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The structure of water: Entropy determines whether ions stick

Water molecules do not simply swirl around in complete disorder; they can form certain preferred structures. This scientific fact is often presented in entirely unscientific ways. For example, when people speak of an alleged “memory of water” or of “water clusters” as a possible explanation for homeopathy, among other things.

All of this has been refuted. But even though water is not a magical information storage medium, its ability to form short-lived structures can have important consequences. This has now been shown in a study by TU Wien, in collaboration with the University of Vienna and the University of Oslo, as part of the Cluster of Excellence “MECS.” The team investigated how easily charged particles can be held at a surface—a question that is important in many areas, such as research on batteries, fuel cells, and biological membranes. The new results show that this can only be understood if one takes into account the structures that water forms on nanosecond timescales.

The research is published in the journal Science Advances.

How wasted infrared light could boost solar panels, night vision and 3D printing

Researchers at UNSW Sydney have developed a nanoscale device that converts low-energy infrared and red light into higher-energy visible light, a breakthrough that could eventually improve solar panels, sensing technologies, and advanced manufacturing systems.

Published in Nature Photonics, the research addresses a longstanding problem in photonics: how to stop energy from being lost before it can be used.

That mechanism allowed the device to achieve photon conversion efficiencies of 8.2%, among the strongest reported for this type of architecture.

Bilayer antiferromagnet reveals photocurrent that flips with magnetic state

In recent years, atomically thin materials—crystals only a few atoms thick—have attracted growing attention because they can exhibit physical properties that do not appear in conventional bulk materials. Among them, atomically thin magnetic materials are particularly intriguing, as they can host unconventional magnetic states and offer new possibilities for spin-based electronic technologies.

In a Nature Materials study, researchers investigated the photocurrent response of a bilayer atomically thin antiferromagnet. In this material, spins are aligned within each atomic layer, while the spin orientations of the top and bottom layers are opposite. Depending on the relative spin configuration between the two layers, the system exhibits two distinct antiferromagnetic (AFM) states.

To explore how these magnetic states interact with light, the researchers fabricated devices by attaching electrodes to bilayer samples and illuminated the center of the material, away from the electrodes. They measured both the zero-bias photocurrent and current-voltage characteristics under illumination.

AI shapes the design of the electron-ion collider

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are shaping major design and research decisions for the planned Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), a next-generation nuclear physics research facility that will collide electrons with protons or nuclei to probe matter’s structure.

The EIC—being built at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory in partnership with DOE’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab)—will reveal the inner structure of matter in unprecedented detail. It is the world’s first collider designed with AI and machine learning integrated into both its accelerator and detector systems.

“EIC is a new facility that can take advantage of AI and machine learning from the start,” said Tanja Horn, a professor of physics at The Catholic University of America, and co-chair of AI4EIC, a working group devoted to developing AI for the EIC. “A wide array of AI tools is now available—perfectly timed for the EIC.”

Roadmap charts three paths to room-temperature quantum materials for cooler computing

Imagine a laptop that never gets hot, a phone that holds its charge for days, or a computer memory chip designed to permanently retain data, even when the power goes out. This is the possibility sitting inside a remarkable family of materials that a team of researchers from the University of Ottawa and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has spent years trying to understand, and they just published a comprehensive roadmap of the field to date in the journal Newton.

Magnetic topological materials sit at the crossroads of magnetism and topology in modern physics. Topology is the mathematical study of shapes that cannot be continuously deformed into one another. In these materials, that idea protects the flow of electrons in a way that normal materials simply cannot.

“Magnetic topological materials offer a unique platform where magnetism and quantum physics work together in ways we are only beginning to fully understand,” explains Hang Chi, Canada Research Chair in Quantum Electronic Devices and Circuits and Assistant Professor at uOttawa’s Department of Physics. “This review brings together the field’s most significant advances and gives researchers a shared foundation to build on.”

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Could Finally Find the Milky Way’s Missing Neutron Stars

NASA’s Roman Telescope could finally expose the Milky Way’s hidden population of invisible neutron stars. Astronomers believe neutron stars should be scattered throughout the Milky Way, left behind after massive stars explode in supernova blasts. But despite their expected abundance, most of thes

New Brain “Bypass” Technology Could Transform Treatment for Neurological Disorders

A new technology called LinCx allows scientists to create custom electrical connections between neurons with high precision. Researchers say it may help treat disorders caused by damaged brain circuits. Damage to brain circuits plays a major role in many neurological disorders. Researchers at Duk

INTERPOL Operation Ramz Disrupts MENA Cybercrime Networks with 201 Arrests

Group-IB, which was one of the private sector companies that participated in the effort, said it provided “actionable intelligence” on over 5,000 compromised accounts, including those that were associated with government infrastructure, and shared details about active phishing infrastructure across the region.

“Cybercrime is borderless, and the only effective response is one that is equally borderless,” Joe Sander, CEO of Team Cymru, said. “Operation Ramz is exactly that kind of response, law enforcement and trusted private-sector partners pooling intelligence, moving in concert, and dismantling the infrastructure that criminals depend on.”

Countries that took part in Operation Ramz included Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Tunisia, and the U.A.E.

Ivanti, Fortinet, SAP, VMware, n8n Patch RCE, SQL Injection, Privilege Escalation Flaws

Ivanti, Fortinet, n8n, SAP, and VMware have released security fixes for various vulnerabilities that could be exploited by bad actors to bypass authentication and execute arbitrary code.

Topping the list is a critical flaw impacting Ivanti Xtraction (CVE-2026–8043, CVSS score: 9.6) that could be exploited to achieve information disclosure or client-side attacks.

“External control of a file name in Ivanti Xtraction before version 2026.2 allows a remote authenticated attacker to read sensitive files and write arbitrary HTML files to a web directory, leading to information disclosure and possible client-side attacks,” Ivanti said in an advisory.

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