If you’ve ever tried to remain friends with both halves of a couple going through a nasty divorce, or hung out with a crowd of mutuals that also includes someone you can’t stand, you’ll know what an unbalanced social network feels like. You’ll probably also sympathize with the 20th-century social psychologist Fritz Heider, who theorized that humans strive to avoid such awkward, unbalanced situations, and instead favour “balanced” networks that obey rules like “the friend of my friend is also my friend” and “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. But striving and favouring aren’t the same thing a ..read more

New research shows that phones could be strengthened by adding a layer of material to the screen that fluidized during an impact. In a paper published in PNAS, the team from the University of Edinburgh and Corning, a US-based materials company, developed a mathematical model of an object hitting a phone screen. Using modelling and experiments they identify the optimized fluid properties for this application. Their results show that fluids that become runnier during impact are most effective at protecting the screen. Despite the development of toughened glass, a smashed phone screen is a common ..read more

China has successfully launched a mission to bring back sample from the far side of the Moon – the first attempt to do so. Chang’e-6 was launched at 17:27 p.m. local time today by a Long March 5 rocket from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island. If the landing is successful, the craft is expected to collect and return to Earth up to two kilograms of soil from an area not previously sampled. China has made considerable progress in lunar exploration in recent years, which began in 2007 with the launch of the lunar orbiter Chang’e-1. Since then it has carried out four further uncrewed ..read more

Two Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of magnetic atoms have been created just 50 nm apart from each other – giving physicists the first opportunity to study atomic interactions on this length scale. The work by physicists in the US could lead to studies of several interesting collective phenomena in quantum physics, and could even be useful in quantum computing. First created in 1995, BECs have become invaluable tools for studying quantum physics. A BEC is a macroscopic entity comprising thousands of atoms that are described by a single quantum wavefunction.  They are created by cooling a ..read more

Many physicists work for small-to-medium-sized companies that provide scientific instrumentation and services – and some have founded companies of their own. Such businesses can have limited resources for marketing and customer service, so using social media can be an efficient way to connect with existing users and attract new customers. In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast, Alex Peroff and Neil Spinner of Pine Research Instrumentation explain how they use social media – including podcasts, videos, webinars and live chats – to get their message out. From their base in Durham, N ..read more

This short video – filmed at the March Meeting of the American Physical Society in Minneapolis earlier in the year – features Itamar Sivan, chief executive and co-founder of Quantum Machines (QM). In the video, he introduces explains how QM makes the control electronics parts of quantum computers – that is, the classical hardware that drives quantum processors. Yonatan Cohen, chief technology officer and fellow co-founder, then outlines the firm’s evolution to a processor-based approach for quantum control. As a result, QM has a unique processor that generates all the signals that communicate ..read more

Researchers at Princeton University in the US say they have made the first direct observation of a Wigner crystal – a structure consisting solely of electrons arranged in a lattice-like configuration. The finding, made by using scanning tunnelling microscopy to examine a material known as Bernal-stacked graphene, confirms a nearly century-old theory that electrons can assemble into a closely-packed lattice without having to orbit around an atom. The work could help scientists discover other phases of exotic matter in which electrons behave collectively. Although electrons repel each other, at ..read more

Answers Wave range? A plum tide at sea (9) [AMPLITUDE] Sequence of hobo sonata carries force (5) [BOSON] Yell out “circle” immediately? Overpowered freezer (8) [CRYOSTAT] Nineties served up “greatest physicist” candidate (8) [EINSTEIN] Devotion to closeness (8) [FIDELITY]                                                      &nb ..read more

An English proverb states, “A cat has nine lives. For three he plays, for three he strays, and for the last three he stays.” In the quantum world, however, objects can be in a superposition of states simultaneously. Therefore, a quantum cat could exist in a superposition of playing, straying, and staying all at once. Though the literal quantum cat might sound like science fiction, so-called “cat states” – semi-classical states that exhibit properties of quantum superpositions – are real. What is more, they could be central to the development of quantum computers, which are machines that levera ..read more

Humanity has a remarkable drive for exploration. We have sent astronauts 384,400 kilometres out into space to walk on the Moon; delivered rovers and helicopters roughly 225 million kilometres away to survey Mars; and sent probes a whopping 24.3 billion kilometres out to the furthest reaches of our solar system. It is remarkable, then, that when it comes to our own home, we have literally only scratched the surface – the deepest hole ever dug reached less than 1% of the distance to the centre of the Earth. The question of how we get to grips with the other 99% of what lies under our feet – not ..read more