A research team from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) has simulated and extended a famous quantum phenomenon , the Aharonov–Bohm effect, using a simple water tank. By sending water waves toward a swirling vortex from opposite directions of the tank, the team observed flat, rotating lines of water that radiate across the whole tank. This classical analogue offers a visually accessible way of studying how the quantum world behaves. 

University of Manchester chemists and international collaborators have isolated a rare three‑atom bismuth ring and shown it behaves as an aromatic metal system, marking a major step forward in understanding chemical bonding beyond carbon.

Researchers have developed a new method to measure the small forces exerted by light with high precision. Using this approach, they discovered a surprising phenomenon in which light can twist tiny objects sideways, in a direction perpendicular to the light's direction of travel.

How can the mild flavor of flaxseed oil be preserved for longer? A research team led by Roman Lang from the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich has investigated this question. As the team demonstrates in its latest study, natural precursors of bitter-tasting compounds can be gently removed from the oil using bleaching earth (magnesium-aluminum silicate). This results in significantly fewer bitter-tasting compounds formed during storage, and the flaxseed oil remains flavor-stable for longer. The particular advantage: The high content of health-beneficial fatty acids as well as the oil’s typical character are preserved despite the purification process.

Researchers at TU Wien have shown that many 2D materials once considered highly promising are in fact unsuitable for this purpose. When 2D materials are combined with an insulating layer, an extremely thin gap inevitably forms between them, drastically degrading their electronic properties. The good news is that this approach also allows researchers to identify which materials are not affected by this problem—potentially saving the semiconductor industry from investing billions in technologies that are fundamentally limited by the laws of physics.

Backed by approximately 9 million euros from the Helmholtz Initiative and Networking Fund, the campaign brings together nine Helmholtz centers in a collaborative effort that bridges research, industry, government, and civil society. At the heart of this initiative are three “Solution Labs” – real-world demonstration sites where innovative water management approaches are tested and refined. These labs operate across different scales, from entire river basins to urban infrastructures and even microscopic pollutant processes. The Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) contributes with two projects: the URBAN-LE Solution Lab in Leipzig and the SOLVE initiative in the Elbe River basin.

Photonic circuits are key tools for information processing but scaling them usually requires many optical layers. We demonstrate a programmable free-space photonic platform performing a wide class of translation-invariant, high-dimensional transformations using only three layers. Encoding information in structured light, we realize quantum-walk dynamics over large lattices, distributing a single input into thousands of outputs. The approach supports operation with single photons, highlighting free-space optics as a promising route toward scalable photonic information processing.

Researchers led by Andrew Barnabas Wong at the National University of Singapore have developed a simple, low-cost method to significantly improve the electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide into valuable fuels and chemicals, offering a potential pathway to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. By coating copper catalysts with nanometre-thin films of biopolymers derived from waste materials such as seafood shells and wood, the team achieved up to 90% selectivity for multicarbon products like ethylene at industrially relevant reaction rates, while also replacing expensive and environmentally harmful PFAS-based materials commonly used in such systems. Reported in Nature Energy, the approach enhances efficiency by concentrating CO₂ at the catalyst surface and suppressing unwanted reactions, demonstrating a scalable route towards greener, more cost-effective production of fuels and chemical feedstocks using renewable electricity.

An Ehime University research group has discovered that antiaromatic molecules, typically unstable, can form stable dimers through π-stacking. The homoHPHAC cation, despite its positive charge, adopts a slightly offset stacked structure. This interaction induces electronic reorganization, partially attenuating antiaromaticity. The findings reveal a new mode of molecular assembly for antiaromatic molecules and provide insights for designing functional π-conjugated materials.