We experimentally demonstrate encrypted image transmission over 40 km of optical fiber with high decryption fidelity and achieve a 10 Gbit/s optical encryption rate using a lithium niobate photonic chip. This represents the first implementation of public-key encryption at the physical optical layer. 

Quanta Books is delighted to announce two new upcoming books by mathematician Terence Tao and theoretical physicist David Tong. Six Math Essentials will be Tao’s first math book written for a popular audience. Tong’s book, Everything Is Fields, will illuminate quantum field theory — the physics that explains the fundamental makeup of the universe — drawing from Tong’s distinguished track record as a quantum field theorist and public communicator.

Metallenes are atomically thin metals, whose unique properties make them extremely promising for nanoscale applications. However, their extreme thinness makes them also flimsy. Now, researchers at the Nanoscience Center of the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) have succeeded in identifying the principles that can maximize their stability. The solution may open up opportunities in materials design, nano-electronics, energy production, and biomedicine. 

Recently, Prof. Andrea Alù from the City University of New York and Dr. Guangwei Hu from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore summarized previous representative work in the field of terahertz topologies and reconfigurable metamaterial devices, discussed design and integration methods for existing reconfigurable terahertz topology platforms, and explored potential avenues for future research and development. The findings were published as the cover paper titled “Topological and Reconfigurable Terahertz Metadevices” in Research (Research, 2025 DOI: 10.34133/research.0882).

Interactions among viruses can help them succeed inside their hosts or impart vulnerabilities that make them easier to treat. Scientists are learning the ways viruses mingle inside the cells they infect, as well as the consequences of their socializing. Although it is debatable whether viruses are living things, they do compete, cooperate and share genome materials that can sometimes alter their responses to antiviral drugs, result in new variants or play a role in virus evolution. A paper today in Nature Ecology & Evolution by UW Medicine scientists looks at the evolution of poliovirus resistance to a promising experimental antiviral drug, pocapavir. While it seemed counterintuitive, the researchers demonstrated that lowering the potency of pocapavir could improve the situation by enhancing the survival of enough susceptible viruses to continue sensitizing the resistant ones.