Pub Date : 2025-03-07DOI: 10.1038/s42254-025-00815-7
Nature Reviews Physics publishes short opinion articles each month. How can you write a compelling one?
{"title":"Tips for writing opinion articles","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s42254-025-00815-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42254-025-00815-7","url":null,"abstract":"Nature Reviews Physics publishes short opinion articles each month. How can you write a compelling one?","PeriodicalId":19024,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Physics","volume":"7 3","pages":"129-129"},"PeriodicalIF":44.8,"publicationDate":"2025-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s42254-025-00815-7.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143571438","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-21DOI: 10.1038/s42254-025-00811-x
Saadbin Khan, Anne E. Staples
Insect respiration is characterized by the rapid transport of respiratory gases within the organism and efficient exchange with the external environment. The unique respiratory system of insects comprises a network of tracheal tubes that directly supply oxygen to the cells throughout the body of an insect, eliminating the need for blood as an intermediate oxygen carrier. The remarkable diversity of insects and their exceptionally high aerobic scope, possibly the highest in the animal kingdom, demonstrate the success of their respiratory strategy. Microfluidic technology, particularly in the domain of gas microfluidics, also stands to benefit from emulating the mechanical proficiency demonstrated by insects in manipulating fluids at the microscale. Despite this significance, current understanding of the fundamental principles underlying insect respiration is incomplete. This Review presents an overview of insect respiratory physics and identifies promising areas for future investigations. This Review summarizes the fundamental physical mechanisms of insect respiration, in which specialized tracheal networks enable highly efficient direct oxygen delivery and gas exchange. It discusses how these principles may inform bioinspired innovations in microscale gas transport technology.
{"title":"Mechanisms of insect respiration","authors":"Saadbin Khan, Anne E. Staples","doi":"10.1038/s42254-025-00811-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42254-025-00811-x","url":null,"abstract":"Insect respiration is characterized by the rapid transport of respiratory gases within the organism and efficient exchange with the external environment. The unique respiratory system of insects comprises a network of tracheal tubes that directly supply oxygen to the cells throughout the body of an insect, eliminating the need for blood as an intermediate oxygen carrier. The remarkable diversity of insects and their exceptionally high aerobic scope, possibly the highest in the animal kingdom, demonstrate the success of their respiratory strategy. Microfluidic technology, particularly in the domain of gas microfluidics, also stands to benefit from emulating the mechanical proficiency demonstrated by insects in manipulating fluids at the microscale. Despite this significance, current understanding of the fundamental principles underlying insect respiration is incomplete. This Review presents an overview of insect respiratory physics and identifies promising areas for future investigations. This Review summarizes the fundamental physical mechanisms of insect respiration, in which specialized tracheal networks enable highly efficient direct oxygen delivery and gas exchange. It discusses how these principles may inform bioinspired innovations in microscale gas transport technology.","PeriodicalId":19024,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Physics","volume":"7 3","pages":"135-148"},"PeriodicalIF":44.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143571439","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-20DOI: 10.1038/s42254-025-00812-w
Philip Phillips
There is a natural though unexpected resonance between the concept of intersectionality — the simultaneous and compounded impact of two or more axes of discrimination — and that of emergence in physics.
{"title":"Intersectionality, physics and emergence","authors":"Philip Phillips","doi":"10.1038/s42254-025-00812-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42254-025-00812-w","url":null,"abstract":"There is a natural though unexpected resonance between the concept of intersectionality — the simultaneous and compounded impact of two or more axes of discrimination — and that of emergence in physics.","PeriodicalId":19024,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Physics","volume":"7 3","pages":"132-133"},"PeriodicalIF":44.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143571432","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-07DOI: 10.1038/s42254-025-00810-y
Evan Tillotson
Evan Tillotson describes how scanning electron microscopy imaging can be used to characterize twisted 2D materials.
埃文-蒂罗森（Evan Tillotson）介绍了如何利用扫描电子显微镜成像来表征扭曲的二维材料。
{"title":"Visualizing twisted 2D materials with electron channelling contrast imaging","authors":"Evan Tillotson","doi":"10.1038/s42254-025-00810-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42254-025-00810-y","url":null,"abstract":"Evan Tillotson describes how scanning electron microscopy imaging can be used to characterize twisted 2D materials.","PeriodicalId":19024,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Physics","volume":"7 3","pages":"134-134"},"PeriodicalIF":44.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143571436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-06DOI: 10.1038/s42254-025-00809-5
The boundaries between science and pseudoscience are not always clear cut, as topics move in and out of the culturally accepted core of science. Rather, science needs to be judged on the merits of its methodology.
{"title":"Engage with the method not the madness","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s42254-025-00809-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42254-025-00809-5","url":null,"abstract":"The boundaries between science and pseudoscience are not always clear cut, as topics move in and out of the culturally accepted core of science. Rather, science needs to be judged on the merits of its methodology.","PeriodicalId":19024,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Physics","volume":"7 2","pages":"63-63"},"PeriodicalIF":44.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s42254-025-00809-5.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143363094","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-05DOI: 10.1038/s42254-025-00808-6
David Kaiser
The way you were taught quantum mechanics depends on when you were a student; pedagogical approaches over the last century have been driven by social and political trends. Physicist and historian, David Kaiser, charts how the emphasis of quantum education has oscillated between philosophy and practicality.
