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.

Leading X-ray space telescopes XMM-Newton and XRISM have spotted a never-seen-before blast from a supermassive black hole. In a matter of hours, the gravitational monster whipped up powerful winds, flinging material out into space at eye-watering speeds of 60 000 km per second.

A research team from the Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory has developed an AI-guided "Recommendation System" to discover new metallic glasses (MG). By combining element embeddings learned from Wikipedia by a language model with graph neural networks analyzing hidden material relationships. This approach addresses longstanding challenges related to the vast chemical space and limited experimental datasets, opening new horizons for materials design and accelerating the development of next-generation MGs.

Stanford researchers have become the first to demonstrate that machine-learning control can safely guide a robot aboard the ISS, laying the groundwork for more autonomous space missions.

Described in a study published Dec. 8 in Nature Electronics, BISC includes a single-chip implant, a wearable “relay station,” and the custom software required to operate the system. “Most implantable systems are built around a canister of electronics that occupies enormous volumes of space inside the body,” says Ken Shepard, Lau Family Professor of Electrical Engineering, professor of biomedical engineering, and professor of neurological sciences at Columbia University, who is one of the senior authors on the work and guided the engineering efforts. “Our implant is a single integrated circuit chip that is so thin that it can slide into the space between the brain and the skull, resting on the brain like a piece of wet tissue paper.”

An international team led by researchers from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), including postdoctoral fellow Dr Tianyang LYU, Professor Man Hoi LEE (also with the Department of Physics), and Mok Sau-King Professor Guochun ZHAO, has made a significant breakthrough in understanding the tectonic evolution of terrestrial planets. Using advanced numerical models, the team systematically classified for the first time six distinct planetary tectonic regimes and identified a novel regime: the “Episodic-Squishy Lid”. The study not only provides crucial clues to the origin of Earth’s plate tectonics but also offers a robust theoretical framework for deciphering the enigmatic geological features of Venus. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications.

An international team of astronomers led by Oskar Klein Centre (OKC) researcher Joel Johansson has discovered SN 2025wny, the first spatially resolved, gravitationally lensed superluminous supernova ever observed. The discovery provides a striking confirmation of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity and a rare window into a powerful stellar explosion from the early Universe.