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Do we live in a computer simulation? So far this question has been pursued mostly by philosophers because it was just too vague to make scientific sense of it. But this situation has changed now. Physicists are beginning to explore the consequences of the simulation hypothesis and a computer scientist has proposed a scientific framework to make sense of it. Let’s take a look.
Paper: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2632-072X/ae1e50
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111. Wenqi Wang, Xiaolong Wei, Bolong Xu, Hengshuo Gui, Yan Yan*, Huiyu Liu* & Xianwen Wang* Nano-Micro Lett. 18,111 (2026).
This work is led by Prof. Dr. Xianwen Wang (Anhui Medical University) and co-workers. Prof. Wang’s research centers on burn wounds and tissue regeneration, burn infection, design and development of antimicrobial nanomaterials, development of anti-inflammatory nano-formulations and study on their anti-inflammatory mechanisms. This article develops copper single-atom-loaded MoS₂ nanozymes (Cu SAs/MoS₂) that combat drug-resistant bacteria through a triple mechanism of oxidative damage, cuproptosis-like death, and disrupted cell wall synthesis. Density functional theory reveals that Cu coordination enhances H₂O₂ adsorption, reducing activation energy by 17% and boosting peroxidase-like activity, while glutathione peroxidase-like activity disrupts redox homeostasis and inhibition of peptidoglycan synthesis blocks cell wall remodeling, collectively enabling efficient bacterial killing and decelerating resistance development.
Related articles: Cactus Thorn-Inspired Janus Nanofiber Membranes as a Water Diode for Light-Enhanced Diabetic Wound Healing https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-025-01904-z Synergistic Ferroptosis–Immunotherapy Nanoplatforms: Multidimensional Engineering for Tumor Microenvironment Remodeling and Therapeutic Optimization https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-025-01862-6 Wearable Ultrasound Devices for Therapeutic Applications https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-025-01890-2
The development of highly efficient and multifunctional nanozymes holds promise for addressing the challenges posed by drug-resistant bacteria. Here, copper single-atom-loaded MoS2 nanozymes (Cu SAs/MoS2) were developed to effectively combat drug-resistant bacteria by synergistically integrating the triple strategies of oxidative damage, cuproptosis-like death and disruption of cell wall synthesis. Density functional theory revealed that each Cu center coordinated with three sulfur ligands, enhancing the adsorption of H2O2, which reduced the activation energy of the key step by 17%, thereby improving peroxidase-like (POD-like) activity. The generation of reactive oxygen species in combination with Cu SAs/MoS2 glutathione peroxidase-like (GSH-Px-like) for glutathione scavenging resulted in an imbalance in redox homeostasis within bacteria.
Researchers can adjust the frequency and bandwidth of single photons inside an optical fiber, which will be useful for future quantum networks.
Future quantum technologies will require practical techniques for adjusting the frequencies and bandwidths of individual photons to optimize them for various purposes without losing the delicate quantum data that they carry. Now researchers have improved on previous technology and have shown how both properties can be tuned over a wide range inside a short length of standard optical fiber [1]. They expect that this technique will be more practical and effective than current alternatives and will find wide use in interfacing devices in future quantum computing and communications networks.
Photons are likely to provide the means for transmitting information within future quantum networks, but frequent changes to their properties will be required in order for them to carry out a diversity of tasks. For example, a trapped-ion quantum memory emits or absorbs photons at a specific visible wavelength with an extremely narrow bandwidth, which means that a photon with which it interacts must be produced as a relatively long light pulse. In contrast, a high-speed fiber-optic channel works best with infrared photons having much broader bandwidths, which require short light pulses.
Scientists at the University of Manchester have discovered that placing magnetic films on atomically thin molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) fundamentally changes how they lose energy, a finding that could bring 2D‑material spintronics a step closer to real devices. The team found that growing a widely used magnetic alloy, permalloy, on ultra‑thin MoS₂ alters the film’s internal crystal structure, changing how and where energy is lost as magnetic spins move. By separating energy losses that occur at the surface of the film from those arising within its internal structure, the researchers provide new design insights for devices that use two‑dimensional (2D) materials to control magnetism more efficiently.
Crucially, the work uses large‑area, manufacturing‑compatible MoS₂, showing that these effects are not confined to laboratory‑scale samples but are relevant for real, scalable spintronic technologies. The study, published in Physical Review Applied, demonstrates that transition‑metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) can alter the fundamental properties of magnetic films. The results highlight the importance of careful comparison with control materials when assessing the impact of 2D layers on magnetic behavior.
Spintronics is an alternative to conventional electronics that uses not only the charge of electrons, but also their spin, to store and process information. This approach underpins emerging technologies for magnetic memory and has potential applications in energy‑efficient, high‑speed computing. A major challenge in spintronics, however, is energy loss: as magnetic spins move, some energy is inevitably dissipated as heat, limiting device speed and efficiency.
An international team of scientists from IBM, The University of Manchester, Oxford University, ETH Zurich, EPFL and the University of Regensburg have created and characterized a molecule unlike any previously known—one whose electrons travel through its structure in a corkscrew-like pattern that fundamentally alters its chemical behavior. The work appears in Science.
This is the first experimental observation of a half-Möbius electronic topology in a single molecule. To the scientists’ knowledge, a molecule with such topology has never before been synthesized, observed, or even formally predicted.
Understanding this molecule’s behavior at the electronic structure level required something equally fundamental: a high-fidelity quantum computing simulation. The discovery advances science on two fronts. For chemistry, it demonstrates that electronic topology—the property governing how electrons move through a molecule—can be deliberately engineered, not merely found in nature.
Researchers at the University of Vienna have uncovered a surprising phenomenon: polymer chains with segments that simply fluctuate at different intensities can spontaneously develop directional, persistent motion when densely packed—even though nothing in the system points them in any particular direction. This “entropic tug of war,” driven by fundamental physical constraints, could help explain how DNA organizes and moves inside living cells and may lead to new materials. The study is published in Physical Review X.
“Think of a chain threaded through a dense forest of trees, which represent obstacles posed by the other chains in the system. One end of the chain is being shaken much more vigorously than the other,” explains lead author Jan Smrek from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Vienna. “You might expect it to just wiggle randomly in place. But we found that because the chain has to find its way by going in-between the trees, the difference in shaking intensity creates an imbalance that actually propels the entire chain forward through the forest.”
This analogy can be conferred to a polymer, a large molecule consisting of many units linked together in a long chain, such as DNA. The Viennese research team—Adam Höfler, Iurii Chubak, Christos Likos and Jan Smrek—used computer simulations and analytical theory to show that this directed motion arises purely from topological constraints. When polymer chains are entangled and cannot pass through each other, segments with stronger fluctuations generate larger entropic forces. This creates an imbalance that pushes the entire chain forward along its own contour, with the stronger fluctuating part acting as the “head of the snake” moving through the forest of obstacles.
