Physicists built a perfect conductor from ultracold atoms

The team
Frederik Møller, Philipp Schüttelkopf and Jörg Schmiedmayer
Credit
TU Wien

Scientists have built a quantum “wire” where atoms collide endlessly—but energy and motion never slow down. Researchers at TU Wien have discovered a quantum system where energy and mass move with perfect efficiency. In an ultracold gas of atoms confined to a single line, countless collisions occur—but nothing slows down. Instead of diffusing like heat in metal, motion travels cleanly and undiminished, much like a Newton’s cradle. The finding reveals a striking form of transport that breaks the usual rules of resistance.

In everyday physics, transport describes how things move from one place to another. Electric charge flows through wires, heat spreads through metal, and water travels through pipes...

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A white dwarf’s cosmic feeding frenzy revealed by NASA

This artist’s concept depicts a smaller white dwarf star pulling material from a larger star, right, into an accretion disk. Earlier this year, scientists used NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarization Explorer) to study a white dwarf star and its X-ray polarization.
MIT/Jose-Luis Olivares

Using NASA’s IXPE, astronomers captured an unprecedented view of a white dwarf star actively feeding on material from a companion. The data revealed giant columns of ultra-hot gas shaped by the star’s magnetic field and glowing in intense X-rays. These features are far too small to image directly, but X-ray polarization allowed scientists to map them with surprising precision. The results open new doors for understanding extreme binary star systems.

Scientists have, for the first time, used N...

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Easy-to-use tool can identify high- and low-risk metastatic prostate cancer patients earlier

prostate cancer
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A new study published in Nature Communications provides a framework for researching whether earlier, model-guided treatment intensification can meaningfully improve survival for patients with aggressive disease.

“Early decline in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) to very low levels is one of the strongest predictors of long-term survival in metastatic prostate cancer. However, clinicians currently have to wait up to six months after starting therapy to see whether a patient achieves this favorable response. For patients who do not respond well, this delay may allow the cancer to progress and become more resistant to treatment,” said Soumyajit Roy, MD, a radiation oncologist at UH Seidman Cancer Center and first author of the study.

Because existin...

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New sodium-sulfur battery may offer safer, cheaper alternative to lithium

New sodium-sulfur battery may offer a more sustainable, low-cost and safer alternative to lithium batteries
Flammability test of the conventional organic electrolyte comprising 1 M NaClO4 in the mixture of ethylene carbonate (EC) and propylene carbonate (PC) with 5 wt% fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) and our NaDCA electrolyte. Scale bars, 3 cm. Credit: Nature (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09867-2

Due to our ever-increasing reliance on electronics, researchers are always on the lookout for battery materials with more desirable qualities. Common battery materials, like lithium, can be prone to disadvantages like overheating and material sourcing issues, leading to safety risks and higher costs.

Now, researchers from China have revealed a new battery design that may offer a better alternative to lithium...

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