{"title":"How the Cold War changed quantum education","authors":"David Kaiser","doi":"10.1038/s42254-025-00808-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42254-025-00808-6","url":null,"abstract":"The way you were taught quantum mechanics depends on when you were a student; pedagogical approaches over the last century have been driven by social and political trends. Physicist and historian, David Kaiser, charts how the emphasis of quantum education has oscillated between philosophy and practicality.","PeriodicalId":19024,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Physics","volume":"7 3","pages":"130-131"},"PeriodicalIF":44.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143571437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-27DOI: 10.1038/s42254-024-00795-0
Romain Claes, Samuel Poncé, Gian-Marco Rignanese, Geoffroy Hautier
Understanding electronic transport in materials is essential to both fundamental and applied physics, as it directly influences critical properties such as the mobility of semiconductors and the efficiency of thermoelectric materials. Electron transport hinges on electronic structure of a material and various scattering events. Among these, scattering by phonons stands out as one of the most fundamental mechanisms, as it occurs even in pristine single crystals. But only recently have advances in the development of accurate first-principles methods allowed the precise calculation of electronic transport properties entirely from first principles, without relying on experimental parameters. This Technical Review presents the underlying physics of phonon-limited linear transport, primarily within the framework of the Boltzmann transport formalism but also for alternative approaches, such as the Landauer–Büttiker and Kubo frameworks. In addition, this Review covers technical aspects of implementing these formalisms, including their limitations and the scope of their applicability. Finally, we will discuss some specific transport regimes, such as transport in a strong electric field or involving the effect of spin–orbit coupling. A better understanding of electronic transport in semiconductors is essential for both fundamental and applied physics, as it directly affects key material properties such as the conductivity and thermoelectric quantities. This Technical Review explores different frameworks and computational tools available for computing these properties of semiconductors.
{"title":"Phonon-limited electronic transport through first principles","authors":"Romain Claes, Samuel Poncé, Gian-Marco Rignanese, Geoffroy Hautier","doi":"10.1038/s42254-024-00795-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42254-024-00795-0","url":null,"abstract":"Understanding electronic transport in materials is essential to both fundamental and applied physics, as it directly influences critical properties such as the mobility of semiconductors and the efficiency of thermoelectric materials. Electron transport hinges on electronic structure of a material and various scattering events. Among these, scattering by phonons stands out as one of the most fundamental mechanisms, as it occurs even in pristine single crystals. But only recently have advances in the development of accurate first-principles methods allowed the precise calculation of electronic transport properties entirely from first principles, without relying on experimental parameters. This Technical Review presents the underlying physics of phonon-limited linear transport, primarily within the framework of the Boltzmann transport formalism but also for alternative approaches, such as the Landauer–Büttiker and Kubo frameworks. In addition, this Review covers technical aspects of implementing these formalisms, including their limitations and the scope of their applicability. Finally, we will discuss some specific transport regimes, such as transport in a strong electric field or involving the effect of spin–orbit coupling. A better understanding of electronic transport in semiconductors is essential for both fundamental and applied physics, as it directly affects key material properties such as the conductivity and thermoelectric quantities. This Technical Review explores different frameworks and computational tools available for computing these properties of semiconductors.","PeriodicalId":19024,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Physics","volume":"7 2","pages":"73-90"},"PeriodicalIF":44.8,"publicationDate":"2025-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143363104","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-22DOI: 10.1038/s42254-024-00804-2
Zhuoming Zhang, Yang Ding, Peter J. Pauzauskie, Mansoor Sheik-Bahae, Denis V. Seletskiy, Masaru Kuno
Optical refrigeration, or condensed phase laser cooling, uses lasers to remove thermal energy from solids through anti-Stokes photoluminescence. This non-contact, vibration-free, optically addressable cooling technique opens up many application possibilities, ranging from high-resolution space-based imaging to the stabilization of ultraprecise frequency combs. The field has seen rapid progress in the past 25 years, from the first cooling of a rare-earth-doped glass by 0.3 K in 1995 to reaching cryogenic temperatures around 90 K in ytterbium-doped fluoride crystals in 2018. Attention has now shifted to semiconductors with higher cooling power densities and predicted cooling floors as low as 10 K. This has stimulated a race to demonstrate the optical refrigeration of a semiconductor. It is therefore timely to systematize the necessary and sufficient experimental minimum criteria for reporting optical refrigeration results to elevate the reliability and reproducibility of current and future optical refrigeration claims. In this Expert Recommendation, we propose four principles and provide guidelines for verifying and reporting new cooling results: optical cooling metrics, demonstrations of explicit heating versus cooling, thermodynamic consistency and reliable temperature measurements. We further propose that these principles serve as a guide for reviewing literature claims in the field. Optical refrigeration of semiconductors has the potential to reach temperatures as low as 10 K for applications in non-contact cooling and high-precision metrology. This Expert Recommendation outlines four criteria for the standardized reporting of new cooling results towards these goals.
