Helical pulses, shaped like flying electromagnetic conches, long predicted but never directly observed, have now been experimentally realized in both optical and microwave bands. The work shows that light can twist through space and time within a single cycle, forming truly space time nonseparable wave packets. This breakthrough confirms a decades old theoretical prediction and opens new paths for ultrafast communication, topological field control, and advanced imaging.

Listening to the "whispers" of electrons and crystals has lead to a quantum discovery with terahertz light that could help us advance technological innovations and life science research.

Researchers have developed new means of recycling a common pollutant associated with groundwater and agricultural runoff: nitrate.  By developing an electrocatalyst that turns nitrate into ammonia, they have also helped make ammonia production more greener.

Researchers and students from Okayama University of Science (OUS) and Mapúa University (MU) in the Philippines held their third joint colloquium, the “International Seminar on Sustainable Materials, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering,” as the opening event of MU’s International Month. More than 400 participants joined the hybrid event, which featured invited talks, student presentations, and award-winning posters, as well as campus visits, museum tours, and a student-led English–Japanese Café. The program is deepening research collaboration and inspiring future graduate study at OUS, marking a new phase of academic exchange between the two universities.

A team led by Pei-Yi Wu and Sheng-Tong Sun at Donghua University reported a strong hydrogel fiber material with water-induced adhesion properties that resolves the structural contradiction of simultaneously achieving mechanical strength and self-adhesion. The fiber exhibits reversible humidity-responsive characteristics, maintaining high strength in a dry state and rapidly transforming into a highly adhesive state upon contact with water. This water-activated self-adhesive behavior is completely reversible, providing new insights for the design of high-performance adhesive materials in fields such as intelligent capture and micro-soft robots. The article was was recently published as an open access research article in CCS Chemistry, the flagship journal of the Chinese Chemical Society.

Iron based nanoparticles are everywhere in soils, rivers, wetlands, and groundwater. Although invisible to the naked eye, these tiny particles help regulate how nutrients and contaminants move through nature. A new review by an international research team provides the most comprehensive explanation to date of why iron nanoparticles remain stable in some environments and rapidly transform or clump together in others. Their findings offer scientific insights that can improve strategies for managing water quality, soil remediation, and contaminant transport.

In a paper recently published by npj 2D Materials and Applications, researchers from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) have created a high-throughput computational strategy, creating a new, data-driven approach to finding ideal 2D materials and substrates. 

We experimentally demonstrate encrypted image transmission over 40 km of optical fiber with high decryption fidelity and achieve a 10 Gbit/s optical encryption rate using a lithium niobate photonic chip. This represents the first implementation of public-key encryption at the physical optical layer. 

Quanta Books is delighted to announce two new upcoming books by mathematician Terence Tao and theoretical physicist David Tong. Six Math Essentials will be Tao’s first math book written for a popular audience. Tong’s book, Everything Is Fields, will illuminate quantum field theory — the physics that explains the fundamental makeup of the universe — drawing from Tong’s distinguished track record as a quantum field theorist and public communicator.