Hot material The crystal structure of cordierite gives the material its unique thermal properties. (Courtesy: M Dove and L Li/Matter) The anomalous and ultra-low thermal expansion of cordierite ...

Anomalous effect A topological electronic crystal has been observed in a multilayer twisted graphene system. (Courtesy: Shutterstock/Rost9) A topological electronic crystal (TEC) in which the quantum ...

Access more than 20 years of online content Manage which e-mail newsletters you want to receive Read about the big breakthroughs and innovations across 13 scientific topics Explore the key issues and ...

If you have worked in a university, research institute or business during the past two decades you will be familiar with the term equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). There is likely to be an EDI ...

Tracking microplastics Haipeng Huang from Peking University holds a solution containing fluorescent microplastic particles. The use of these particles alongside microscopy has significantly ...

Philip Ball peers into the quantum past, and uncovers a little-known paper published by Niels Bohr, Hendrik Kramers and John Slater in 1924, that proposed that the first law of thermodynamics may no ...

Publish or perish A study finds that publishing fewer papers as a postdoc makes you more likely to drop out of academia. (Courtesy: iStock) If you’re a postdoc who wants to nail down that permanent ...

Fast and accurate A tactile sensor capable of reading braille could enable the creation of smart readers that convert braille to speech or text, helping to make braille more accessible and widespread.

Star turn: Kenzie Nimmo presenting this work at a recent conference. (Courtesy: K Nimmo) The exact origins of cosmic phenomena known as fast radio bursts (FRBs) are not fully understood, but ...

Looking ahead: As we celebrate the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology this year, Keith Burnett says it can be a reminder of how the benefits of physics span over decades. (Courtesy: ...

Devices like lasers and other semiconductor-based technologies operate on the principles of quantum mechanics, but they only scratch the surface. To fully exploit quantum phenomena, scientists are ...

In his years as a physics teacher, students often asked Mark Whalley why they had to learn the subject when most of them would never directly use it in their careers. Having never been satisfied with ...