News & Views in 2006

When it comes to information processing within and between biological cells, diffusion plays an important role. However, the pace with which messages are transmitted could be much faster than the messenger molecules move.

Many solar physicists expect the peak sunspot activity during the next solar cycle to be at its weakest in almost a century. A recent prediction to the contrary could turn this prevailing wisdom on its head.

Despite the complexity of the processes involved, the statistics of the tropical rain rate are remarkably similar to those of critical phenomena near continuous phase transitions in other — much smaller — physical systems.

The challenge to measure the quantum-mechanical mixing between particle and antiparticle states for a particular type of meson is at last being met — but as yet, alas, reveals no exotic physics.

Plasma instabilities known as edge-localized modes present a significant challenge to the development of next-generation fusion reactors. But by inducing small perturbations in the magnetic fields that confine fusion plasmas, such instabilities could become a thing of the past.

The study of complex oxides using a local probe reveals exciting secrets — from magnetic domains arranged like bricks in a wall to the possible first visualization of a polaronic charge carrier.

Quantum states of matter with topological order are of great fundamental — and potential practical — interest. Polar molecules stored in optical lattices could offer a platform for realizing such 'exotic' states.

The ability to generate intense attosecond pulses of light promises unprecedented opportunities to study the lightest and fastest of all chemically relevant particles — electrons. Two techniques demonstrate progress towards measuring and controlling their attosecond dynamics.

The sensitivity and dynamic range of a network made of neuron-like elements is now shown to be maximized at the critical point of a phase transition. This raises the question of whether critical senses might improve survival in a critical world.

It's a twenty-year-old question: how much do the constituent quarks and gluons contribute to the spin of a nucleon? New results from the COMPASS experiment add to the picture.

As the duration of pulses generated by modern lasers approaches that of a single optical cycle, the absolute phase of the wave-packets in such pulses becomes important. A new method for measuring this phase could aid their use in both high-field physics and attosecond pulse generation.

The ability to confine alpha particles within a burning deuterium–tritium plasma is likely to be crucial to the future of fusion power generation. Resonant interactions between alpha particles and magnetohydrodynamic vibrations could threaten their confinement.

For more than a hundred years, optical physicists have been fascinated by the effects that can arise when light interacts anomalously with diffraction gratings. A new experimental study shows how nanofabrication and diagnostic techniques can pull apart the physics behind the so-called anomalies.

'Large ellipticals' are the lords of the galaxies in terms of mass, size and evolutionary development. Different theories for their formation have been proposed, but the debate might now be resolved by new models and observations.

Nanoscale engineering can now take advantage of a new ratchet device: it acts as a diode for superconducting vortices, but its directionality can be controlled and repeatedly reversed to become an effective 'two-way street'.

The broken symmetry at an interface between two different oxides is a source of unexpected behaviour. For instance, the modified orbital physics at the interface can lead to induced magnetism in a superconductor.

The tendency of a stationary droplet, sitting on the surface of a large body of liquid, to eject a smaller droplet when it eventually coalesces with the body has long been known but its details poorly understood. A combination of high-speed imaging and numerical simulations casts new light on this intriguing phenomenon and its widespread implications.

The zero-point entropy of glass-like states can be an abstruse concept, but the study of a chemical modification of 'spin ice' promises to bring it out into the open.

In Flatland, glasses reproduce all the behaviour of their three-dimensional relatives. A simulation of a two-dimensional molecular glass-forming liquid takes advantage of the unimpeded view, and shows how fluctuations in structure can produce domains of slow molecules on cooling.

The fine-structure constant plays a central role in our understanding of electromagnetic interaction. A new approach to determining its value complements the most precise measurements made so far.