光学制冷或凝聚相激光冷却利用激光通过反斯托克斯光致发光从固体中去除热能。这种非接触、无振动、可光学寻址的冷却技术开辟了从高分辨率空间成像到稳定超精密频率梳等多种应用可能性。从 1995 年首次将掺稀土的玻璃冷却 0.3 K 到 2018 年掺镱氟化物晶体达到约 90 K 的低温，该领域在过去 25 年间取得了飞速发展。现在，人们的注意力已经转移到具有更高冷功率密度和预测低至 10 K 的冷却底限的半导体上，这激发了一场展示半导体光学制冷的竞赛。因此，现在是时候对报告光学制冷结果的必要和充分的最低实验标准进行系统化，以提高当前和未来光学制冷声明的可靠性和可重复性。在本专家建议中，我们提出了四项原则，并为验证和报告新的制冷结果提供了指导：光学制冷指标、明确的加热与制冷演示、热力学一致性和可靠的温度测量。我们还建议将这些原则作为审查该领域文献声明的指南。半导体的光学制冷有可能达到低至 10 K 的温度，应用于非接触式冷却和高精度计量。本专家建议概述了实现这些目标的新冷却结果标准化报告的四项标准。
{"title":"Principles for demonstrating condensed phase optical refrigeration","authors":"Zhuoming Zhang, Yang Ding, Peter J. Pauzauskie, Mansoor Sheik-Bahae, Denis V. Seletskiy, Masaru Kuno","doi":"10.1038/s42254-024-00804-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42254-024-00804-2","url":null,"abstract":"Optical refrigeration, or condensed phase laser cooling, uses lasers to remove thermal energy from solids through anti-Stokes photoluminescence. This non-contact, vibration-free, optically addressable cooling technique opens up many application possibilities, ranging from high-resolution space-based imaging to the stabilization of ultraprecise frequency combs. The field has seen rapid progress in the past 25 years, from the first cooling of a rare-earth-doped glass by 0.3 K in 1995 to reaching cryogenic temperatures around 90 K in ytterbium-doped fluoride crystals in 2018. Attention has now shifted to semiconductors with higher cooling power densities and predicted cooling floors as low as 10 K. This has stimulated a race to demonstrate the optical refrigeration of a semiconductor. It is therefore timely to systematize the necessary and sufficient experimental minimum criteria for reporting optical refrigeration results to elevate the reliability and reproducibility of current and future optical refrigeration claims. In this Expert Recommendation, we propose four principles and provide guidelines for verifying and reporting new cooling results: optical cooling metrics, demonstrations of explicit heating versus cooling, thermodynamic consistency and reliable temperature measurements. We further propose that these principles serve as a guide for reviewing literature claims in the field. Optical refrigeration of semiconductors has the potential to reach temperatures as low as 10 K for applications in non-contact cooling and high-precision metrology. This Expert Recommendation outlines four criteria for the standardized reporting of new cooling results towards these goals.","PeriodicalId":19024,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Physics","volume":"7 3","pages":"149-153"},"PeriodicalIF":44.8,"publicationDate":"2025-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143571431","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-17DOI: 10.1038/s42254-025-00806-8
Iwan Rhys Morus
Although the practice of doing physics has a long history, the term ‘physicist’ is less than 200 years old. Historian Iwan Rhys Morus traces the roots of the word and discusses its slow acceptance by the community it came to describe.
{"title":"A brief history of the ‘physicist’","authors":"Iwan Rhys Morus","doi":"10.1038/s42254-025-00806-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42254-025-00806-8","url":null,"abstract":"Although the practice of doing physics has a long history, the term ‘physicist’ is less than 200 years old. Historian Iwan Rhys Morus traces the roots of the word and discusses its slow acceptance by the community it came to describe.","PeriodicalId":19024,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Physics","volume":"7 2","pages":"64-65"},"PeriodicalIF":44.8,"publicationDate":"2025-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143363087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-17DOI: 10.1038/s42254-025-00805-9
Richard Noakes
The paranormal looms large in pop culture — witness the phenomenon of the Paranormal Activity film franchise — and in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was of interest to many scientists. What does this history reveal about the boundaries of science?
{"title":"Was the paranormal good for physics?","authors":"Richard Noakes","doi":"10.1038/s42254-025-00805-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s42254-025-00805-9","url":null,"abstract":"The paranormal looms large in pop culture — witness the phenomenon of the Paranormal Activity film franchise — and in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was of interest to many scientists. What does this history reveal about the boundaries of science?","PeriodicalId":19024,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Physics","volume":"7 2","pages":"66-67"},"PeriodicalIF":44.8,"publicationDate":"2025-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s42254-025-00805-9.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143363123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：