Thermal diffusion—a fundamental physical process pervasive in applications ranging from electronics to industrial systems—is inherently irreversible under the second law of thermodynamics. As temperature gradients spontaneously smooth out over time, crucial information regarding the initial thermal state is permanently lost due to entropy increase. This fundamental information loss leads to a severe ill-posedness in inverse thermal problems, where infinitesimal errors in the final observation can cause enormous uncertainties in the reconstructed initial state.

Birds in flocks, bacteria, cells: in many collective systems, individual elements respond to only part of their surroundings, seemingly defying Newton’s third law of motion — action equals reaction. These exceptions are known as non-reciprocal interactions. A Dresden physics team working with Roderich Moessner, a founding member of the Würzburg–Dresden Cluster of Excellence ctd.qmat, has now developed a theory that makes it possible to describe these interactions efficiently and simulate them far more precisely. This could help researchers study motion in swarms and flocks as well as biological processes in much greater detail. The findings have been published in Nature Physics.

Researchers have developed a solar driven catalyst material that harnesses the energy of a single photon to reduce carbon dioxide and oxidise organic waste at the same time, and produce valuable chemicals in both reactions. 

Professor Sir Andre Geim, Nobel Laureate and Chair Professor in the Department of Physics under the Faculty of Science at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), delivered his inaugural lecture titled "Random Walk to Graphene" on 9 June. Held at the Grand Hall of the Lee Shau Kee Lecture Centre, the lecture delved into how simple curiosity—and a willingness to embrace the unexpected—led to one of the most groundbreaking discoveries of our time. The event drew an audience of about 800 participants, spanning academic, policy, practitioner and student communities.

JUNO's first physics result was published in Nature. Through the analysis of valid data collected over 59 days from August 26 to November 2, 2025, the JUNO Collaboration made the high-precision measurement of the two key oscillation parameters, reducing the associated uncertainties by a factor of 1.6 compared to the combined experimental results in the past decades.

Fentanyl and related variants of the synthetic opioid kill more Americans each year than car accidents and gun violence combined. In too-high doses, the drugs hijack brain chemistry and shut down the signals that control breathing. Existing medical interventions can reverse an overdose, but only if given quickly enough after it occurs. Now, scientists at Scripps Research have shown the feasibility of a completely different approach to combating fentanyl deaths: a vaccine that teaches the immune system to rapidly neutralize the drug before it reaches the brain in the first place.

Biochar has often been praised as a “black gold” for sustainable agriculture, pollution control, and carbon storage. Yet despite its promise, its wider use has been limited by a practical challenge: compared with materials such as activated carbon, graphene, and carbon nanotubes, biochar often has lower surface area and electrical conductivity. Expensive post-treatment methods can improve its performance, but they may also increase cost, energy use, and secondary pollution.