The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) has successfully demonstrated entanglement swapping (one of the key quantum communication protocols) using sum-frequency generation (SFG) between single photons for the first time.

Although nonlinear optical effects of single photons have long been theoretically recognized as powerful tools for advancing quantum communication protocols, such effects are extremely weak at the single-photon level and had never been applied for quantum operations. By combining NICT’s state-of-the-art technologies including high-speed-clocked entangled photon-pair sources, low-noise superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors, and a high-efficiency nonlinear optical crystal, the research team succeeded in observing SFG between single photons with an unprecedented signal-to-noise ratio. Using this effect, they achieved the first experimental demonstration of entanglement swapping via single-photon SFG.

This achievement is expected to pave the way for miniaturized and efficient photonic quantum information processing circuit, as well as long-distance device independent quantum key distribution.

The results were published in Nature Communications on October 7, 2025 (Tuesday).

Shanghai Jiao Tong University researchers have developed a data-driven method to recognize the coordinated intentions of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms.

By combining a simplified flight motion model with an artificial neural network, the approach can predict swarm behavior early and accurately—advancing aerial surveillance and autonomous defense systems.

The innovation features of this research are: Treating a UAV swarm as a single intelligent entity and combining the Dubins motion model with an artificial neural network to achieve early and highly accurate intention recognition of coordinated swarm behaviors.

Fresh leafy vegetables such as pakchoi rapidly lose quality after harvest due to leaf yellowing and senescence. This study uncovers the molecular mechanism through which the plant hormone 2,4-epibrassinolide (EBR), a brassinosteroid analog, delays leaf senescence in pakchoi. Researchers identified BrWRKY8, a nucleus-localized transcription factor that promotes leaf aging by activating chlorophyll degradation (BrSGR2) and brassinosteroid degradation (BrCHI2) genes. EBR treatment suppresses BrWRKY8 expression, thereby maintaining chlorophyll and hormone balance, leading to extended postharvest freshness. These findings reveal a critical regulatory pathway linking EBR and BrWRKY8 in delaying leaf senescence.

Tomato improvement through genome editing has long been hindered by the difficulty of generating transgenic plants. Researchers have now developed a virus-induced genome editing (VIGE) platform that enables heritable mutations in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) without the need for tissue culture. By engineering a tobacco rattle virus (TRV) system carrying mobile guide RNAs derived from the tomato Flowering Locus T (SlFT) gene, and pairing it with a SlUBI10-driven Cas9 expression line, they successfully produced knockout tomato seeds with up to 100% heritability. This innovative system dramatically reduces time and labor costs for tomato gene editing, opening the door to rapid functional studies and breeding applications.

The American Physical Society (APS) – the world’s largest organization of physicists – has awarded the 2026 Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics to Stefano Baroni, Professor of Condensed Matter Physics at the Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA) and research associate at the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – Istituto Officina dei Materiali (CNR–IOM). The prize is regarded as the most prestigious international recognition in the field, awarded for outstanding achievements in computational physics.

The official citation recognizes his “seminal contributions to the development of first-principles methods for studying the electronic and thermal properties of condensed systems, and for the development and dissemination of open-source software for electronic-structure calculations, now widely adopted.”