Latest press releases
Photons create golden boxes, electrons lead to shells
16 September 2026
Beauty and mystery – it is hard to imagine a more alluring combination, and this is precisely what we encounter when we observe phenomena in the nanoworld. But are we really sure that observations made using modern microscopic techniques do not influence what is happening there? The answers are provided by Cracow scientists. A comparison of images of copper oxide nanoparticles reacting with chloroauric acid, obtained using electron and photon beams, has yielded unexpected results.
Two decades of blazar observations, and the mysteries keep piling up
6 August 2026
Narrow jets of luminous matter may be emitted towards Earth from the nuclei of active galaxies, billions of light-years away. The galaxy then appears as a point source and is called a blazar. A Polish-German team of scientists has, for the first time, analysed the activity of one such blazar over a long period of time and instead of finding answers, they have been faced with an ever-increasing number of intriguing questions.
One experiment maps multiple isotopes exhibiting pygmy excitations
16 July 2026
In a single experiment, physicists have measured the ‘excess’ emission of highenergy gamma rays from more than a dozen heavy, unstable atomic nuclei. Mapping the gamma-ray emissions of so many isotopes produced in nuclear fission marks an important step towards a better understanding of one of the key phenomena in modern nuclear physics: the fission process itself.
Laser pulses capture unexplored polaronic states
24 June 2026
In an international experiment, researchers observed Jahn–Teller polarons – quasiparticles that could play an important role in future ultrafast spintronic devices. These polarons emerged within the crystal lattice of cobalt oxide that had been activated by carefully tailored laser pulses.
Diffusion in a heterogeneous medium – or how voting preferences can be described in terms of physics
10 June 2026
A drop of dye added to a glass of water undergoes ordinary diffusion. However, when placed on the surface of a foam, the dye spreads differently – diffusion becomes anomalous. An example of this is the pattern on the froth of a cup of cappuccino. Interestingly, the latest research suggests that diffusion equations in a heterogeneous environment can also describe social phenomena, such as election results or the behaviour of stock market traders.