Latest Nature Physics Stories

Scientists have already hooked brains directly to computers by means of metal electrodes, in the hope of both measuring what goes on inside the brain and eventually healing conditions such as blindness or epilepsy. In the future, the interface between brain and artificial system might be based on nerve cells grown for that purpose. In research that was recently featured on the cover of Nature Physics, Prof. Elisha Moses of the Physics of Complex Systems Department and his former research...

Physicists have taken a significant step toward creation of quantum networks by establishing a new record for the length of time that quantum information can be stored in and retrieved from an ensemble of very cold atoms. Though the information remains usable for just milliseconds, even that short lifetime should be enough to allow transmission of data from one quantum repeater to another on an optical network.The new record "“ 7 milliseconds for rubidium atoms stored in a dipole optical...

Research that has provided a deeper understanding into the center of planets could also provide the way forward in the world's quest for cleaner energy.An international team of scientists, led by the University of Oxford, working alongside researchers at the Science and Technology Facilities Council's (STFC) Central Laser Facility, has gained a deeper insight into the hot, dense matter found at the center of planets and as a result, has provided further understanding into controlled...

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and JILA, a joint institute of NIST and the University of Colorado (CU) at Boulder, have made the first tunable "noiseless" amplifier. By significantly reducing the uncertainty in delicate measurements of microwave signals, the new amplifier could boost the speed and precision of quantum computing and communications systems.Conventional amplifiers add unwanted "noise," or random fluctuations, when they measure and boost...

3-D images are not only useful in medicine; the observation of internal structures is also invaluable in many other fields of scientific investigation. Recently, researchers from the Hahn-Meitner-Institute (HMI) in Berlin in cooperation with University of Applied Sciences in Berlin have succeeded, for the first time, in a direct, three-dimensional visualization of magnetic fields inside solid, non-transparent materials. This is announced by Nikolay Kardjilov and colleagues in the current...

Radio waves accelerate electrons within Jupiter's magnetic field in the same way as they do on EarthRadio waves accelerate electrons within Jupiter's magnetic field in the same way as they do on Earth, according to new research published in Nature Physics this week. The discovery overturns a theory that has held sway for more than a generation and has important implications for protecting Earth-orbiting satellites.Using data collected at Jupiter by the Galileo spacecraft, Dr Richard Horne of...

Standard microscopy and visible light imaging techniques cannot peer into the dark and murky centers of dense-liquid jets, which has hindered scientists in their quest for a full understanding of liquid breakup in devices such as automobile fuel injectors. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have developed a technique to peer through high-speed dense liquids using high-energy X-rays from Argonne's Advanced Photon Source (APS). "The imaging contrast...

A better understanding of material could bring 'endless applications'MIT physicists have taken a step toward understanding the puzzling nature of high-temperature superconductors, materials that conduct electricity with no resistance at temperatures well above absolute zero.If superconductors could be made to work at temperatures as high as room temperature, they could have potentially limitless applications. But first, scientists need to learn much more about how such materials work.Using a...