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By suppressing questions they considered too ‘philosophical’, post-war physicists created an unquestioning orthodoxy that influences science to this day.

Ranga Dias sued his university, in part, for allegedly conducting a biased investigation, which found he had committed extensive scientific misconduct.

Researchers find the genetic mutations that allow some marsupials to soar, and an ultra-accurate clock is put through its paces on the high seas.

By emulating a 2D hard-core Bose–Hubbard lattice using a controllable 4 × 4 array of superconducting qubits, volume-law entanglement scaling as well as area-law scaling at different locations in the energy spectrum are observed.

Sea-based optical clocks combining a molecular iodine spectrometer, fibre frequency comb and electronics for monitoring and control demonstrate high precision in a smaller volume than active hydrogen masers.

The best timepieces tend to be fragile, but a device based on iodine threads the needle between precision and practicality.

A highly precise timekeeping instrument has been adapted for the real world. The compact and robust device is smaller than its commercial counterparts and performs comparably in the laboratory and aboard a naval ship.

The iconic 6502 microprocessor designed in two key thin-film transistor technologies by independent foundries is used to demonstrate and expand the multi-project wafer approach for flexible electronics.

A stable tokamak plasma has been demonstrated with a high plasma density and a high energy confinement quality, both of which are simultaneously important for fusion reactors.

We show that domain walls in minimally twisted bilayer graphene support exceptionally robust proximity superconductivity in the quantum Hall regime.

Antarctic observatory gathers the first clear evidence of mysterious subatomic particles from space.

The trapping of triply charged ^229mTh³⁺ is described and its nuclear decay half-life determined, showing useful properties for the development of a nuclear clock and applications in the search for new physics.

A global effort to uncover the nature of the Universe has had resounding effects on scientists and society.

Near-field radiative heat transfer between two coplanar silicon carbide membranes in close proximity is enhanced by the electromagnetic corner and edge modes.

Paring down the astronomical complexity of the protein-folding problem, plus Isaac Newton’s ambiguous use of the word ‘axiom’, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.

We introduce strong tailored light-wave-driven time-reversal symmetry breaking in monolayer hexagonal boron nitride, realizing a sub-laser-cycle controllable analogue of the topological model of Haldane and inducing non-resonant valley polarization.

A stint at CERN exposed María Teresa Dova to longstanding collaborators and mentors, culminating in a successful bid to join a landmark project.

Theoretical physicist saw his eponymous particle discovered after 48 years.

Ultrafast light-induced driving of phonons at resonance in a substrate facilitates the permanent reversal of the magnetic state of a material mounted on it.

Applications from quantum computing to searches for physics beyond the standard model could benefit from precision control of polyatomic molecules. A method of confining and manipulating single polyatomic molecules held in tightly focused ‘optical tweezer’ laser arrays at ultracold temperatures could boost progress on all those fronts.

Microscopic magnetic fields form in non-magnetic materials when light makes the atoms rotate. A similar macroscopic effect has long been known, but proof of its atomic equivalent could give rise to ultrafast data processing.

A magnetic-field-induced Wigner crystal in Bernal-stacked bilayer graphene was directly imaged using high-resolution scanning tunnelling microscopy and its structural properties as a function of electron density, magnetic field and temperature were examined.

We demonstrate the emergence of magnetism induced by a terahertz electric field in SrTiO₃.

A hybrid topological phase of matter is discovered in the simple elemental-solid arsenic and explored using tunnelling microscopy, photoemission spectroscopy and a theoretical analysis.

The confidential 124-page report from the University of Rochester, disclosed in a lawsuit, details the extent of Ranga Dias’s scientific misconduct.

Heat flows through thin, crack-like geo-compartments are shown to purify previously mixed compounds and enhance their reactivity, providing a selective mechanism for separating molecules relevant to the chemical origins of life.

An optical tweezer array of individual polyatomic molecules is created, revealing the obvious state control in the tweezer array and enabling further research on polyatomic molecules with diverse spatial arrangements.

Scientists have designed a liquid that behaves as both a solid and a fluid owing to the presence of tiny gas-filled capsules. An unusual relationship between pressure and volume enables this material to grasp fragile objects.

The aspiring astronaut turned theoretical physicist talks travelling, the accelerating expansion of the Universe, thinking beyond three dimensions and detecting gravitational waves.

Clever manipulation of electrons has enabled scientists to change a key property of light emitted by a device using electrically controlled magnetization. The method could lead to stable and energy-efficient information transfer.

We report the experimental realization of a bosonic Kitaev chain in a nano-optomechanical network.

Initialization and operation of spin qubits in silicon above 1 K reach fidelities sufficient for fault-tolerant operations at these temperatures.

Through inelastic light scattering chiral spin-2 long-wavelength magnetorotons are observed, revealing chiral graviton modes in fractional quantum Hall states and aiding in understanding the quantum metric impacts in topological correlated systems.

An end-to-end quantum error correction protocol that implements fault-tolerant memory on the basis of a family of low-density parity-check codes shows the possibility of low-overhead fault-tolerant quantum memory within the reach of near-term quantum processors.

Increased melting of ice in Greenland and Antarctica, measured by satellite gravity, has decreased the angular velocity of Earth more rapidly than before and has already affected global timekeeping.

Efficiency roll-off in a wide range of TADF OLEDs is analysed and a figure of merit proposed for materials design to improve efficiency at high brightness, potentially expanding the range of applications of TADF materials.

Plans for Sydney’s iconic landmark become concrete, plus a ‘Michelin Guide’ to superconductive tunnelling, in the weekly dip into Nature’s archive.

Soap bubbles bombarded with ultrasonic waves rise into mid-air and can survive being stabbed with a needle.

Astronomer Fred Hoyle supposedly coined the catchy term to ridicule the theory of the Universe’s origins — 75 years on, it’s time to set the record straight.

This 2D material is only the second to exhibit the fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect, and theorists are still debating how it works.

Data from billions of proton collisions reveal that subatomic particles called W⁺ and W⁻ bosons keep company with a photon.

Transport evidence of a fractional quantum spin Hall insulator is reported in 2.1°-twisted bilayer MoTe₂, which supports spin-S_z conservation and flat spin-contrasting Chern bands.

Turbulent energy cascades can be arrested by non-dissipative viscosities, resulting in pattern formation at intermediate length scales.

Complex magnetic structures called skyrmions have been generated on a nanometre scale and controlled electrically — a promising step for fast, energy-efficient computer hardware systems that can store large amounts of data.

An array of robots has been set up so that pushes between them produce movements that do not conform to the usual laws of motion. Fascinating behaviour emerges from these interactions: wave phenomena known as solitons.

By stabilizing a stationary giant quantum vortex in superfluid ⁴He and introducing a minimally invasive way to characterize the vortex flow, intricate wave–vortex interactions are shown to simulate black hole ringdown physics.

A local driving mechanism for solitons that accelerates both solitons and antisolitons in the same direction, called non-reciprocal driving, is introduced, showing a subtle interplay between non-reciprocity and topological solitons and providing waveguiding and wave-processing possibilities for other fields.

Fidelity benchmarking of an analogue quantum simulator reaches a high-entanglement regime where exact classical simulation of quantum systems becomes impractical, and enables a new method for evaluating the mixed-state entanglement of quantum devices.

A study reports a dual quantum spin Hall insulator in monolayer TaIrTe₄, arising from the interplay of its single-particle topology and density-tuned electron correlations.