News & Views in 2009

In many ways, semiconductor quantum dots behave like natural atoms, but it has proved difficult to manipulate them using resonant laser light. That problem is now overcome.

Shot noise measurements in carbon nanotube quantum dots show many-body effects related to exotic Kondo models with both spin and orbital angular momentum, paving the way for studies on a rich class of strongly correlated transport phenomena.

A new theory for dark matter has the power to explain several experimental results simultaneously, even those seemingly at odds with each other.

Analogues of the resistors, capacitors and diodes of an electronic circuit could eliminate the need for bulky external pumps to control the flow of liquids in a microfluidic circuit.

Using dense plasmas instead of atomic or molecular gases could enable the generation of attosecond light pulses with higher energy, shorter durations and more energetic photons.

In an ensemble of atoms with long-range dipolar interactions between them, only one atom can be excited at a time. This 'dipole blockade' has now been observed for two single atoms positioned at macroscopic distances.

Puzzling anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background radiation across the sky are leading some researchers to contemplate cosmology in an asymmetric universe.

Many studies into the properties of the recently discovered ferropnictide superconductors lead to seemingly contradictory interpretations. Such discrepancies could be explained by the emergence of temporally fluctuating excitations formed by the antiphase boundaries between local spin-density-wave domains.

A model for dense degenerate plasmas that incorporates electron spin indicates that quantum effects can be seen even under conditions previously considered to be in the classical regime.

A method for characterizing quantum measurement devices completes the suite of 'tomography techniques', which should enable us to learn all there is to know about a given quantum-physics experiment.

More than 100 years ago, Wilhelm Ostwald predicted that crystalline structures would grow from the melt via a series of unstable states — now this cascade has been observed directly in an inorganic semiconductor.

An algorithm that enables a protein's molecular structure to be determined from the faintest of diffraction patterns could increase the potential of next-generation X-ray sources.

The ability to manipulate an individual superconducting vortex represents a powerful tool for studying the dynamics of vortices and the superconductors that support them. It could also lead to the development of a new class of fluxon-based electronics.

Localized electron spins can be manipulated electrically through electric-dipole spin resonance. The ensemble of mechanisms involved has now been brought under the baton of a unifying theoretical description.