The Arctic is one of the regions most strongly affected by climate change. In recent decades, the temperature there has risen four times as fast as the global average. The ASCCI measurement campaign coordinated by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Goethe University Frankfurt is investigating why the Arctic is warming so much faster than the rest of Earth’s surface and what effects that will have. With measurement flights taking place in the region through early April, the researchers are working to gain a better understanding of the causes and effects of Arctic climate change.  

Empa researchers from the nanotech@surfaces laboratory have experimentally recreated another fundamental theoretical model from quantum physics, which goes back to the Nobel Prize laureate Werner Heisenberg. The basis for the successful experiment was a kind of “quantum Lego” made of tiny carbon molecules known as nanographenes. This synthetic bottom-up approach enables versatile experimental research into quantum technologies, which could one day help drive breakthroughs in the field.