light) to carry quantum information.

Despite their promise, quantum communication systems are often prone to photon loss, the scattering, absorption or disappearance of traveling photons. This photon loss becomes increasingly pronounced as transmission distances increase.

One proposed approach for reducing photon loss relies on a process known as quantum teleportation. This process entails the transfer of a quantum state from one particle to another without moving the particle to a different location, via a phenomenon known as quantum entanglement.

Scientists invent new board games to reveal how we tackle the unknown

Playing board games can be fun, challenging, infuriating and a great way to pass the time. They can also help scientists understand how we solve new problems.

In a study published in the journal Nature, researchers created brand-new strategy games to see how players reason before tackling games they have no experience with. The goal of this research was to see how people react when they are thrown into an unfamiliar situation.

Most previous studies focused on how experts master games they already know or how massive supercomputers calculate millions of moves. What was missing was how everyday people reason about a game before they play it, which could provide insights into how we make quick decisions about situations we’ve never encountered before.

Graphene nanoribbons survive gamma radiation, revealing potential sensors for fusion reactors

University of Arizona researchers have demonstrated a promising new application for graphene nanoribbons, a nanoscale semiconductor material with the potential to withstand extreme environments. The team’s findings could help clear a key hurdle to bringing fusion energy to the electric grid.

For the proof-of-concept study, published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, the researchers integrated the nanoribbons, known as GNRs, into semiconductor devices and exposed them to gamma radiation. Their results suggest that the ribbons could serve as radiation sensors for fusion reactors and in deep space, where intense radiation challenges existing technologies and close monitoring of material degradation could help keep critical systems operating reliably.

“The devices survive the exposure and still respond, but their electrical performance changes dramatically,” said principal investigator Zafer Mutlu, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Arizona College of Engineering. “That’s exactly the behavior we want from a sensor.”

This device pulls electricity from humid air using waste materials

Imagine what would happen if the source of your electricity was not the sun, wind, or water flow, but rather the moisture present in the air? The ability of moisture to provide energy has been well-known for a long time, although harnessing that invisible power for generating electricity has been a difficult task. Until recently, all of the proposed generators were either inefficient or too expensive to use in real-life settings.

As reported in a study in Scientific Reports, scientists were able to create a low-cost and flexible electrical generator that harnesses the energy from moisture and also gives a second life to waste materials.

A single generator was capable of producing enough voltage (up to 1.16 volts) to surpass many of the previous humidity-based generators, and multiple generators can even provide the energy needed to light up an LED light bulb without using any external capacitors.

New contact material improves efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells

A newly developed material for the electron contact improves the efficiency of single perovskite solar cells and perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. The new material is based on a carborane molecule. It offers several advantages over the standard material C60, as shown by the study led by Steve Albrecht’s team. The new material has since been patented and is already commercially available.

Perovskite solar cells are not only exceptionally inexpensive to manufacture but also achieve high efficiency levels. Single-junction perovskite devices can already convert more than 27% of sunlight into electrical energy, while perovskite-silicon tandem cells have achieved efficiencies of more than 35%. Until now, a layer of so-called “football molecules” (C60) has been used to transport electrons away. However, a significant proportion of the charge carriers are lost at the interface between the C60 layer and the perovskite absorber. Furthermore, C60 materials are relatively expensive and tend to delaminate over time, compromising the cell’s stability.

Engineers shrink powerful terahertz systems onto a single semiconductor chip

High-frequency waves classified as terahertz occupy a relatively underused region of the electromagnetic spectrum between infrared light and microwaves. Researchers have long recognized their unique potential for applications including ultrafast wireless communication, security screening, remote sensing and medical imaging.

