Scientists from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, in collaboration with research groups from the Łódź University of Technology, the Warsaw University of Technology, and the Polish Academy of Sciences, have developed a structure that traps infrared light in a layer just 40 nanometers thick. To achieve this, they created a structure called a subwavelength grating using a special material – molybdenum diselenide (MoSe₂). They published their results in the prestigious journal “ACS Nano”.

The University of Malaga has developed a new technology that enables, for the first time, high-resolution geochemical mapping from the air.

Specifically, the research team in Instrumentation for Extreme Environments of the Department of Applied Physics I of the UMA, together with the Mining Waste and Environmental Geochemistry Research Group of the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGME-CSIC) have designed the prototype ‘REMINLASER’, an airborne instrument, validated under realistic operational scenarios, for in-flight geochemical screening.

Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime produced by violent cosmic events, such as the merging of black holes. So far, direct detections have relied on measuring tiny distance changes over kilometer-scale instruments. In a new theoretical study accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters, researchers at Stockholm University, Nordita, and the University of T¨ubingen propose an unconventional approach: tracking how gravitational waves reshape the light emitted by atoms. The work describes a possible detection route, but an experimental demonstration remains for the

future.

Animal studies often fail to predict human tissue responses to new drugs or newly developed therapies. Besides generating tremendous costs for clinical studies, it also raises significant ethical concerns. Therefore, novel approaches in mimicking natural human environments like vascular system growth control, are broadly developed to deliver a reproducible model to test novel drugs. Recently, researchers from the Institute of Physical Chemistry demonstrated a unique system that is based on endothelial cells coated onto the surface of microparticles that can be spatially organized into pre-designed patterns to initiate the growth of vascular systems of well-defined micro-architecture. The patterning is achieved via directed-assembly using external magnetic fields. The discovery opens up new opportunities for personalized drug testing and precision medicine. Let’s take a cool closer on this breakthrough.

Studying the ultrathin layers of molecules on surfaces—where catalysts work, batteries react, and proteins fold—is crucial for chemistry and materials science. But a major challenge persists: the inherently weak signals from interfacial molecules are often too faint to detect, and many delicate samples are prone to light damage, requiring non-invasive low-intensity illumination that further reduces signal levels. Researchers at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed an innovative technique that amplifies the weak molecular signals by optical amplifier while suppressing the background, enabling clearer, faster measurements of surface molecular structures.

Achieving high-throughput, precise manipulation of diverse biological particles—from nanoscale vesicles to living cells—within their native, often curved environments is a pivotal challenge for advanced biomedical research. To break the longstanding trade-offs between throughput, resolution, and substrate rigidity in optical manipulation, researchers have now developed flexible and stretchable on-chip optical tweezers (FSOT). This platform employs large-scale microlens arrays on flexible substrates to enable diffraction-unlimited trapping of hundreds of bioparticles directly on complex surfaces such as skin and tissue. Its unique bendability and stretchability further allow conformal operation on biological interfaces and precise control over inter-cellular interactions, opening new avenues for wearable diagnostics and implantable sensing platforms.