Phys.org news

Phys.org / Photonic integrated circuits enable programmable non-Abelian 'braiding' of light states

A research team has successfully implemented a programmable spinor lattice on a photonic integrated circuit (PIC). This platform enables the realization of non-Abelian physics, in which the outcome of operations depends on ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Physics
Phys.org / Silicon metasurfaces boost optical image processing with passive intensity-based filtering

Of the many feats achieved by artificial intelligence (AI), the ability to process images quickly and accurately has had an especially impressive impact on science and technology. Now, researchers in the McKelvey School of ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Physics
Phys.org / Nanolaser on a chip could cut computer energy use in half

Researchers at DTU have developed a nanolaser that could be the key to much faster and much more energy-efficient computers, phones, and data centers. The technology offers the prospect of thousands of the new lasers being ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Physics
Phys.org / Global analysis tracks 3,100 glacier surges as climate change rewrites the rules

While most of the world's glaciers are retreating as the climate warms, a small but significant population behaves very differently—and the consequences can be severe. A team of international scientists, led by the University ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / New 3D printing ink uses 70% lignin and recycles with water

Additive manufacturing (AM) methods, such as 3D printing, enable the realization of objects with different geometric properties, by adding materials layer-by-layer to physically replicate a digital model. These methods are ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Chemistry
Phys.org / Rolling out the carpet for spin qubits with new chip architecture

Researchers at QuTech in Delft, The Netherlands, have developed a new chip architecture that could make it easier to test and scale up quantum processors based on semiconductor spin qubits. The platform, called QARPET (Qubit-Array ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Physics
Phys.org / Yangtze River fishing ban halts seven decades of biodiversity decline

The Yangtze River Basin, a global biodiversity hotspot, has endured severe ecological degradation over several decades due to intense human activity, leading to a marked decline in aquatic biodiversity. In order to halt this ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Plants retain a 'genetic memory' of past population crashes, study shows

Researchers at McGill University and the United States Forest Service have found that plants living in areas where human activity has caused population crashes carry long-lasting genetic traces of that history, such as reduced ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Silver European eel discovered in Cyprus for the first time

As part of a new study, researchers from Bournemouth University (BU) have discovered European eels, Anguilla anguilla, at the stage of silvering living in the inland waters of Cyprus for the first time. The paper is published ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Biology
Phys.org / Physicists develop new protocol for building photonic graph states

Physicists have long recognized the value of photonic graph states in quantum information processing. However, the difficulty of making these graph states has left this value largely untapped. In a step forward for the field, ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Physics
Phys.org / Ambitious climate action could save 1.32 million lives a year by 2040

Ambitious climate action to improve global air quality could save up to 1.32 million lives per year by 2040, according to a new study. The research, led by Cardiff University, shows how developing countries rely heavily on ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Earth
Phys.org / A little protein with a big role in building Earth's carbon fixing machinery

An international team of scientists has discovered that a small, low-abundance protein plays a surprisingly big role in assembling carboxysomes—specialized bacterial microcompartments that enable efficient carbon fixation ...

Feb 12, 2026 in Biology