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From smartphones and TVs to credit cards, technologies that manipulate light are deeply embedded in our daily lives, many of which are based on holography. However, conventional holographic technologies have faced limitations, particularly in displaying multiple images on a single screen and in maintaining high-resolution image quality.

Recently, a research team led by Professor Junsuk Rho at POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology) has developed a groundbreaking metasurface technology that can display up to 36 on a surface thinner than a . This research has been published in Advanced Science.

This achievement is driven by a special nanostructure known as a metasurface. Hundreds of times thinner than a human hair, the metasurface is capable of precisely manipulating light as it passes through. The team fabricated nanometer-scale pillars using silicon nitride, a material known for its robustness and excellent optical transparency. These pillars, referred to as meta-atoms, allow for fine control of light on the metasurface.

What if everything around you — your phone, your chair, even the stars — has some form of consciousness? In our new video, we dive into mind-bending theories from scientists and philosophers that challenge how we see reality itself. This isn’t science fiction — it’s a serious debate shaking up physics, philosophy, and neuroscience. Could the entire universe be aware? And what does that mean for us? 🌀 Tap in and prepare to question everything you thought you knew about existence.

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Transistors are the fundamental building blocks behind today’s electronic revolution, powering everything from smartphones to powerful servers by controlling the flow of electrical currents. But imagine a parallel world, where we could apply the same level of control and sophistication—not to electricity, but to heat.

This is precisely the frontier being explored through quantum thermal , devices designed to replicate electronic transistor functionality at the quantum scale, but for heat.

The rapidly growing field of quantum thermodynamics has been making impressive strides, exploring how heat and energy behave when quantum mechanical effects dominate. Innovations such as quantum thermal diodes, capable of directing in a specific direction, and quantum thermal transistors, which amplify heat flows similarly to how electronic transistors amplify electric signals, are groundbreaking examples of this progress.

Brain-computer interfaces are already letting people with paralysis control computers and communicate their needs, and will soon enable them to manipulate prosthetic limbs without moving a muscle.

The year ahead is pivotal for the companies behind this technology.

Fewer than 100 people to date have had brain-computer interfaces permanently installed. In the next 12 months, that number will more than double, provided the companies with new FDA experimental-use approval meet their goals in clinical trials. Apple this week announced its intention to allow these implants to control iPhones and other products.

Light is all around us, essential for one of our primary senses (sight) as well as life on Earth itself. It underpins many technologies that affect our daily lives, including energy harvesting with solar cells, light-emitting-diode (LED) displays and telecommunications through fiber optic networks.

The smartphone is a great example of the power of light. Inside the box, its electronic functionality works because of quantum mechanics. The front screen is an entirely photonic device: liquid crystals controlling light. The back too: white light-emitting diodes for a flash, and lenses to capture images.

We use the word photonics, and sometimes optics, to capture the harnessing of light for and technologies. Their importance in is celebrated every year on 16 May with the International Day of Light.

As demand surges for batteries that store more energy and last longer—powering electric vehicles, drones, and energy storage systems—a team of South Korean researchers has introduced an approach to overcome a major limitation of conventional lithium-ion batteries (LIBs): unstable interfaces between electrodes and electrolytes.

Most of today’s consumer electronics—such as smartphones and laptops—rely on graphite-based batteries. While graphite offers long-term stability, it falls short in .

Silicon, by contrast, can store nearly 10 times more lithium ions, making it a promising next-generation anode material. However, silicon’s main drawback is its dramatic volume expansion and contraction during charge and discharge, swelling up to three times its original size.

These AI’s won’t just respond to prompts – although they will do that too – they are working in the background acting on your behalf, pursuing your goals with independence and competence.

Your main interface to the world will, as it is today, be a device; a smartphone or whatever replaces it. It will host your personal AI agent, not a stripped-down thing with limited capabilities of knowledge. It’s a sophisticated model, more capable than GPT-4 is today. It’ll run locally and privately, so all your core interactions are yours and yours alone. It will be a digital Chief of Staff, an extension of your will, with a separate initiative.

In Alan Kay’s visionary Knowledge Navigator video from 1987, we saw an early, eerily prescient depiction of an AI-powered assistant: a personable digital agent helping a university professor manage his day. It converses naturally, juggles scheduling conflicts, surfaces relevant academic research, and even initiates a video call with a colleague — all through a touchscreen interface with a calm, competent virtual presence.