Physical Sciences
Explore Physical Sciences
Dr Michael L. Walker | The Hidden Energy Battle Inside Every Quantum Measurement
In the strange world of quantum mechanics, tiny particles can exist in several states at once. Yet when we measure them, we always get one clear result. This strange jump from “many possibilities” to “one outcome” is known as wavefunction collapse, and it has puzzled physicists for a century. In his paper On the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Measurement, physicist Michael Walker offers a surprisingly simple explanation for how this collapse might naturally happen, without adding new physics or weird assumptions.
Dr. Colin Meyer | Cutting through Ice to Understand the Behavior of Glaciers
Imagine cutting through a stick of butter – you end up with two smaller sticks of butter. Now, try cutting through a block of ice. Under the right conditions, surprisingly, you don’t get two separate pieces. Instead, the ice magically fuses back together, remaining as a single block. This fascinating phenomenon is called regelation. Simply put, regelation happens when pressure causes ice to melt into a thin layer of water, which flows and then refreezes once the pressure is removed.
Dr Fatema Alali | How Ring-Shaped Gold Nanoparticles Could Revolutionise Cancer Treatment
Nanoparticles may be tiny, but their potential impact on medicine is enormous. In a new study, researcher Fatema Alali explores how carefully designed gold nanoparticles could make light-based cancer treatments safer, more precise, and more reliable. Her research focuses on how the shape of these particles controls the way they absorb light and turn it into heat – a key process in photothermal therapy.
Dr. Missy Thompson | Uncovering the Science Behind Elite Ice Climbing
Ice climbing is one of the most dramatic winter sports, with athletes swinging axes into frozen walls and hauling themselves skyward on vertical sheets of ice. But behind the spectacle lies a science of movement, endurance and strength that is only starting to be explored. Research led by Dr. Missy Thompson at Fort Lewis College takes a close look at the biomechanics of elite ice climbers, revealing what separates top performers from the rest.
Dr Maria Helena Braga | High-performing Cathodes for Lithium-ion Batteries
Materials called NMCs are widely used as the positively charged electrodes – or ‘cathodes’ – in lithium-ion batteries, making them key components in everyday devices ranging from smartphones to electric cars. One type of nickel-rich NMC, called NMC955, is currently being developed as a promising new cathode material, owing to its exceptionally high energy density. Although the high nickel content of NMC955 helps reduce the need for cobalt, improving its environmental impact, it also causes structural and thermal stability issues that lead to safety concerns and reduced electrochemical performance. As a result, batteries with this cathode material can lose up to 15% of their charge capacity after just one charge-discharge cycle.
Dr Ursula Vincent | Detecting Trace Antibiotics in Livestock Feed to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance
Antibiotic resistance is one of the most urgent public health threats today, and animal farming plays a significant role. For decades, livestock in the EU were routinely given medicated feed containing low doses of antibiotics – not to treat infections but to prevent them. This preventative daily dosing greatly contributed to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. To combat this, the EU first introduced new rules in 2006 where antibiotics in feed can only be used with a veterinary prescription to treat diagnosed infections. Since May of 2025, the cross-contamination of antibiotics from medicated feed to non-medicated feed has also become strictly regulated. Even with these regulations, non-medicated feed can still become contaminated.
Greenland’s Ancient Warm Period Reveals Future Climate Risks
Studying Earth’s past environments is critical for predicting the impacts of human-driven climate change. By looking at how the Arctic responded to warm periods millions of years ago, scientists can make more accurate predictions about what lies ahead. A groundbreaking study led by Drs. Gina Moseley, Gabriella Koltai and Jonathan Baker at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, has revealed Greenland’s dramatically different past.
Dr Ruth Kastner | A Quantum Defeat of Maxwell’s Demon
“Maxwell’s Demon” is a thought experiment first imagined by James Clerk Maxwell in 1867. Maxwell suggested that a microscopic being – the “Demon” – could violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The Second Law demands that in a closed system, the overall level of disorder, or entropy, can only increase over time. In Maxwell’s thought experiment, a closed box filled with gas is divided into two chambers, and the “Demon” can sort fast-moving gas molecules into one chamber and slow-moving molecules into the other, decreasing the entropy of the gas. If this were possible, one could extract useful work from the gas without any energy input.
Dr Benjamin Blanz | Protecting Fish Stocks with Smarter Risk Management
Fisheries are a vital source of food, livelihoods, and cultural identity for many communities across the globe. Unfortunately, fish stocks are collapsing, despite management plans designed to ensure sustainability based on rigorous stock assessments. These collapses devastate ecosystems and the communities that rely on them, raising an urgent need to balance competing demands for fish with preserving stocks for the future. Dr Benjamin Blanz at the University of Hamburg and his collaborators are taking a new approach to this challenge.
Dr Simon Hoeg | Understanding the Future of Pre-Alpine Water in a Changing Climate
In the Pre-Alpine valleys of Switzerland, the water that flows through streams doesn’t all come from the same source. Some of this water might be today’s rain, while some is yesterday’s snowmelt. Another significant proportion has been moving underground for weeks, filtering through soils, forests, and rocks before making its way into streams and rivers. Understanding these different water sources and their varying proportions helps us to understand how rivers respond to the effects of climate change, and how reliable our water supplies will be in the future. This is the focus of an important new study by Dr Simon Hoeg of Panorama Water Research.
The GEMS Project: Harvesting Geothermal Energy from Abandoned Mines
Geothermal power is a rapidly developing form of renewable energy, where heat is harvested directly from the Earth’s crust. One potentially abundant source of this energy is water in disused coal mines, which absorbs heat from the surrounding rock. There are thousands of these mines throughout Britain. With the right approach, Durham Energy Institute estimates that there is enough energy within them to meet the heating demands of every building lying over the coalfields. If achieved, this goal would not only be a significant step towards decarbonising the British economy; it could also provide immense benefits to disadvantaged former mining communities in the region.
This video provides information to help you navigate emergency department visits to ensure your loved one receives effective care. The focus will be on how to manage seizure emergencies – either seizures arising for the first time or those caused by epilepsy.
Dr. Hubert Untersteiner | A Smart and Safe Method to Assess Pesticide Risks to Aquatic Life
Imagine rivers and lakes, vital for life, threatened by invisible dangers: pesticides. How do we accurately assess their risk to aquatic ecosystems without endless, costly, and ethically challenging animal tests? Scientists are increasingly finding answers in powerful computer models. A new study carried out by Dr. Hubert Untersteiner and colleagues from the University of Ulster shows how combining two types of computer-modelling tools can improve predictions of pesticide toxicity in aquatic environments. The two methods they combined are Quantitative Structure–Activity Relationship (or QSAR), and Species Sensitivity Distribution (or SSD).
Stay Up To Date With SciTube