Active metasurfaces that dynamically control light at subwavelength scales hold promise for compact and intelligent photonic systems, yet achieving high tunability has long been a challenge. Researchers from the University of Chicago developed a dynamic optical platform via reversible metal electrodeposition, enabling high-efficiency, broadband, and durable active metasurfaces. By electrically depositing and removing copper at the nanoscale, the device dynamically steers light with record-high signal-to-noise ratios across visible, near- and mid-infrared regimes. This breakthrough offers a new route for high-performance dynamic optics.

By tracking swarms of very small earthquakes, seismologists are getting a new picture of the complex region where the San Andreas fault meets the Cascadia subduction zone, an area that could give rise to devastating major earthquakes.

Long-term exposure to low levels of a common agricultural pesticide can accelerate physiological aging and shorten lifespan in fish — a finding from new research led by University of Notre Dame biologist Jason Rohr with potentially far-reaching implications for environmental regulations and human health.

Researchers demonstrated a new method of cooling trapped ions using chip-based systems, which could enable more stable and scalable quantum computers and quantum sensors.

Arizona State University scientists are part of an international research team that discovered a simple, soil-based method to keep locusts from eating crops. To their knowledge, it’s the first study to test this method in real-world farming conditions. The team worked with 100 farmers in Senegal who experience outbreaks of the Senegalese grasshopper, which are consistently devastating for Senegalese farmers. Each farmer grew two plots of millet — one treated with nitrogen fertilizer and one untreated. Compared with the untreated plots, the treated plots showed three clear differences: fewer locusts, less crop damage, and a twofold increase in crop yield. This breakthrough represents an important step forward in the sustainable management of migratory pests.

A Columbia Engineering team announced today that they have created a robot that, for the first time, is able to learn facial lip motions for tasks such as speech and singing. In a new study published in Science Robotics, the researchers demonstrate how their robot used its abilities to articulate words in a variety of languages, and even sing a song out of its AI-generated debut album “hello world_.”

Columbia researchers Sebastian Will and Nanfang Yu combine optical tweezers with metasurfaces to trap over 1,000 atoms—with the potential to capture hundreds of thousands more. 

Researchers led by Rice University’s Guido Pagano used a specialized quantum device to simulate a vibrating molecule and track how energy moves within it. The work, published Dec. 5 in Nature Communications, could improve understanding of basic mechanisms behind phenomena such as photosynthesis and solar energy conversion.

The organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology behind flexible cell phones, curved monitors, and televisions could one day be used to make on-skin sensors that show changes in temperature, blood flow, and pressure in real time. An international collaboration, led by researchers from Seoul National University in the Republic of Korea and Drexel University, has developed a flexible and stretchable OLED that could put the technology on track for this use and a range of new applications.