Light is expected to heat particles up or set them in motion. However, an interdisciplinary team at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, has now proven the opposite. In aqueous solution, fluorescent carbon nanotubes move much slower once they are irradiated with light. During this process, the diffusion constant decreases with light intensity, an effect linked to direct coupling between electrons in the solid and the molecules of the liquid. The research teams of Sebastian Kruss, Marialore Sulpizi, and Martina Havenith describes the hitherto unknown phenomenon in the science journal Nature from June 10, 2026. “This discovery of light-induced quantum friction fundamentally changes our understanding of interfacial processes,” says Kruss.

A drop of dye added to a glass of water undergoes ordinary diffusion. However, when placed on the surface of a foam, the dye spreads differently – diffusion becomes anomalous. An example of this is the pattern on the froth of a cup of cappuccino. Interestingly, the latest research suggests that diffusion equations in a heterogeneous environment can also describe social phenomena, such as election results or the behaviour of stock market traders.

An international research collaboration, including OMU, IJS, NIST and AUT, has unveiled a robust metallic state in the molecular material ytterbium cesium fulleride (Yb₂CsC₆₀) that directly tests conventional theories of electron behavior. Normally, strong interactions between electrons are expected to suppress their movement and turn materials into insulators through a process called a Mott transition. However, Yb₂CsC₆₀ represents a case where metallicity survived, suggesting that the material’s electrons were continuing to move collectively, stabilized by a different mechanism. The discovery is of relevance to future research in fields such as superconductivity, quantum matter, and next-generation electronic technologies.

Researchers from The University of Osaka developed a computational imaging method that combines coded-aperture optics with diffusion-model-based artificial intelligence to recover both depth and sharp color images from a single photograph. The approach improves robustness across imaging conditions while reducing reconstruction errors commonly seen in existing methods.

Astronomers have debunked recent claims of a crisis in cosmology and confirmed that the universe’s expansion continues to accelerate as previously understood.

Building the complex 3D molecules needed for new medicines has always been a bit like assembling a puzzle with pieces that keep trying to flip over. Now, chemists at Scripps Research have found a way to snap two such molecular pieces together while keeping their original 3D shapes intact, even when using some of the most reactive molecules in chemistry: free radicals.

A team of researchers has developed a green catalyst from cotton hulls that can dramatically improve the ability of ozone to remove stubborn organic pollutants from water. The study, published in Biochar, shows that a nitrogen-doped biochar catalyst called N-BC-800 can efficiently degrade N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide, better known as DEET, a widely used insect repellent that is increasingly detected in rivers, wastewater, and other aquatic environments.

Soil acidification is a growing threat to food production, especially in intensively managed agricultural regions where repeated fertilizer use can gradually make soils more acidic, reduce nutrient availability, and increase the mobility of toxic metals. A new five-year field study published in Biochar shows that biochar may do more than simply neutralize acidic soils. It can help organize a coordinated recovery process across the entire soil ecosystem.

PPPL welcomes the arrival of the central magnet bundle for its National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade, a crucial step in resuming the device's research operations.