The next major transformation in Internet security may not be visible to most users. Websites will continue to display familiar padlock icons, applications will continue establishing encrypted connections, and browsers will continue validating digital certificates. Underneath that familiar experience, however, the cryptographic machinery that makes HTTPS trustworthy is beginning to undergo a fundamental redesign. Cloudflare has announced plans to become a public certificate a

For decades, physicists have used particle accelerators, mathematical models and increasingly powerful supercomputers to investigate what happens when matter is subjected to extreme energies. Now, quantum computing is beginning to offer another experimental route into some of the most difficult problems in fundamental physics. Researchers led by the Duke Quantum Center have used a 13-ion trapped-ion quantum simulator to observe dynamics associated with string breaking, a proc

Quantum computing has spent decades confronting a fundamental contradiction. Qubits can theoretically perform calculations that are extremely difficult for conventional computers, yet the physical systems used to create qubits are inherently fragile. Noise, environmental interference and imperfect operations can corrupt quantum information long before a computation finishes. Quantum error correction is the technology designed to overcome that problem. But error correction cre

Artificial intelligence has crossed another important threshold in scientific computing, with Claude completing a nine-loop six-particle scattering-amplitude calculation in planar N=4 super Yang-Mills theory, a problem that had previously pushed the frontier of what researchers could compute. The result is significant not simply because an AI system produced a difficult physics calculation, but because of how it did so. Anthropic researchers used Claude Science with relativel

Quantum computing is entering a critical phase in which the central challenge is shifting from demonstrating individual quantum operations to building systems capable of executing useful, reliable computations at scale. NVIDIA's expansion of its open-source CUDA-Q platform with CUDA-Q Logical addresses one of the most difficult problems in that transition, coordinating the algorithms, error-correction methods, quantum hardware and system architecture required for fault-tolera

The next generation of nuclear reactors will depend on more than advances in reactor design, fuel cycles, or control systems. A critical challenge lies inside the materials themselves. Nuclear fuels, structural alloys, reactor components, and materials used for radioactive waste storage must operate under conditions that can progressively alter their microscopic and macroscopic properties. Radiation can create defects, temperatures can accelerate structural changes, corrosion

Silicon photonics has emerged as a critical technology for moving data with light rather than relying entirely on electrical signaling. Its ability to integrate optical communication with semiconductor manufacturing has already transformed how engineers think about high-speed interconnects, but one fundamental constraint has remained: silicon-photonic hardware is generally rigid and opaque. A new fabrication approach developed by researchers at MIT, working closely with engin

Quantum technology is beginning to challenge assumptions that have shaped energy storage for more than two centuries. Conventional batteries depend primarily on electrochemical reactions, and increasing battery capacity generally means increasing the amount of material that must be charged. More capacity therefore tends to require more time. A new generation of quantum battery research is exploring a radically different relationship between size and charging speed. In March 2

The next generation of particle physics will depend not only on more powerful accelerators, but on an equally important technology operating at the point where invisible quantum events become measurable information. Advanced particle detectors are becoming sophisticated scientific instruments capable of tracking trajectories, measuring energy, identifying particles and processing enormous data streams in real time. At the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laborat

Quantum computing is entering a phase where adding more qubits to a processor is no longer enough. The next major challenge is building complete systems in which multiple quantum processors can operate together reliably, while maintaining the extraordinarily cold environment required for superconducting quantum hardware. IBM’s latest advance addresses that infrastructure problem directly. The company has successfully connected and operated two modular cryogenic systems, creat

Understanding how the brain processes information requires more than identifying which neurons become active. Neuroscientists increasingly need to determine when individual neurons fire, how activity propagates across neural circuits, and how signals move between different layers of the cerebral cortex. That challenge has driven rapid advances in optical imaging, particularly techniques capable of recording electrical activity with high spatial and temporal precision. A new t

For nearly half a century, the glueball has occupied a remarkable position in particle physics, predicted by theory but elusive in experiment. Now, a long-running research program at the Beijing Electron Positron Collider II has produced what researchers describe as the strongest experimental evidence yet for a glueball, centered on the particle known as X(2370). The result, presented by the BESIII Collaboration at the International Conference on High Energy Physics in Natal,

Quantum computing is approaching a crucial transition. For years, the industry has focused on demonstrating that quantum machines can perform calculations that become prohibitively difficult for conventional computers. But computational power alone is not enough. If a quantum system produces an answer that cannot be independently trusted, its practical value remains uncertain. That is why IBM’s latest work on what it calls “trusted quantum advantage” is significant. Researche

A fundamental problem in semiconductor engineering is becoming increasingly important as artificial intelligence demands ever larger amounts of memory and computing power: how much physical charge is actually necessary to store one bit of information? Modern memory technologies typically use far more than the theoretical minimum because electronic signals become increasingly difficult to distinguish as the amount of stored charge decreases. A research team in China has now de

Quantum computing has spent decades moving between theoretical promise and experimental reality. PsiQuantum is attempting to push that boundary in a particularly ambitious direction, using photons, the fundamental particles of light, as the basis for a large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer. The company’s architecture is radically different from conventional computing and also distinct from many leading quantum approaches. Instead of relying primarily on superconducting

Quantum computing has entered a decisive stage where scientific breakthroughs are increasingly giving way to engineering challenges. After decades of theoretical research and laboratory experimentation, the world's leading technology companies are racing to build quantum computers capable of solving problems beyond the reach of even the most powerful classical supercomputers. In this highly competitive landscape, success depends not only on building more powerful quantum proc

Quantum computing has long promised breakthroughs in cryptography, scientific simulation, artificial intelligence, drug discovery, financial modeling, and materials science. Yet despite remarkable progress in quantum hardware, one obstacle continues to slow the journey toward practical, large-scale quantum computers, the immense engineering complexity required to control growing numbers of qubits. A breakthrough by researchers at Aalto University represents an important step

The pursuit of commercially viable nuclear fusion has long been described as one of humanity's greatest scientific and engineering challenges. Fusion promises abundant, low-carbon energy by replicating the same process that powers the Sun, yet one critical obstacle has consistently limited progress: producing enough tritium fuel to sustain continuous fusion reactions. Recent advances in hybrid computing have opened a promising new chapter. By combining quantum computing, arti

The commercial space industry has reached a significant technological milestone with the successful launch of the world's first commercially developed nuclear-powered satellite. Carried into orbit aboard SpaceX's Transporter-17 rideshare mission, the BOHR (Betavoltaic Orbital High-Reliability) CubeSat demonstrates an emerging class of space power systems designed to operate independently of sunlight for extended periods. Although the spacecraft itself continues to rely on con

China’s push into quantum computing has shifted from isolated laboratory breakthroughs toward structured industrial scaling, and Shanghai’s newly launched quantum computing incubation zone represents one of the clearest signals of this transition. Rather than treating quantum technology as a purely academic pursuit, Chinese policymakers are actively constructing ecosystem-level infrastructure designed to accelerate commercialization, talent development, and industrial cluster