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Chemists overturn 40-year assumption about a key class of superconductors

Scientists at Warwick have shown that a material treated for 40 years as a uniform, textbook superconductor is in fact a patchwork of different crystal structures throughout its bulk, using an advanced 3D imaging technique to see deep inside the crystal for the first time.

High-temperature superconductivity is widely regarded as one of the most significant scientific discoveries of the past 40 years. It promises technologies built on electricity that flows with zero resistance and magnets far more powerful than anything possible today, and it underpins research into future power grids, medical scanners and quantum computers.

The study, published in Physical Review Letters and led by researchers in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Warwick working with the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in France, looked inside a type of superconductor called a cuprate, a copper-based material that can carry electricity with no resistance at unusually high, though still very cold, temperatures.

Close-up images show defects locking electrons into stable Wigner solids

A team of researchers led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) developed an approach that enabled them to directly observe how electrons interact with defects in advanced semiconductor devices in unprecedented detail. The team’s methodology included an innovative simulation tool that enabled accurate theoretical interpretations of its experimental observations.

The study, published in Nature, focuses on cutting-edge ultrathin devices known as two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors that have unusual electron states.

“Our study yielded valuable insights into why electrons in 2D semiconductors behave the way they do,” said Mike Crommie, a senior faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division and professor of physics at UC Berkeley, and one of the study’s authors.

Using sound waves to turn iron and water into magnetic nanoparticles

Iron rusts on its own, slowly, over months or years. Now, researchers at Tohoku University have found a way to compress the process of metal reacting with water to form oxide, taking mere hours and using nothing more than ultrasound. Details were published in the journal Ultrasonics Sonochemistry.

Spinel-type iron oxide nanoparticles are widely used in magnetic materials, adsorbents, catalysts, magnetic separation and biomedical research. Conventional synthesis methods typically start with soluble iron salts, which are then converted into particles using chemicals such as ammonia or sodium hydroxide.

The Tohoku University team took a different approach, generating the nanoparticles directly from iron powder and water activated by ultrasound.

What kills Schrödinger’s cat? Underground experiment rules out gravity model for quantum decoherence

Somewhere between the microscopic realm of elementary particles and the macroscopic world of human beings, something strange happens: The rules of quantum physics, which work so exquisitely for tiny atoms, seem to lose their grip as objects grow larger. Pondering where and how this shift from small-scale quantum fuzziness to everyday sharp certainty happens gives rise to thought-experiment oddities like Schrödinger’s famous dead-and-alive cat. The process by which quantum phenomena like superposition—the paradoxical affliction of Schrödinger’s cat—fade into the classical reality we experience is known as decoherence.

Now, a new experiment has narrowed the field of possible explanations for decoherence, in particular ruling out a prominent theory linking gravity to the process. The results appeared in a paper in the New Journal of Physics in June 2026.

“One of the deepest questions in modern physics is why the strange quantum behavior that governs atoms and elementary particles seems to disappear in the macroscopic world we experience every day,” says FQxI member Catalina Curceanu, director of research and spokesperson for the VIP Collaboration at the National Laboratory of Frascati of the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN-LNF) in Italy.

Diamond quantum sensors can detect heart magnetism at room temperature without skin contact

Physicists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have developed a technology that uses quantum sensors to measure biomagnetic signals, such as heart activity. Researchers from the DIAQNOS (DIAmond-based Quantum Sensing for NeurOSurgery) flagship project, coordinated by Dr. Arne Wickenbrock in Mainz, have demonstrated the potential of quantum technology for future medical applications.

To this end, researchers in the group led by Dr. Dmitry Budker—a member of the PRISMA++ Cluster of Excellence and the Helmholtz Institute Mainz—used nitrogen vacancies (NV) in diamonds, as reported in an article in the journal Science Advances.

Muhib Omar, a doctoral student in Budker’s research group and the coordinating author of the article, developed the new quantum sensor during his doctoral research.

Is dark matter ‘natural?’ Physicist puts the question to the test

Dark matter is one of the oldest open problems in physics. It makes up most of the matter in the universe and shapes how galaxies form and move, yet no one has ever directly detected it. Physicists have proposed dozens of candidates to explain it: exotic new particles, black holes formed moments after the Big Bang and more.

With no direct detection to settle the question, researchers often fall back on a different test: not “is this candidate detected,” but “is this candidate natural?”

Naturalness is physics’ version of Occam’s razor. A theory is called natural if it explains the universe we see without requiring its underlying numbers to be delicately, almost implausibly, fine-tuned. A theory that only works if several unrelated quantities happen to cancel out to many decimal places is treated with suspicion, even if it isn’t strictly ruled out.

Handheld scanner delivers lab-quality chemical composition maps using infrared light

Researchers have developed a compact, handheld mid-infrared imaging spectrometer that can produce high-resolution chemical maps of a sample without using stains or labels. With further development, the handheld device might provide a portable and easy-to-use way to map the molecular makeup of tissues and other samples.

“Ultimately, this technology could make it possible to assess tissue during cancer surgery,” said research team leader Rohith Reddy of the University of Houston. “After removing a suspected tumor, a surgeon could scan the freshly excised tissue to help determine whether it is malignant or whether cancer cells remain at the surgical margin. This complementary information would be available while the patient is still in the operating room instead of having to wait for results from laboratory testing.”

In Optica, the researchers describe how they transformed a photothermal mid-infrared spectroscopic imaging (MIRSI) system, normally a benchtop instrument occupying more than 9 square feet (0.8 square meters), into a handheld probe measuring 8 by 8 inches (20 by 20 centimeters). The probe holds the full optical head and connects by a flexible fiber tether to a compact base unit housing the lasers and control electronics. In side-by-side tests, it delivered image quality and chemical detail comparable to a state-of-the-art benchtop MIRSI system.

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