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Quantum interference traps electron waves in metal for first time

Ever since quantum mechanics first described particles, like electrons, as rippling waves, researchers have wondered if those waves could be trapped in place. Writing today in Science a century later, a team of Columbia University researchers reports waves of electrons becoming trapped for the first time in a metal called Pd₅AlI₂

“Quantum mechanics predicts that an electron wave can, theoretically, remain trapped even when there are infinitely many paths for it to escape. This effect is known from light waves, but it has never been seen before for electrons,” said Raquel Queiroz, a theoretical physicist at Columbia. It was a surprising discovery, and one that opens new possibilities for manipulating quantum states in metals.

Diamond laser system achieves 100% optical contrast in magnetic-field readout

Researchers at Fraunhofer IAF have developed a laser-enhanced quantum sensor that combines high magnetic-field sensitivity with a large dynamic range. Using laser threshold magnetometry, they improved the ratio of sensitivity and dynamic range by a factor of up to 590 compared with state-of-the-art approaches. The breakthrough is enabled by the first demonstration of 100% optical contrast, combined with strong laser readout signals. The results, published in Nature Communications, open up new prospects for medical diagnostics, navigation, and resource exploration.

Magnetic-field sensors based on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are among the leading solid-state quantum sensors. They operate at room temperature, can be integrated into compact devices and enable vector magnetometry—the measurement of both the magnitude and direction of a magnetic field. Recent advances have improved their sensitivity into the sub-pT/√Hz range, a regime relevant for detecting cardiac signals.

Until now, however, researchers have had to make a trade-off: sensors with very high sensitivity offer only a very limited dynamic range, while more robust variants with a large dynamic range were considerably less sensitive.

Nontoxic ‘light-activated’ compound shows promise for safer 3D printing of advanced biomaterials

Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed a new class of light-activated compounds that could lead to safer and more versatile applications in 3D printing, cosmetics and medicine.

These compounds, known as aryl diazirine photoinitiators, are used to solidify liquid resins into hard plastics with speed and precision using light. The current industry-standard photoinitiators often face issues of toxicity and poor solubility in water.

The NTU study, published in NPG Asia Materials, demonstrates that the new aryl diazirine photoinitiators are not only nontoxic to human cells but also offer superior performance, including reduced material shrinkage and compatibility with water-based sustainable resins. The paper is titled “Non-toxic aryl diazirine photoinitiators.”

Scientists Turn Major Crude Oil Problem Into an Unexpected Energy Breakthrough

A simple membrane uses crude oil’s own deposits to separate lighter components at room temperature, with simulations suggesting nearly one-third less energy use when paired with distillation.

Refineries heat crude oil above 350°C (662°F) to separate a mixture that supplies transportation fuels and raw materials for plastics, packaging, textiles, and other consumer products. This century-old process, called distillation, vaporizes the oil and then cools the vapor to recover different fractions. Worldwide, crude oil distillation consumes approximately 1,100 terawatt-hours of energy each year, roughly the annual output of 130 gigawatt-scale nuclear power plants operating continuously.

An international research team has demonstrated a simple, inexpensive membrane that could handle part of this separation at room temperature, without heating. As crude oil flows through it, components of the oil create the narrow channels that allow the membrane to distinguish between lighter and heavier molecules.

Forgotten Material From the 1960s Is Hiding Something Unexpected

A long-overlooked material has revealed a hidden atomic pattern that challenges conventional expectations about magnetism.

A uranium compound that has received little scientific attention for decades has been found to contain a previously unknown atomic structure with unusual magnetic properties. The discovery could help researchers identify materials capable of supporting faster, more resilient computer memory.

Scientists discovered a repeating, twisted arrangement of atoms known as a chiral superlattice inside uranium oxytelluride (UOTe). The structure appears to play a central role in how electrons move through the crystal, which exhibits an uncommon combination of two different types of magnetism. The findings were published online October 7 in Nature.

Arista Warns of Critical VeloCloud SQL Injection Zero-Day Exploited in Attacks

Attackers are exploiting a zero-day SQL injection flaw in Arista’s VeloCloud Orchestrator (VCO), the central management system for VeloCloud SD-WAN networks, the company said in an advisory on October 22.

The flaw lets anyone who can log in to the orchestrator, even with a read-only customer account, gain operator privileges, the top level of control over it.

For on-premises orchestrators, the fix is in VCO 5.2.3.18, 6.1.3.10, and 6.4.2.12, while Hosted and Dedicated orchestrators have already been patched.

Meta Ordered to Pay $25 Billion After Court Finds 43 Million Privacy Violations

Social media giant Meta was ordered to pay 25 billion in penalties by a New Mexico court on Wednesday as part of a data privacy lawsuit that sprang from the company’s Cambridge Analytica data scandal, which came to light in 2018.

According to multiple reports from the Associated Press, the New York Times, Reuters, and the Wall Street Journal, state District Court Judge Francis J. Mathew called out Meta and Facebook for making misleading statements about the privacy of consumers in the state.

“Facebook promised users that they (the users) controlled their data,” Mathew wrote in his ruling. “This was false.”