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Some microbes can form thin films called biofilms that give those microbes an advantage by protecting them from stresses such as a lack of nutrients. Some biofilms also benefit plants and other host organisms. New research has identified an enzyme in bacteria that is key to the formation of helpful biofilms on willow and cottonwood trees. The research could lead to advances in studies of microbes important to medicine and agriculture.

Researchers believe that fluctuations in the magnetic fields tokamaks use to confine plasma can reduce fusion energy production by causing particle and heat losses from the plasma to the reactor walls. New research has developed a novel light probe that uses polarization to reveal small-scale magnetic turbulence in detail. This will help validate the models used to design reactors and predict their performance.

At MIT, associate professor Jesse Thaler develops new ways to analyze and interpret particle collision data from experiments like the Large Hadron Collider, with the ultimate goal of advancing our knowledge of fundamental physics.

Particles in quantum systems have many potential values, making them hard to simulate with a conventional computer. Researchers have proposed a new way to prepare energy states of a simulated quantum system using a quantum computer. Researchers first determine the energy state they are interested in creating. The quantum computer starts the system in a simplified state, then produces different combinations of how the variables evolve over time, then eliminates the energy states that don’t match researchers’ targets.

Computer models of water and land help scientists understand the effects of fire, drought, and human activity, but these models are challenging to build, especially in complex landscapes like the Arctic tundra. Scientists have developed a new mathematical formulation that enables models to predict water runoff in these complex landscapes. This approach will also advance researchers’ ability to predict how surface and subsurface water flow will change over time in a given watershed.