Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have succeeded in detecting laser-assisted electron scattering (LAES) using circularly polarized light for the first time. The use of circularly polarized light promises valuable insights into how atomic scale “helicity” impacts how electrons interact with matter and light.
Using synchronized femtosecond laser pulses and electron pulses directed at argon atoms, they succeeded in detecting a LAES signal showing excellent agreement with theory. The findings are published in The Journal of Chemical Physics.
LAES is a cutting-edge tool for understanding how electrons interact with matter under the influence of strong fields. When electrons are fired at atoms or molecules, they are scattered in all directions; the presence of strong light can change the way in which the scattering takes place due to an exchange of energy with the surrounding light field.
Neutrinos are extremely lightweight and electrically neutral particles that rarely interact with ordinary matter. Due to these rare interactions, neutrinos can travel across space almost entirely unaffected, carrying information about highly energetic cosmological events, such as exploding stars or supermassive black holes.
The KM3NeT neutrino telescope, an observatory located at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, recently detected the presence of a neutrino carrying extremely high energy, above 100 PeV (peta-electronvolts). This is one of the most energetic neutrinos observed to date.
Theoretical predictions suggested that another large-scale neutrino detector, namely the IceCube detector, would also observe similar high-energy neutrino events. However, this did not happen, which might potentially hint at some new physics, such as a new type of neutrinos or non-standard interactions, that are not included in the standard model of physics.
Does the universe need observers to exist? Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-hosts Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly explore questions about entropy, spontaneous symmetry breaking, spectroscopy and more with astrophysicist Charles Liu.
Does the universe require observers for information to exist? From Niels Bohr and the Copenhagen interpretation to modern neuroscience and philosophy, the crew explores whether measurement creates reality or reveals it. How does the double-slit experiment fit into this? Are wave and particle behaviors determined by how we measure them?
The conversation turns to information itself. What do physicists mean by “information”? How is entropy connected to hidden information in a system? We discuss entropy through everyday examples like coin flips, burning wood, and boiling water. How does this relate to quantum computing? We explore how astronomers separate cosmic redshift from stellar motion using spectroscopy, how interstellar dust and extinction curves complicate observations, and why mapping that dust is both a challenge and a source of discovery.
We discuss why the Big Bang didn’t form a black hole, how spontaneous symmetry breaking may have split the fundamental forces, and whether science can meaningfully investigate the universe’s earliest moments. Wrapping up, the team looks ahead to multi-messenger astronomy, next-generation telescope technology, exotic ideas about the speed of light, and how information continues to reshape what we know about the cosmos.
Thanks to our Patrons Avery Ellis, Markus Riegler, Linda Tullberg, Gami Lannin, Arief Aziz, Ron Lawhon, Corie Prater, Patrick McNaught, FracturedEquality, Spengler, Peter Harbeson, Oddron86, Hudson Lowe, Drew Romaniak, V2022, Kyle Ferchen, Branko Denčić, Patrick Borgquist, DJ Sipe, Andy Blair, Alan Keizer, SR, Nihat Cubukcu, Greg Lance, Diwas Pandit, Anik Kasumi, Alexander Albert, Kodai, Dyonne Peters Lewoc AKA DPTaterTot, Adrian, Ben Goff, Jose Barreiro, Saurabh Chaudhari, Wimberley Children’s House, Jean Arthur Deda, Jerrel Thomas, Serkan Ergenc, Douglas Kennedy, Lee Browner, Manuel Palmer, Dans Jansons, Russell Harvey, BladiX, Lars-Ove Torstensson, Norman Weizer, Arian Farkhoy, S. Madge, Pavel Seraphimov, Amanda Wolfe, Heisenberg, Mattchew Phillips, Caleb Berumen, Sretooh, Gary Tabbert, Oscar Abreu Lamas, Kevin Attebury, Volker Haberlandt, SeaGolly, B. Shoemaker, Ruben Ferrer, Steven Adams, Daniel Hintz, Nathaniel Richardson, Nick Griffiths, Adam Schmidt, Scott Plummer, Northernlight, JoMama, Beth, Frank Cottone, Yinj, Betty Anderson, Paul Smith, John Little, Emad Uddin, Brian O’Brien, Jayden Moffatt, Kevin Mace, Zara DeBresoc, Rain Bresee, Mara (Farmstrong), Rose, Stiven, Demethius Jackson, Alejandro Rodriguez, J Davis, Chris Buhler, Nathan Davieau, Sourav Prakash Patra, Wayne Rasmussen, John from Bavaria, Stephanie Phillips, Yohojones, Josh Farrell, John, Oo-De-Lally, Millie Richter, Montague Films, Lawrey Goodrick, and John Giovannettone for supporting us this week.
One solution to the Eco, ‘Elephant in the Room’- of space launches.
Everything burns. Given the right environment, all matter can burn by adding oxygen, but finding the right mix and generating enough heat makes some materials combust more easily than others. Researchers interested in knowing more about a type of fire called discrete burning used ESA’s microgravity experiment facilities to investigate.
