High-performance microscope displays pores in the cell nucleus with greater precision

An active exchange takes place between the cell nucleus and the cytoplasm: Molecules are transported into the nucleus or from the nucleus into the cytoplasm. In a human cell, more than a million molecules are transported into the cell nucleus every minute. In the process, special pores embedded in the nucleus membrane act as transport gates. These...

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The quantum spin Hall effect is also a fundamental property of light

Photons have neither mass nor charge, and so behave very differently from their massive counterparts, but they do share a property, called spin, which results in remarkable geometric and topological phenomena. The spin—a measure of the intrinsic angular momentum—can be thought of as an equivalent of...

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Interfering light waves produce unexpected forces

Few physical systems are better understood than the interference of two planar waves—like ripples on a pond. Proving that there are still secrets to be discovered even in such fundamentally well-known systems, RIKEN researchers Konstantin Bliokh, Aleksandr Bekshaev and Franco Nori have used theory to reveal a new, hidden force in this system that acts...

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