Physicists at ETH Zurich have developed a lens with magic properties. Ultra-thin, it can transform infrared light into visible light by halving the wavelength of incident light.

A team led by Professor Masakatsu Murakami has developed a novel concept called micronozzle acceleration (MNA). By designing a microtarget with tiny nozzle-like features and irradiating it with ultraintense, ultrashort laser pulses, the team successfully demonstrated—through advanced numerical simulations—the generation of high-quality, GeV-class proton beams: a world-first achievement.

Turbulence—where flows and vortices intricately intertwine—is a fundamental phenomenon found across nature, from our everyday surroundings to the cosmos. In particular, high-temperature fusion plasmas exhibit highly complex turbulence, driven by the coupled fluctuations of multiple physical quantities such as density, temperature, and magnetic fields. A research team led by  Dr Go Yatomi of the National Institute for Fusion Science (a graduate student at SOKENDAI at the time of submission) and Associate Professor Motoki Nakata of Komazawa University (also a visiting researcher at RIKEN) has developed a novel method to analyze turbulent states and interactions from the perspective of "information," drawing inspiration from mathematical frameworks in quantum mechanics, such as information entropy. This approach enables the discovery of previously overlooked turbulence regimes in plasmas and reveals essential nonlinear interactions between multi-scale vortices and flows—interactions that conventional energy-based analyses often miss. The study also proposes potential applications of the method to experimental diagnostics of turbulence and fluctuations. Looking ahead, this technique is expected to extend beyond plasma physics, offering new insights into complex systems in atmospheric and oceanic sciences, as well as in social dynamics, where complex flows and multi-variable interactions also play critical roles.

Forest soil stores water, carbon and nutrients for trees and also provides a habitat for living organisms. When managing forests, it is particularly important to work in a way that protects the soil and to correctly assess soil moisture for that purpose. A new study by the University of Göttingen in collaboration with the Czech Mendel University shows that previous methods of moisture measurement are inadequate. Satellite data can help to better understand the soil moisture dynamics of forest soils. This research has implications for best practice in forest management. The findings will help people adapt to a changing climate and to refine and inform prediction models. The results were published in the Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies.

 

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