This Week in Physics — Long-Range Quantum Cryptography Gets Simpler

This Week in Physics Magazine — June 20, 2023 Viewpoint Long-Range Quantum Cryptography Gets Simpler Marco Avesani – June 20, 2023 A series of demonstrations considerably ease the requirements for implementing quantum cryptography protocols over large distances. Research News Dark Energy Spectroscopy Instrument Releases First Data June 16, 2023 The first data collected by the Dark Energy Spectroscopy Instrument contain close to 2 million objects, including a roughly 12-billion-year-old quasar. The collaboration expects to report their first cosmology-related results within a year. Q&A From Whiskey to Oreos June 15, 2023 When the pandemic hit, Arnold Mathijssen embraced food physics, a field he thinks exemplifies the need for science to become more interdisciplinary and diverse. Video Controlling the Bounce of a Bottle June 16, 2023 Dropping a rotating plastic bottle containing water results in a bounce whose height depends on the rotation rate. Research News Sensor Judges Taste of Raw Maple Syrup June 15, 2023 Climate change is altering late-season maple syrup, but a portable plasmonic sensor could help avoid waste by detecting molecules in a tree's sap that lead to an off-tasting batch. synopsis Radio Bursts Precede Coalescence of Neutron Stars June 16, 2023 Warning of the catastrophic collapse of a neutron star could come in the form of potentially detectable radio bursts in the 10–20 gigahertz range. synopsis Accretion Explored through Gravitational Waves June 15, 2023 Future space-based gravitational-wave detectors could probe the physics of accretion disks surrounding massive black holes. synopsis Excited Sodium-32 with a Spherical Wave Function June 13, 2023 Researchers may have found an unstable sodium nucleus that has an excited state with a spherical wave function—an elusive prospect for the study of nuclear shapes. Research News Phonons on the Splitting Block June 13, 2023 Using a "bad" acoustic mirror, physicists demonstrate a phonon beam splitter, a device that could one day be used to make phonon-based quantum logic gates. synopsis Squeezing Superconductors June 14, 2023 Experiments on a family of cuprate superconductors resolve discrepancies in previous work and elucidate why the critical temperature varies with pressure. 1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740 © 2023 American Physical Society | All rights reserved View Email Online You are receiving this message because you signed up to receive Physics Magazine email alerts or are a member of APS. Manage Email Preferences.

This Week in Physics — More than One Way to the Egg

This Week in Physics Magazine — June 12, 2023 Viewpoint More than One Way to the Egg Kirsty Y. Wan – June 12, 2023 Mammalian sperm adopt a complex stochastic navigation strategy that depends on the local environment's chemical conditions and rheological properties. Research News X-Ray Spectroscopy of a Lone Atom June 6, 2023 A technique that combines x-ray spectroscopy with scanning tunneling microscopy has delivered x-ray spectra of single atoms. Research News Stuffing Water into Bird Feathers June 6, 2023 Researchers have uncovered the details of how the feathers of a desert sandgrouse absorb water, a finding that could aid in the design of water-storing artificial materials. Viewpoint A New Science for Describing Unhealthy Online Environments Elisabeth Wilhelm – June 5, 2023 A theory derived from nonlinear fluid dynamics is able to reproduce the formation dynamics of online hate communities—offering insights that could inform public policies. Focus Active Matter Turns Pinwheels June 9, 2023 The chaotic motion in a fluid of microscopic, actively moving rods can be harnessed to drive the rotation of a small propeller-like object. synopsis A Different Angle on the Color Glass Condensate June 12, 2023 Predictions indicate that a new type of measurement at the future electron–ion collider could spot an elusive high-density regime of gluons called the color glass condensate. synopsis Pitch-Perfect Corrections for Turbulence June 8, 2023 A new system could allow autonomous aircraft to correct the pitch of their wings to account for gusts of wind that abruptly change lift in real time. synopsis Pinpointing Problems in Transmission Power Grids June 7, 2023 Researchers have developed an optimization algorithm to help identify the location of an electric current surge in a power grid, without knowledge of the grid's broad structure. synopsis Grazing Model Gets an Update June 6, 2023 Model improvements uncover more information on the link between grazing animals and the formation of spiral vegetation patterns in arid climates. 1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740 © 2023 American Physical Society | All rights reserved View Email Online You are receiving this message because you signed up to receive Physics Magazine email alerts or are a member of APS. Manage Email Preferences.

This Week in Physics — A New Science for Describing Unhealthy Online Environments

This Week in Physics Magazine — June 5, 2023 Viewpoint A New Science for Describing Unhealthy Online Environments Elisabeth Wilhelm – June 5, 2023 A theory derived from nonlinear fluid dynamics is able to reproduce the formation dynamics of online hate communities—offering insights that could inform public policies. Research News Humans Help Computers Spot Bursts from Space June 1, 2023 Citizen scientists combed through radio astronomy observations to identify new sources of transient emission that computer algorithms overlooked. Focus Environmental Noise Makes a Sensor More Sensitive June 2, 2023 By exploiting a phenomenon called stochastic resonance, sensors can perform better in a noisy environment than in a noise-free setting. synopsis Another Way for Black Holes to Evaporate June 2, 2023 The gravitational fields of black holes and other compact objects are strong enough to wrest pairs of particles and antiparticles out of the vacuum and into existence, causing the objects to decay. synopsis A Textbook Dirac Semimetal June 1, 2023 Researchers have synthesized a chalcogenide compound that has the electronic structure of an ideal Dirac semimetal—which could facilitate the study of this exotic class of materials. synopsis Bond Density Not Strength Controls Polymer Stickiness May 31, 2023 Experiments show that the sticky behavior of so-called associative polymers is controlled by the density of bonding structures, contradicting theoretical predictions. 1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740 © 2023 American Physical Society | All rights reserved View Email Online You are receiving this message because you signed up to receive Physics Magazine email alerts or are a member of APS. Manage Email Preferences.