In a series of parabolic flights and on sounding rockets launched from Sweden, a team from Professor Jeffrey Bergthorson at McGill University in Canada and Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands investigated burning iron powder in zero gravity. Their research was pure physics, the scientists wanted to know more about discrete burning whereby flames do not burn through fuel continuously but jump from one fuel source to another. This form of fire hardly occurs naturally on Earth, but an example is a forest fire where one tree burns completely and the fire jumps to the next tree when the temperature increases enough for combustion.
Burning iron dust in experiments on zero-g aircraft and rocket flights allowed for the iron particles to float and ignite discreetly. High-speed cameras captured the spectacle and allowed the researchers to better understand the phenomenon, resulting in computer models that showed the ideal conditions to burn the fuel on Earth.
A new AI framework called THOR is transforming how scientists calculate the behavior of atoms inside materials. Instead of relying on slow simulations that take weeks of supercomputer time, the system uses tensor network mathematics and machine-learning models to solve the problem directly. The approach can compute key thermodynamic properties hundreds of times faster while preserving accuracy. Researchers say this could accelerate discoveries in materials science, physics, and chemistry.
Curiosity-driven research has long sparked technological transformations. A century ago, curiosity about atoms led to quantum mechanics, and eventually the transistor at the heart of modern computing. Conversely, the steam engine was a practical breakthrough, but it took fundamental research in thermodynamics to fully harness its power.
Today, artificial intelligence and science find themselves at a similar inflection point. The current AI revolution has been fueled by decades of research in the mathematical and physical sciences (MPS), which provided the challenging problems, datasets, and insights that made modern AI possible. The 2024 Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry, recognizing foundational AI methods rooted in physics and AI applications for protein design, made this connection impossible to miss.
In 2025, MIT hosted a Workshop on the Future of AI+MPS, funded by the National Science Foundation with support from the MIT School of Science and the MIT departments of Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics. The workshop brought together leading AI and science researchers to chart how the MPS domains can best capitalize on — and contribute to — the future of AI. Now a white paper, with recommendations for funding agencies, institutions, and researchers, has been published in Machine Learning: Science and Technology. In this interview, Jesse Thaler, MIT professor of physics and chair of the workshop, describes key themes and how MIT is positioning itself to lead in AI and science.
Nuclear isomers are crucial probes for studying the structure of nuclei. Unlike chemical isomers—which have the same chemical formula but different arrangements of atoms—nuclear isomers are nuclei that exist in a long-lived and relatively stable excited state.
Normally, an atomic nucleus resides in its lowest-energy state, known as the ground state. Under external perturbations, such as nucleus-nucleus collisions, however, a nucleus can be excited to a higher-energy state.
While most excited nuclear states are extremely short-lived and rapidly decay back to the ground state, some nuclei remain “trapped” in an excited state for a remarkably long time. Such isomeric states help reveal the structure of the nucleus due to its high sensitivity to the underlying shell structure as well as to changes in single-particle levels.
Consider a material that doesn’t just “have” a certain property, but spontaneously creates it out of total chaos. That is the essence of what researchers found in a recent study on a specific metal called CeRu4Sn6.
This isn’t just a lab curiosity. By proving that quantum fluctuations (the tiny, frantic jitters of atoms) can work together with a material’s symmetry to create new phases, the researchers have provided a new “treasure map.”
Key Takeaway: You don’t always need solid building blocks (quasiparticles) to build a structure; sometimes, the “jitter” of quantum physics is enough to weave a new reality.
Examples of materials with non-trivial band topology in the presence of strong electron correlations are rare. Now it is shown that quantum fluctuations near a quantum phase transition can promote topological phases in a heavy-fermion compound.
Southwest Research Institute was part of an international team that demonstrated how complex organic molecules (COMs), key chemical precursors to life, could have been incorporated into Jupiter’s Galilean moons during their formation. The team’s findings have resulted in complementary studies published in The Planetary Science Journal and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, offering new insights into the potential for life in the Jovian system.
How complex organics can form Carbon-rich compounds containing oxygen, nitrogen and other elements are necessary for living matter to form. Laboratory experiments have shown that COMs can form when icy grains containing methanol or mixtures of carbondioxide and ammonia are exposed to either ultraviolet radiation or moderate heating under conditions found in protoplanetary disks. These disks of gas and dust surround newly formed stars that eventually form planets.
“By combining disk evolution with particle transport models, we could precisely quantify the radiation and thermal conditions the icy grains experienced,” said Dr. Olivier Mousis of SwRI’s solar system science and exploration division, who is lead author of one of the two studies. “Then we directly compared our simulations with other laboratory experiments that produce COMs under realistic astrophysical conditions. The results showed that COM formation is possible in both the protosolar nebula environment and Jupiter’s circumplanetary disk.”
A research team led by Prof. Shao Dingfu from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has proposed a universal mechanism that enables deterministic electrical control of collinear antiferromagnets—overcoming a long-standing bottleneck in antiferromagnetic spintronics. The study is published in Physical Review Letters.
