How can a horde of active robots be automatically brought to a standstill? By arresting their dynamics in a self-sustained way. This phenomenon was discovered by physicists at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and La Sapienza University in Rome. The threshold principle of static friction with the ground plays a decisive role here: it removes the kinetic energy of two robots after a mutual collision so efficiently that they can no longer set themselves in motion. The researchers describe in the journal Nature Communications that this fundamental effect can also be used to construct controllable moving robot systems.

North China faces extreme heat, with temps hitting 40°C+ in 2023—breaking 60-year records. A new study links the heatwave to high-pressure systems and dry soils, warning such events may become normal due to climate change. Urgent adaptation needed for energy, health, and crops.

New molecular capsules capable of imparting chiral activity to non-chiral metal-containing dyes were successfully created by self-assembly in water, as reported by researchers from Japan. These capsules have adaptable chiral cavities, inducing chirality of various large and rigid metal-containing dyes upon encapsulation, without requiring typical chemical modification. Moreover, the chiral properties can be tuned with heat, showcasing the potential use in chiral materials and catalysts.

The quantum metric—a key measure of the quantum distance in solid-state materials—helps determine the electronic properties of solids, such as transport phenomena. While scientists have measured the quantum metric directly in artificial systems, its determination in solids has proven challenging. Recently, researchers from Yonsei University have obtained this quantity using photoemission measurements in black phosphorus, furthering theoretical as well as experimental quantum physics.

To address fidelity loss in deep-tissue imaging, Prof. Peng Xi’s team at Peking University developed Confocal² Spinning-Disk Image Scanning Microscopy (C²SD-ISM). By combining spinning-disk confocal microscopy with structured illumination, C²SD-ISM achieves high-fidelity 3D imaging up to 180 μm deep, with 144 nm lateral and 351 nm axial resolution, and retains up to 92% correlation with original confocal images.

Even large objects with several hundred million atoms can exhibit quantum mechanical behaviour – without cooling and at room temperature, as researchers at ETH Zurich have shown. This yields exciting potential for new technologies.