As technologies push toward higher operating frequencies and data rates, photonics-based terahertz systems, which use light at high speed to generate and process terahertz signals, have emerged as a promising alternative to conventional electronic technologies because of their superior bandwidth and power efficiency. However, today’s terahertz optoelectronic systems, which are electronic systems that control light, remain bulky, complex and difficult to scale for widespread use. They typically rely on multiple separate components—including lasers, amplifiers, modulators, sources and detectors—that must be individually made, aligned and interconnected, limiting their use outside specialized laboratory settings.

Now, a UCLA–led research team has demonstrated a way to integrate these functions onto a single semiconductor chip compatible with modern photonic technologies. The breakthrough, published in Nature Communications, paves the way for compact, scalable terahertz systems for next-generation communication, imaging and sensing applications.

Cold radioactive molecules prepped and readied for physics discoveries

For the first time, researchers have developed a way to create chilled molecules containing the radioactive element radium. The resulting laboratory concoctions, generated in part through steps similar to those used to make candy, are poised to help researchers solve one of the biggest mysteries of our universe: How did matter in the early universe come to dominate over its antimatter counterpart?

Early in the universe, matter and antimatter were created in equal proportions. The negative electron, for example, has an antimatter twin called the positron, which is positively charged. An electron and positron can be created from energy in perfect pairs, yet when the two meet, they annihilate each other back into pure energy. Just what happened to all the antimatter remains one of the biggest mysteries in physics. Some kind of difference, or asymmetry, between matter and antimatter must exist to explain why matter was favored during the creation of our universe.

A few years ago, researchers led by Nick Hutzler, professor of physics at Caltech, began investigating radium molecules as a probe for studying this mystery. Their goal is to use lasers to look for subtle changes in the radium molecules that would indicate new particles and forces behind the matter/antimatter mystery. Radium is ideal for these experiments because its nucleus is shaped like a pear.

Hybrid material confirms antiferroelectricity can coexist with switchable polarization

Many of the advanced electronic components surrounding us in everyday life rely on polar materials to function. Polar materials have an uneven distribution of electric charge. This gives them a positive and a negative side even in the absence of an external electric field. The most important among these are ferroelectric materials, in which the direction of polarization can be reversed by applying an electric field.

Researchers are now identifying materials that combine properties previously thought to be mutually exclusive. This could lead to new technological applications.

Scientists create stable ‘boron graphene’ and uncover quantum liquid crystal state

Graphene has long been regarded as one of the most promising materials for future electronics, but its relatively weak electron interactions have limited its potential for applications such as high-temperature superconductivity. Now, researchers from Tohoku University have overcome a major obstacle by creating a stable version of the long-sought “boron graphene” on the surface of a three-dimensional crystal, revealing a new quantum state that could lead to more energy-efficient electronic devices. The findings were published in Science Advances on July 2, 2026.

“We demonstrated a fundamentally new way of creating two-dimensional quantum materials,” says Takafumi Sato of Tohoku University’s Advanced Institute for Materials Research (WPI-AIMR). “Rather than attempting to produce an unstable free-standing sheet of boron atoms, we exposed a naturally occurring honeycomb boron layer that already exists within a stable three-dimensional crystal called LaRh3B2.”

For years, scientists have been interested in borophene—a two-dimensional sheet of boron atoms—because its stronger electron interactions could produce exotic quantum phenomena not seen in graphene. However, borophene’s ideal honeycomb structure is extremely unstable, making it almost impossible to manufacture.

Schrödinger‑like charges in six‑molecule clusters point to new quantum components

Researchers from the University of Basel have published details of how electrons within a cluster of molecules interact with one another and can be controlled. Their findings pave the way for new approaches to developing quantum components and electronic circuits on the nanometer scale.

Electronic components are becoming increasingly small—so small, in fact, that quantum phenomena such as the superposition of states play a key role. Understanding this phenomenon is vital for the further development of molecular components and tiny circuits on the nanometer scale.

The behavior of paired electrons within molecules is already well understood. However, for radicals—molecules with an unpaired electron in their outer shell—there were no theoretical models describing interactions between molecules and the associated charge redistribution in small molecule clusters.

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