Month: December 2023

I’m a Barbie role model: UK space scientist and science educator Maggie Aderin-Pocock with here one-of-a-kind Barbie doll (Courtesy: Mattel) From the fastest woman to run across the US to the mechanics of dancing peanuts, physics has had its fair share of quirky stories this year. Here is our pick of the best 10, not in any

(Courtey: iStock/wildpixel) This year, the Physics World team selected a medical innovation as the Breakthrough of the Year: the development of a digital bridge that restores communication between the brain and spinal cord, enabling a man with paralysis to stand and walk naturally. We also reported on several other neural engineering advances, including a neuroprosthesis

(Courtesy: Shutterstock/Roman-Sigaev) It’s been another banner year for quantum science and technology, with academic research groups and tech firms celebrating significant achievements in quantum computing, quantum communications and quantum metrology as well as fundamental quantum science. Three of these advances – a quantum repeater that transmits quantum information over a distance of 50 km; a

Modified wood Researchers at Linköping University, together with colleagues from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, have developed the world’s first electrical transistor made of wood. (Courtesy: Thor Balkhed) There are many physicists working on materials and every year we look forward to writing about some of the most exciting research in this field. This

Sidney Perkowitz explains what Isaac Newton has to do with a huge, glitzy entertainment dome in Las Vegas Dome in the desert The Sphere in Las Vegas has the highest-resolution wrap-around LED screen in the world. (Courtesy: iStock/ALFSnaiper) Spheres, globes or orbs: call them what you like, they have always been part of physics even

Acoustic touch A research team member who is blind uses the new smart glasses to locate and reach for an item on the table. (Courtesy: CC-BY 4.0/Lil Deverell at the Motion Platform and Mixed Reality Lab in Techlab at the UTS) Researchers in Australia are developing smart glasses for blind people, using a technology called

The QUANT-NET research consortium is building the first quantum network testbed for distributed quantum computing applications in the US. Joe McEntee visits Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) in California to check out progress on the enabling quantum technologies Quantum engineering From left to right, QUANT-NET researchers Erhan Saglamyurek, Hartmut Häffner, Inder Monga and Wenji